WasabiKing said:
just don't wear white socks with your business/casual wear and you're fine. For those that are ultra picky, match your belt color with the socks. Most ridiculous I ever heard, yet I do it for the business wear.
Close. Belt should ALWAYS match your shoes when in business/dress attire.
White socks is a tricky pull with any type of dress/dress casual shoe. The point is to really pick your spots. Firstly, are the shoes you are wearing meant for business wear (i.e. you wouldn't wear these shoes with a suit)? Generally, if the shoes are meant for business wear they are not even MADE for heavy white cotton socks (in other words, the thickness of the sock will actually cause the leather to expand and thusly ruin the shoe). I'm assuming the the type of shoes we are talking about are dress casual... which of course... goes with just about anything (shorts... God no). If we are looking at dress casual I would recommend black shoes with black socks. Stay away from navy socks in this instance because the "similarity" between the two colors causes and odd mix... in other words... you can see precisely how NOT made for each other they are. If you have brown shoes I've been able to be a ton more versatile... navy is a killer look especially if you are wearing a lot of darker blue... black is my standard... and brown of course, but you need to be careful of the shades of brown. Remember... if they are only slightly similar (ala navy and black) you will have a problem.
Seriously though.. you can tell when looking in the mirror whether or not you are "feeling" the right color combos. I've always kept a high stock in black socks because of their versatility (which I've also worn with sneakers... but... you need to be extra saavy to pull that off). Stick with black (Gold Toe are my favorite) and you should be just fine.
Another thing... for those EXTRA careful about their shoes. Purchase shoe trees. Seriously.. they really work. When you spend upwards of $200 on your shoes you will want them to retain their natural state well after 6 months of buying them.