My advice is, never listen to your friends. If you’re going for a very formal look, you should wear black socks with a black suit, navy with navy. If you like, you can match your socks with your trousers, as you’re doing. But matching socks with your shoes isn’t such a smooth move. It will make your beautiful, expensive shoes more invisible, or you’ll look as if you have bootees on. But socks can also go their own way. If you’re going sporty, you might have them reflect the color of your shirt or sweater. Or you can feature independent socks, like argyles, as long as they’re part of the same spectrum as the rest of your gear. If you’re wearing a suit, the socks could reflect the color of your tie or pocket square. Or they could be another color altogether, as long as it matches the rest of your look in tonality and subtlety. There’s no reason at all that socks should be a solid block of color. Among my favorites are my navy socks with small white polka dots, a pair of brown herringbone socks and some black socks with small red Devil heads on them. They add a little spark when I’m wearing my black suit and a black shirt. At least I won’t be mistaken for a priest.
Matching socks with shoes and slacks
There seems to be an ongoing debate about whether socks should match shoes or slacks. I believe GQ has said socks should match slacks, but does that apply only to certain color combinations? I wear khakis and black shoes with tan socks. My friends say the socks should be black to match the shoes. Please advise.