Socks and Sandals: The Surprisingly Chic Look You Never Knew You Needed

My niece and I have had a long-lasting fashion "discussion" for many years. I get disapproving stares, eye-rolls, giggles and whispered comments of "Weirdo!".

I admit it, I am NOT a fashionista. Or, rather, I tread my own fashion path, quite happily I might add.

What is my fashion crime, in the eyes of my niece (and my partner too)?

Wearing hiking socks with hiking sandals. Or, more basically... socks and sandals.

Yep, I am one of those folks who thinks nothing of wearing socks with sandals... whether it's with shorts or jeans, doesn't matter.

I've always thought of this as a signature West Coast thing. I happily wore socks with sandals all through my university years and beyond.

Although, on reflection, perhaps it started during my geology years. We'd come back to camp after spending the day clambering around mountain ridges and take off our hiking boots and sweaty socks. After a day of living in hiking boots, the skin on my feet was quite soft. I've learned the hard way that you can't just wear sandals after having your feet sweating away in shoes or boots all day. That is the fast track to a blister or sore spot. Solution? Wear fresh socks with the sandals.

Or maybe it started when my sister and I traveled around Europe. On a day that was set to be sunny and warm, you'd want to leave the hostel with your sandals on your feet. But... the mornings were too cool for naked feet in sandals. Soooo... wear socks and sandals! Of course, I'd never take the socks off because... when you wear socks to start the day... your feet get soft and tender and sweaty and wearing plain old sandals... well... same problem as above.

And whether people admit it or not, socks and sandals are infinitely cooler than shoes and sandals, so yes, socks and sandals are a solution to a hot day.

However this trend started... I am a staunch supporter of socks and sandals... mostly. I'm not so sure about the older guys who wear dress sandals and knee high socks. That's not my fashion trend but... hey... to each their own. If that is comfortable, then rock the socks! Maybe knee high socks are compression stockings? We don't know, so why judge?

I have all sorts of reasons for wearing socks and sandals... from cool mornings, to hiking in sandy areas, to adding an extra layer of cushioning to my feet. Let's face it, if you are going to be hiking in sandals, that's a lot of straps rubbing on bare skin... why not just cushion the skin with some socks?

Of course, if you're just strolling 50 feet from the car to the beach, well... then maybe sandals and naked feet make sense. But walking for any distance? Give me socks with my sandals please.

Maybe it's a fashion faux-pas. But I have yet to encounter the Fashion Police. Nor heard of anyone being hauled away for wearing socks and sandals.

Eh, who cares. I'm not a fashionista and will happily trample multiple fashion faux-pas in a single outing. I'm all about functionality and comfort.

Let my niece and partner giggle and roll their eyes... one day... they will experience the bliss of socks and sandals!

N.B. Both images were created by Google's AI image generator - Gemini. With much prompting from me. It was impossible to get it to unroll the pants of the jeans in the second image. Perhaps rolled up cuffs are now derigeur in the fashion world?

Balancing Act: The Dance of Form and Function in Our Relationship

My partner and I have had a LOT of disagreements over the years. On every topic imaginable. And sometimes they got quite heated. We would each be perplexed by the other's position or point of view. To each of us, it was so obvious why we wanted to do something a certain way. But not to the other person. 

A year or so ago, it came to me in a flash, a different way of understanding our different worldviews. Form and Function. Now this is not a philosophical discussion into the question of Form and Essence. It's much more practical than that. My partner and I each look at the world from a very different point of view. We approach every task and project from a different perspective.

Function

This is me. I look at things from a function perspective with maybe a dash of form. I think about how this will work. How will this function.

For example... we have a steep little slope down to the north property line. There are weeds growing on this area, but since it's below our line of raspberries, it's not all that noticeable to us. When we first moved in, my partner wanted to get rid of all the weeds because they didn't look nice. I refused to rip them out because I knew that their roots were part of what was keeping the soil in place. Rip out the weeds and the torrential rains of winter would erode the soil and create all sorts of problems.

That's the practical side of me... the function side. I will happily weed whack that area, but I am not ripping out the weeds. And the only reason I would even spend time weed whacking them was to prevent them from spreading their seeds into the raspberries because then I would have more work ripping out weeds from the raspberries. That's function.

Form

Can you guess what my partner is? Yep, form. With the weeds above, it was all about how it would look. The weeds look ugly and unkempt, better to rip them out.

Another example, we have a narrow garden bed next to the fence along the side of the house. There is a stone pathway that leads to the compost bins along the side. In the past we have just planted scented geranium along this garden bed as it grows without any care or attention, keeps the weeds down and doesn't need watering. We had to remove a section of plants because of the new irrigation system, and now the bed is waiting to get replanted. My partner would like to plant some hardy primulas along the edge of the bed, because they are so cute and cheery in the spring. I really don't care what we plant there. To me, as long as the weeds are kept to a dull roar, I'm fine with whatever. I don't want weeds spreading their progeny to other areas of the garden. Although... if we plant scented geraniums in behind the primulas, I know that they will over-run the primulas within a year or two... is that function or form?

The Light Bulb Moment

These are fairly innocuous examples. But it shows up everywhere. We want to buy a new car. I'm more concerned about functional aspects like all-wheel drive or safety while my partner tends to lean towards the colour and the look of it.

After one tussle of differing visons, it came to me that I was concerned with function... and my partner was focused on form. That realization changed everything. It gave us a framework from which we could see that the other person wasn't a complete heathen. We just saw things very differently. I understood that for my partner, how something looked was important. My partner could understand that I was concerned with how something would work or function.

When my partner presented me with some airy, dreamy vision for a garden bed, a retaining wall or a trellis, I would immediately run through the practicalities of it in my head and voice my reservations/concerns/objections. My partner would experience this as a shut-down of her dreams. But now... now that we understand form and function... and that we sit at opposite ends of the spectrum, we can see and respect the other person's point of view.

Now, we can talk about a project or a task and see each other as having a valuable contribution to bring. Sometimes Function doesn't really matter... and Form can run rampant and spread joy and beauty everywhere. But sometimes Function has a good point.

Dry Sectional vs. Wet Sectional

We purchase an outdoor sectional for the Airbnb's patio area. It's a long, narrow area - about 6 feet wide and 20 feet long. Two of the sectional pieces do fit across the patio, so my partner thought that would be ideal... put two pieces across the one end, and then have the other pieces along the long side. But... Function popped up with the reminder that the hanging baskets have a spray irrigation that would spray anything within two feet of them... And so now the sectional pieces are all arranged along the long edge of the patio, with the exception of a cushion-less ottoman piece that sits in the "wet zone". The cool thing was... we could have this conversation without an argument... we could use the form and function terminology to help see the perspective of the other.

There is a well-known phrase that Form follows Function. Think of a building... which needs to be primary... the structure of the building or the beauty? Well... structure obviously. A beautiful but poorly built building won't stand up very long. But well-built buildings can also be beautiful. Otherwise we end up with Soviet-era ugly concrete blocks that drain the soul and look hideous.

Form and Function really need to walk hand-in-hand and respect what the other has to bring. That way, we can create something is functional as well as beautiful! Because it's not really either/or... it's both/and - so that the two can work together.

Other Reading

I came across a Medium post about Form & Function in relationships

An architect's take on Form vs Function with some hilarious examples from the design world