Should You Wear Socks With Loafers?

Despite the perennial appeal of white socks and black loafers, there are plenty of people who would rather pair their slip-ons with colorful socks, or—more controversially—no socks at all. If you’re considering taking the latter route, especially in the heat of summer, there are some important criteria to consider, from dress codes to personal hygiene.First, you need to think about whether socks would suit the outfit and occasion. If, for instance, you’re wearing jorts and a tank top, going sockless is totally fair game. If, however, you’re wearing a dark suit for an event with a cocktail dress code, you’ll want to add some (dark) socks to the mix for the sake of decorum.Courtesy of Chris Echevarria“The decision to wear socks or not usually comes with the weather and whether or not it adds something to the outfit,” says Chris Echevarria, founder of New York-based loafer specialists Blackstock & Weber. “I think that there’s a space for anyone to wear socks or go sockless. As my grandmother always said, ‘There’s a time and place for everything.’” It’s unclear if this maxim was intended to include no-show socks, but regardless, Echevarria rejects them wholesale (and so should you). “I’ve never worn a no-show sock in my life,” he says. “Never understood them. Never wanted to.”According to Albert Muzquiz, a.k.a. @edgyalbert, the time and place for going commando in your loafers is anywhere you’d be inclined to unbutton an extra button on your shirt, but even so, the look is not without its baggage. “I wear socks with my loafers 99% of the time, mainly because I’m scarred by slim-suit-no-sock-wearing morons on shows like The Bachelorette,” says Muzquiz.Anyone who lived through the aughts and teens, in which skinny suits and sockless ankles were as prevalent as “Uptown Funk” and Nyan Cat memes, might feel similarly. “If you’re in a hot climate and within spitting distance of a body of water, I think you can safely lose the socks without judgment,” Muzquiz says. “But at that point, why not wear a boat shoe or sandal or something more appropriate to the setting?”Courtesy of Albert MuzquizCourtesy of Albert MuzquizThere are also practical considerations (trigger warning: foot stuff). “It’s pretty simple,” says Jim McFarland, better known as America’s Cobbler, a fourth generation shoe repair expert based in Lakeland, Florida. “If you’re gonna wear loafers barefoot, I would not wear the same pair every day. You’re going to sweat about a cup of water a day in those shoes and it’s just a breeding ground for fungus and bacteria.” If you’re going skin-to-leather, McFarland advises using cedar shoe trees between wears to absorb all that sweat, and recommends treating your shoes regularly with an antifungal spray.All things considered, this might be the most convincing argument in favor of wearing socks with your loafers, especially in the heat of summer. The breezy look of a bare ankle is all well and good, but it’s far less appealing when weighed against the potential for blisters, athletes foot, and the fungal ecosystem that may be flourishing inside your moccasins.