Socking Up

Socks: They’ve always been in the way — well, at least between your feet and your shoes. And believe it or not, sock styles have transformed over the years.

Every culture has used and still uses socks — in whatever form they’ve created them from. They’ve evolved from woven grass sock/slippers to knee-high ’80s aerobics styles to barely-there ankle ones. Besides the changing style, patterns and material, socks will constantly be a staple item in our attire because of their practicality. They’ve kept our feet warm on cold wintery days and provided enormous comfort for our exercise and training schedules.

The Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto is featuring the exhibit Socks: Between You and Your Shoes, which celebrates the evolution of these practical and fashionable wardrobe necessities. It will take visitors on an interesting journey that will explore the oft-neglected history of hosiery within the cultural realm. They have an impressive display of socks that have travelled from countries around the world like Spain and Croatia.

Curator Elizabeth Semmelhack explains that the sock has been in existence almost as long as footwear and has transitioned from decade to decade and between cultures. She says she's fascinated by an artifact in the exhibit that is 800 years old and made from human hair. "You have women making socks for their families from renewable fibre from their own heads," she says. "It's so clever, it's so sustainable, and you end up with a beautifully crafted artifact that has survived for 800 years. And that's just one sock!"

You will also see at the exhibit the replica of a 5,300-year-old shoe belonging to the famed Ötzi the Iceman. When they found this man’s body in the Alps in 1991, they noticed that while his body remained preserved, so did his clothes. Researchers were fascinated with his “socks” — essentially, bunches of grass that had been stuffed into his shoes. Dr. Petr Hlavacek, a Czech researcher, made a replica for himself to see how they functioned and he was surprised by the results. After hiking in them, he reported that the grass worked well as an insulator and kept his feet dry from moisture buildup.

Along with these intricately woven socks, come displays of finely knitted silk, silver and gold gilt thread stockings that were extremely desirable by Spanish royalty and Queen Elizabeth herself, as well as embroidered and embellished metal- and fabric-sequined shoes used in 19^th-century Balkan countries.•

This summer, check out this exhibit among others at The Bata Shoe Museum.

The Socks: Between You and Your Shoes exhibit opened in April and will be on display for one year.

All images copyright of The Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto, Canada.