There is a specific kind of person online, metropolitan and with a Fitzcarraldo subscription, who takes zoomed-in photos of food and screenshots articles from The Paris Review for their Instagram stories. She belongs–or at least aspires to belong to–the cool girl literati: those who know their Annie Ernauxs from their Phoebe Philos. Just on the right side of eccentric, these people are not quite as nerdy as the proponents of BookTok, but they love a pair of cherry-red, schoolgirl tights nonetheless.
Often worn with Mary Janes or sensible loafers and ballet pumps, the look is a little Mary Quant, a little Renaissance prince. And if red stockings once indicated high social status in the Medici courts of the 1500s, they fulfill a similar function in 2023. I imagine this photograph of Zoë Kravitz–striding home from Taylor Swift’s 34th birthday party earlier this week – will appear on many people’s moodboards in 2024. Note: The Row’s handbag, loafers and cashmere coat, and the singular red sock.
This will be a familiar sight to anyone who lived through the 2010s, when the convergent forces of indie sleaze, twee and prepster aesthetics encouraged women to purchase fire engine-red tights. See: Blair Waldorf in the debut season of Gossip Girl, which I think is an important reference, because a red sock – when worn with just about anything – is a classic symbol of youth. It is a scrapbook, Rookie mag expression of feminine aesthetics, overlaying the elder and younger versions of ourselves.