Can You Wear Socks With Loafers? Here’s the Truth

If you’re wondering whether or not you can wear socks with loafers, you’re in the right place. Here’s everything you need to know.

Wearing socks with loafers may not be as controversial as, say, socks with sandals. However, it’s intimidating territory for some. If you fall into that category, let me assure you that there are basically more ways to do it right than wrong.

I know — for some of us, the idea of socks with loafers might invoke images of teens in the ‘50s and ‘60s. You don’t want to end up looking like a throwback or overly trendy (if neither is your style, that is).

Here’s how to navigate this combination for every type of guy!

Can You Wear Socks With Loafers?

Yes! You can absolutely wear socks with loafers. 

Remember that loafers are technically dress shoes. Of course, they are a smart casual staple, and they look natural with both suits and jeans. However, you can wear socks with loafers by simply color-matching your shoes or your socks in the same way you would with any dress shoes.

And since they’re more relaxed than say, an oxford or wholecut, you can even have some fun beyond that. 

What Socks to Wear With Loafers

Let’s look at three ways to wear socks with loafers.

Match the Color of Your Socks to Your Pants

If you wore gray socks with gray suit trousers and finished it off with brown leather loafers, you achieve a streamlined look for your outfit. It’s also a subtle way of visually lengthening your legs.

This is also a good way to make your loafers pop. Perhaps you’re wearing a livelier color of loafers, a mustard brown for an autumnal look, or a burgundy for something exciting but still professional, for instance.

Since your socks have become an extension of your trousers, it isolates your shoes and brings more attention to them. It’s also a good approach if you’re wearing a loafer with ornamentation and you want to highlight those special features. Think horsebit loafers and tassel loafers.

You also don’t have to go perfectly tonal. If your socks are a darker shade of the same color as your pants, you have a similar visual effect if they were the same shade.

For example, you can wear olive chinos with forest green socks, or navy pants with midnight blue socks.

Match the Color of Your Loafers to Your Socks

While one camp believes that dress shoes should match your trousers, another believes they should match your socks. I’ve done both, and I’m not partial to either. Each has a different effect and is useful in different ways.

By matching your loafers to your socks, you create a sort-of boot of color. This is helpful in super formal situations where you want to make your loafer look like a higher-profile shoe. So if your loafers and socks are both black and your pants are navy, this combo would register as more of a formal look. (In a way, loafers replace Oxfords in this context). 

And just as you can wear a darker sock that’s the same general color as your pants, you can wear a darker sock that’s the same color as your loafers. As long as your pants are the lightest shade in your ensemble, that is (remember, we’re following dress shoe rules right now). You don’t wear black suit pants with white socks, after all.

So, if you wore light, cool gray trousers, dark brown socks, and loafers in a raw umber tone, your socks would still look more tonal in relation to your shoes.

By the way, all of these dress shoe rules can also apply to casual outfits. Brown socks and brown loafers, with blue jeans would exude a laid-back Americana vibe.

Beyond the Dress Shoe Rules: Consider Subtle Contrasts and Accents

Since loafers can be worn casually, you don’t always have to follow the formal rules of dress. However, you can optimize the combination by considering other kinds of color complements.

Subtle contrasts are a great way to create beautiful color blocks. You do this by pairing complementary colors, or those that are on the opposite of each other on the color wheel (such as green and red). But, and this is important, you’ll choose lighter, more understated shades of these colors.

Here are some options. If you’re wearing olive green pants, paired with light vermilion socks and oxblood loafers, you create a handsome subtle contrast with green and red.

Now, wearing bright kelly green pants with primary red socks and loafers? That’s the pants-and-shoes equivalent of an ugly Christmas sweater.

Subtle contrasts are a key ingredient to classic men’s style in general, but particularly important with socks and loafers since so much of your sock is exposed when you wear low-profile shoes. Your socks become a more important part of your outfit.

Two other fun options include matching your socks to an accent on your pants, or using them as a pop of color or texture.

An example of the former is if, say, you’re wearing plaid pants (extreme example for effect), with red, tan, and black lines in them you can wear red, tan, or black socks.

For the latter, you can match your loafers to your pants and wear brighter colored socks, or perhaps a pair with texture. You can go for cable-knit socks (to texture-match a sweater maybe?) or marled socks (perhaps to match a scarf!).

Penny Loafers with Socks

When in doubt, go for the penny loafer.

Tassel loafers and horsebit loafers are definitely chic, but more on the casual side. They look great with jeans. You can also wear them with a suit, but you have to make sure you’re following the first two rules of formal dress mentioned above.

Meanwhile, an opera pump or whole-cut slipper is strictly formal. You’ll often be wearing them with dress socks.

If you’ve put together an outfit for an event that you aren’t sure about dress code wise, the penny loafer is the safest bet. Regardless of which style strategies from above you decide to implement, a penny loafer will rarely look outrageous in a loafer-and-socks situation.

Loafers with Socks Outfit Ideas

Now that we’ve covered the pants, socks, and shoes dynamic, let’s consider the whole outfit!

For an effortlessly elegant fall look, you can wear burgundy socks with burgundy shoes, brown or khaki chinos, a white button-up, and a navy blazer.

Go for an unstructured blazer to lean into the casual side of smart casual — extra credit for wearing a burgundy pocket square. Autumn is a good time to channel your inner university professor.

Invited to a coastal dinner party on a cool summer evening? It might not be warm enough to go sockless, so instead, wear a monochrome cream linen suit (no tie, of course), a button-down, beige socks, and brown leather loafers.

Love layers? Perfect. Wear a leather jacket, with an open quilted vest underneath that, and a henley under that. Finish it off with cuffed dark wash blue jeans, brown wool socks, and brown suede loafers.

FAQs

Here are some at-a-glance answers to common questions regarding wearing socks with loafers for those of you in a hurry!

Do you wear socks with loafers?

You absolutely can. You can match your socks to your loafers or your pants for a dressier, streamlined look, or have fun with subtle contrasts and accent matching.

Can you wear loafers without socks with a suit?

Yes, you can, but it’s definitely a casual Friday or smart casual, warm-weather look. Don’t do it if you have a really important board meeting in a traditional and formal office setting.

Conclusion: Give The Look a Chance

Now that you know how to optimize the socks-with-loafers look, give it a shot! Loafers are natural dress code chameleons, so you can definitely have fun with how you style them.

Even more, if you want to play it safe, just match your socks to your shoes or your pants. There are loads of options.

Do you like loafers? Let me know in the comments!