Help me not hate trouser socks quite so much.

January 8, 2013 7:00 PM

I hate dress socks. They are itchy, I don't like touching them (or them touching my feet), and they seem needlessly expensive. I really like cotton socks - until now, I have mostly worn the gold toe black socks, which are long-wearing, cheap to buy in bulk, and incredibly comfortable. However, I was noticing at a meeting today that they looked thick and lumpy with my nice loafers. Can you help me look a little more professional at work while staying comfortable? I want to buy a bunch of identical, decently-priced, simple black dress socks that will feel like cotton on my hand and on my feet. The ones made by gold toe get horrible reviews so I am not considering them. I'm a girl with size 7.5 feet, but I'm happy to wear men's socks (size 5.5 US) or unisex socks, whatever is comfortable. Thanks!
posted by stewiethegreat to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (15 answers total)

i can not say enough about how much i love sockdreams. clicking around i've found a couple mostly cotton ones. some of their non-trouser socks are also really good and not clunky looking. feel free to memail me if you want to bounce selections off someone, i've bought most of the brands on the site at one point or another.
posted by nadawi at 7:13 PM on January 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

Some of these should work. Your keywords are "mercerized cotton", "pima cotton", and maybe "flat knit".

Ellen Tracy makes some nice cotton/silk blend socks; I bought mine at TJ Maxx, but they're probably online as well.
posted by Sidhedevil at 7:17 PM on January 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Calvin Klein's merino wool socks are quite good. At the higher end, Nordstrom's store brand Egyptian cotton socks are really nice, but more expensive and also sheer compared to other dress socks.
posted by zippy at 7:26 PM on January 8, 2013

I have some pairs of Champion "advanced" or something like that (the expensive ones) black crew socks that I like pretty well. They aren't as bunchy or crunchy as your standard athletic sock, but neither are they so thin that they feel gross/clingy or wear out quickly. I think they are mercerized cotton with some lycra stuff in them.
posted by gjc at 7:27 PM on January 8, 2013

I hate the feeling of dress socks too and so I often wear two pairs of socks at the same time, a comfortable cotton pair underneath dress socks.
posted by XMLicious at 7:36 PM on January 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

You might consider Mondor's knee-highs. They are opaque and ultra-comfortable. Made in Canada!
posted by BostonTerrier at 8:23 PM on January 8, 2013

I have some "bamboo cotton" socks that I love, are thick and comfy like regular cotton, but have that kind of shine that dress socks have. Something like these.
posted by DoubleLune at 8:38 PM on January 8, 2013

Socks have been a bit of an obsession of mine over the past couple of years. For a whole I was fixated on Dahlgren's alpaca / merino dress socks, but I ended up buying a pair of Falke socks by accident and now I am in the process of swapping out my inventory with only Falkes.

Expensive, yes but seriously amazing socks.
posted by cheez-it at 9:26 PM on January 8, 2013

You might try Legale Pillow Sole bamboo socks - just about the only kind I wear any more. Mine are from Fred Meyer's, but here is the only picture I've found online so far. The soles are thicker, the tops are more like dress socks. My black ones have a little bit of a patterned weave to them, the dark grey and navy are plain. So soft and comfortable, wash and wear nicely.
posted by dorey_oh at 11:03 PM on January 8, 2013

Smartwool.
posted by buzzman at 11:21 PM on January 8, 2013

I found Merona bamboo dress socks from Target to be very comfortable. However, you might want to give bamboo socks a test run before you buy a lot of them; I stopped wearing mine because I found they made my foot slip around too much in shoes with tall heels (like heeled boots).
posted by neushoorn at 3:40 AM on January 9, 2013

VICCEL. They are a Turkish outfit that does awesome mercerized cotton over the calf dress socks. Excellent quality.
posted by bfranklin at 3:50 AM on January 9, 2013

I wear some mens dress socks from Costco that were quite inexpensive and don't have any of the properties that you and I both hate about dress socks. I believe they come in colors other than black, and in a smaller size that the men's 9-11 I'm wearing. They don't appear to be listed on the Costco website for linking purposes.
posted by chazlarson at 9:49 AM on January 9, 2013

I get all my "dress" socks at Target. Not the Merona Dress Socks mentioned above (though I'm willing to try those). I just get the xhileration tall socks that are like $2 maybe? They are thin but still opaque and soft.
posted by magnetsphere at 3:50 PM on January 9, 2013

when i'm not wearing sock dream socks i'm wearing target socks. besides gifts, i don't own any other socks. so, yeah, big ups to target for sure.
posted by nadawi at 9:50 PM on January 9, 2013