The Ultimate Zip

The zipper, that ubiquitous staple of modern clothing, has gone from the dress to the pants to something much lower--the sock.

You probably don’t think something as basic as a sock needs a zipper.

“You don’t need to have the zipper on a sock,” muses Pippa Kinloch of the Shoe and Clothing Connection in Woodland Hills. “But it’s fun, it’s hip, it’s kind of European.”

So much for function.

Zippered socks come in bobby-sock length and a thigh-high version. “On the bobby socks, it’s just a cute detail,” says Kinloch. “In the thigh-highs, if you wear them with flat shoes, from a distance, it looks like you’re wearing boots.”

Some die-hard fashion lovers just can’t get enough zippers. Karole Dreihaus of North Hollywood has zippers on her leather jacket and zippers on her boots. “It’s great to have zippers in my socks, too,” she says.

Socks have come a long way since 400 B.C., when the ancient Greeks first warmed their feet with socklike foot coverings, or the 19th Century, when long pants for men replaced knee breeches and socks, or half-stockings, replaced full stockings.

The word sock is an adaptation of the Latin soccus , which referred to a slipper or light shoe. A soccus was worn by actors in Roman comedy; audiences knew to expect something funny when actors appeared on-stage wearing them. In the 20th Century, a zippered sock might have the same effect.