FASHION

A Leg Up: Ryley O’Byrne’s Sock Fetish

Socks get short shrift in the average wardrobe — an oversight that Strathcona Stockings designer Ryley O’Byrne would like to address.


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Socks get short shrift in the average wardrobe — an oversight that Strathcona Stockings designer Ryley O’Byrne would like to address. The British Columbia-based former model and creative director of the Canadian retailer Aritzia recently launched a line of brightly colored socks printed with original images of fruit, birds, and botanicals (top seller: the Mary Jane weed print) that are the perfect foil for the current round of cropped trousers. Not that the trend-conscious are her only fans: Her customers range from “elderly men to sock-obsessed professionals to cool fashiony people.” “I think my favorite thing about socks is how egalitarian they are,” says O’Byrne, who asked her grandmother to be her look book model. “Everyone can wear, appreciate and afford them. They don’t leave anyone out.” Coming up next: tights.