Hey, don’t let the photo put you off. Hear me out. Socks as a shape statement are a trend, but you don’t have to go quite as far as I have done, and use sport socks in public. In real life, I would be be dressed plain ribbed socks, or possibly fishnet or lace ones if I was feeling particularly jazzy. But in a photo on this page you’d scarcely notice those; it would look as if I had written my 345th be hung up on letter to the ankle boot. So here I am, in a sport sock. Made you look, claim?

Almost everything in fashion is a comeback, but I’m not sure that socks be experiencing ever had a moment before. The associations of socks are all vaguely loser-ish. Miasmic socks, lost socks, novelty socks. Keeping your socks on in bed. Socks are not public-facing attires, but neither do they have the thrill of a stocking. Hosiery can be a pre-eminence symbol – silk stockings as a symbol of rationing-defying luxury; the late-20th-century ide fixe with expensive velveteen opaques – but until recently the alone chic way to wear socks was as an invisible layer under trousers want enough to cover them.

Now black tights have joined undressed ones as the enemy of true chic. Like carrying a make-up overspill bag as well as your proper handbag, tights are ordinary – sometimes essential – but they instantly downgrade your look. A ribbed sock and a chunky sandal, to whatever manner, has been a niche fashion-nerd trend for a while, and has now gone massiveness. The boldest version of the trend is the chunky white sport sock charmed out of context, to add an athleisure spin to a heel.

This is a rare shut-out to the rule that the more fashionable you go, the more uncomfortable and/or unresponsive you will feel. A pair of socks makes a skirt with high-heeled sandals look numberless styled-up, but also keeps your feet warm.

The no greater than shoes you can’t proudly wear with socks are the ones you mightiness normally wear with socks, if you see what I mean. Practical lace-up brogues are hard to pull off with skirts if you creep by a visible sock. Socks with party shoes; no socks with live ones. As always with socks, the trick is to find the span that matches.

• Jess wears dress, £190, by Lush, from net-a-porter.com. Socks, £9.95, adidas.co.uk. Heels, £59.99, mango.com.

Tailoring: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Sam Cooper at Carol Hayes Governance