sugarcoated abandonment

A few months back Grey Ant collaborated with the outdoor footwear brand Teva to create what they marketed as the most comfortable heel in the world, that they deemed perfect when teamed with a pair of socks. The collaboration obviously sparked excessive controversy. Some calling it genius, others condemning the heel as the ugliest shoe they had ever seen. But the collaboration rode on the wave of the socks and sandals trend. The urban dictionary definition of socks and sandals still condemns the pair as 'a footwear combination worn only by the fashion - challenged.' A statement that the designers, celebrities and fashion magazines are all ignoring. I have become somewhat of a socks and sandals pervert, mostly due to the whimsical abandonment they suggest. They sort of intone a fuck you to the fashion rules that enables them to be worn in so many ways.

001 & 002 Grey Ant & Teva Collaboration. 003 NY Times article accompanying photo. 004 Burberry Prosum Spring 2010. 005 & 006 Christian Dior Spring 2011. 007 Alexa Chung in NY Times. 008 Topshop socks & Topshop sandals. 009 & 010 Betty Jackson Spring 2011. 011 Topshop socks & River Island sandals. 012 & 013 Mink Pink Summer 2010 Lookbook. 014 Topshop socks & Topshop sandals. 015 Chloe Sevigny. 016 Kate Moss. 017 Agyness Deyn. 018 Topshop socks & ASOS sandals. 019 Florence Welch. 020 & 021 Betsey Johnson Spring 2011. 022 & 023 Burberry Prosum Spring 2010. 024 & 025 Vogue editorial shot by Corrine Day featuring Daria Werbowy. 026 Topshop socks & Topshop sandals. 027. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides front cover, Bloomsbury Publishing.