How to wear thigh-high argyle socks

Last year, you may have noticed I was on a knee-socks kick (I still am, but it has been diluted somewhat since I discovered how much warmer it is to simply follow the leggings trend). At that time, a well-meaning would-be suitor, aware of my footwear fixation, decided to treat me to a Christmas present of said socks. However, being a man and unattuned to the subtleties of ladies' sock lengths, he bought me over-the-knee socks, which threw quite a kink in my style of dress.

You see, the appeal of knee socks is that little gap of bare skin that appears between the top of the sock and the bottom of the skirt. Naturally, with longer socks, you need a shorter skirt to maintain the gap. (Maybe the man wasn't as clueless as he came across.) However, at that time, I did not have any skirts of a suitable length in my wardrobe. May I also add that a red, white, black, and green argyle pattern that extends the entire length of your leg is just a little bit attention-grabbing, meaning that whatever is worn on top had better measure up.

So, being a good Unfashionista, I improvised. The following photos show the fruits of my labors.

First thing I did was buy a denim miniskirt on eBay. It was hard to find the right style (flared—there's nothing so ugly as a straight skirt) in the right size (not telling, but it did end up being too small and I later replaced it with one too big from the thrift store) for the right price (under 5 dollars), but I did it.

Then it occurred to me that I had bought some olive green shorts at the end of the previous summer that were just about the same color as the green accent lines in the socks (you can't see them in these photos because they're very fine lines, but trust me: they're there). I decided to try the untried and wear my new socks with shorts instead of a skirt.

Then just a few weeks ago, I ran across this frilly tiered polyester monstrosity at a chain discount shop. It wasn't quite my style, but I'd been looking for a new black skirt for months now and I decided, for 10 dollars, it would be worth a shot. Stay tuned for other uses I've found for this funky skirt.