Crop Tops…But Made of Socks
The hottest DIY fashion trend right now is the Nike sock top, which has drawn a mixed reaction online.
During the past few months, as malls across the country have been closed and we’ve all finally had the time to clean out our closets, fashion fanatics everywhere have been getting crafty. DIY projects have been extremely popular, such as custom college gear, tie-dye sweats, embroidering, and “thrift flips.”
And now, people are making “sock tops,” DIY cropped tank tops most often made out of Nike socks. Like many things nowadays, this trend has been popularized on the internet, most notably, on TikTok. Back in June, TikTok user @issymayes uploaded a video showing her process making a top out of white Nike socks, which has since accrued over 3.9 million views. Many others have also tried their hand at making these tops, often in different colors, tie- and bleach-dyed, lettuce-hemmed, and with countless other variations.
Some are even selling custom-made sock tops on Depop.
These tops aren’t loved by everyone, however. Some videos of the tops have been met with dislike and even disgust, with comments such as “Why tho?,” “This is a no for me,” “No wonder I can’t find new socks,” and the short yet effective “no❤️.”
As one maker of sock tops, @nikstarboutique, stated below one of her videos, “Fashion can be controversial.” And while some may think these tops are too “out there,” it is likely that uniqueness which makes them so appealing to so many others.
Ines Silva, who has made sock top videos on both YouTube and TikTok under the username @irisloveunicorns, attributes the garment’s rise in popularity to a rising fascination with Nike, thrifting, and DIY culture in general.
“I love Nike and lately I’ve been seeing a whole lot of people doing stuff with Nike socks, which kind of makes sense because lately, we’ve been hearing more and more about sustainability and how vintage clothing and reworked clothing can be so helpful,” she says in a DIY tutorial on YouTube, mentioning how in addition to tops, people are also making facemasks, shoes, and bags.
The brand ConColour Studio has also been selling the tops for several months, but with a 60 dollar price tag and limited sizing, many are opting to make them out of their own socks or buy on Depop instead.
Although the tops are currently most often made from Nike socks, people are also making them using other brands, such as Polo, for example. Some even use patterned socks to make patchwork tops — similar to the style that clothing brand yard666sale uses in its designs.
The modern sock top also echoes back to fashion designer Martin Margiela’s famous sock sweater, made from wool army socks in France in 1991.
According to Avery Ginsberg, fashion blogger and founder of the footwear brand Ground Cover, Margiela’s work is based around the idea of deconstruction, “the act of breaking something down into its separate parts in order to understand its meaning, especially when this is different from how it was previously understood.”
And deconstruction is exactly what people are doing right now in creating sock tops. They are reusing old designs and fabrics to construct entirely new garments, make bold statements, and push the boundaries of fashion.
