Socks at AUP
Oliver Mould wearing long, black socks. Image Credit: Marielle Dalvet
Oliver Mould, AUP senior from London, went for a short but sweet reasoning behind wearing these socks. The pros are that they are the "perfect fit in between the toes, like wearing a cashmere glove," and the cons being an "occasional odor of gorgonzola."
Amanuel Neguede wearing desert-western style socks. Image credit: Marielle Dalvet
Ethiopian AUP senior Amanuel Negeude says that on "every Christmas, among other gifts, my mom always buys me socks and boxers. She knows my style so she always gets me interesting socks." A stocking-stuffer favorite, socks are often present during the holidays.
Aline Isambert sporting some striped bad boys. Image Credit: Marielle Dalvet
Aline Isambert, AUP senior from Miami, Florida, remembers getting these socks on a family vacation, where she "begged for these socks while throwing a temper tantrum in the middle of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts gift shop."
Leily Rad wearing Korean designed socks with a teddy bear drinking milk. Image Credit: Marielle Dalvet.
Leily, AUP Senior, bought these socks on a trip back home to London, during the most recent AUP Fall Break. Her silence spoke louder than words when asked about her socks- she just pointed to the cute little bear with finger guns. These socks speak for themselves!
Jacob Sirota sporting Adidas tube socks. Image Credit: Marielle Dalvet
Jacob Sirota, AUP junior from New York, says his socks connect him back to the bougie Chicago neighborhood he used to live in, where all the teenage boys wore tube socks with Sperry topsiders. Sirota's mother noticed that he was wearing these socks one day and was rather disturbed: "Your grandfather would wear these gardening back in Cuba." Apparently, in Cuba, it's hard to get short socks, it's a relatively new clothing item. When you live in a communist country, you can wear these clothing items in both the summer and winter to keep you warm. For Sirota's mom, "it was a reminder of this sort of austerity that she grew up within Cuba. She would see men working in fields with long, white tube socks because that's all they had. Yeah, I still wear them."
Willem Vanderveen wearing a nice South-Western pattern. Image Credit: Marielle Dalvet
After speaking with AUP senior Willem Vanderveen from Laguna Beach, California, I found myself utterly confused by the story of his socks. "I was in Patagonia on scholarship, and I was trying to find a cure for jaundice while I was out there because of liver cirrhosis. But my eyes kept turning yellower and yellower, so I ended up marrying a girl named Tina out there. Make a long story short, she's not human. And we snuck into Machu Picchu and took bong rips, it was pretty sick," he recounted. You are invited to interpret this little anecdote in any way you please.
Alice Preat wearing flowery Japanese socks. Image Credit: Marielle Dalvet
Alice Preat, AUP senior from France, took a trip to Japan this summer. "I bought them in Tokyo. Lots of funky sock shops there which I’m obsessed with," she said. Several stores focused primarily on socks, Preat noted that she "drove my friend nuts. And I remember her telling me like dude you don’t need to be spending money on this- I was traveling for a while and like big backpack mode so not much room for unnecessary shit- but I was like wait but SOCKS!"
Joseph Chafetz sporting some bear socks. Image Credit: Marielle Dalvet
After a starstruck encounter, AUP junior Joseph Chafetz from Virginia recounts his story: "Isaiah Rashad complimented my sweater that had bears on it, so I went out and bought more stuff with bears on it."
Gabi Wilson wearing creepy Squidward socks. Image credit: Marielle Dalvet
AUP alumna Gabriela Wilson from Saint Antao, Cape Verde, a big Spongebob fan, took advantage of a one-dollar-a-pair deal: "I bought these socks because I went online and saw Squidward, and was like 'oh my God, Squidward.'"
Though they seem to be insignificant, the stories behind our socks often make for revealing stories detailing what is important to us.
