Black Socks

Most outfits, yes. They suit dark trousers, jeans, shorts and trainers. With brown shoes, they look right under charcoal or navy trousers. Under light chinos with tan shoes, where black can look heavy, Crew in stone grey or light mocha is the easier match.

Black, if your trousers are dark. With black dress shoes, boots or loafers, a black pair keeps one dark line from your hem to your shoe. Crew covers your leg below the calf when you sit down and your trousers ride up. With black trainers and shorts, black or white both work.

Yes, plenty of people wear black with white trainers to the gym or on the court. With shorts and white trainers, Ankle Tab is our lowest cut, on the ankle bone with the tab above the heel of the shoe. If you'd rather your socks match your shoes, Ankle Tab, Quarter and Mid-Crew also come in white.

No. Inside a shoe, away from the sun, sock colour makes no difference to how hot your feet get or how they smell. The smell comes from the bacteria that live off sweat in a warm shoe. We knit silver yarn into every footbed to kill them.

Wash them inside out on a cold, delicate cycle with your other darks, then hang them to dry out of direct sun. Skip bleach and the dryer, because heat and bleach are what break down black dye. Turning them inside out also keeps the outside from rubbing against the rest of the wash.