Boot-Sock Cankles

Aside from the fact that the title of this post might make a good name for an obscure Indie band, I think we need to talk about wearing socks with boots and how there's potential for some real problems.

I have some questions for the socks & boots wearing community. I need reassurance that I'm not alone. A lot of people wear long, high, woolly socks with their boots. They look polished and put together, and no one questions what most likely lies underneath:

I got in some really great calf stretches while trying to take these pictures.

Hideous sock-cankles, created by pulling knee socks over jeans. It's unavoidable, right? I always flash back to wearing tights to Sunday School as a 6-year-old: they'd bunch around the ankles like melting elephant legs, no matter how hard you tried to hike them up.

Now, I know there are alternatives to wearing knee socks with your boots, like leg warmers or those 3-inch cuffs that you can wear around your calves to make it look like you're wearing tall socks... which... by the way... what if those get misplaced and all of a sudden you're wearing cable garters around your knees? Clearly I'm not brave enough to try them and need the security of full-length socks, with their cuffs grounded around my feet. Pathetic? Maybe.

What about those of us who don't have stick-slender calves? What about wearing polka-dot socks? Look at the obscene ovals these polka dots turn into when I pull them up over my denimed legs. Is this acceptable? Any shape other than stripes turns into deformed version of itself. Do I stick to stripes and innocuous one-color socks?


What if you want to wear socks & boots to a friend's party, but you know they have a no-shoes-in-the-house policy? Do you risk having to embarrass yourself at the front door as you slip off your boots, bearing your elephantine sock-cankles to the world? Do you quickly tuck your socks up into your jeans, as though they were never there when really, the every guest at the party now has your lumpy ankles burned into their memory?

I have issues, people. Problems. And not of the mental variety. Although you might be led to think that after reading this post. Once again, I am bearing my little fashion soul, and asking for your input... I've been making do with my knee socks, but I feel like maybe I'm missing something. Are you harboring boot-sock cankles too? Is it just the way it is?