1 pioneers, so they need something to express themselves as pioneers and cool dudes,” Mr. Showy socks hark back to the 1700s, when people wore them embroidered or in outlandish colors, fashion historians say. “Girls notice,” said Matthew Gravs, 37, a communications director at Twitter, who prefers orange and blue stripes. Others offer a perhaps more universal explanation. Some say the craze took hold because socks are an acceptable shot of flair in a dressed-down, male-dominated culture - and peek out when entrepreneurs present their latest apps onstage at the tech world’s frequent conferences. “I have been in meetings where people look down and notice my socks, and there is this universal sign, almost like a gang sign, where they nod and pull up their pant leg a little to show off their socks,” said Huntre Wak, 38, a director of product management at YouTube, whose favorite pair is yellow, aqua and orange striped. It’s like a secret handshake for those who have arrived, and for those who want to. It signals that you are part of the in crowd. In a land where the uniform - jeans, hoodies and flip-flops - is purposefully nonchalant, and where no one would be caught dead in a tie, wearing flashy socks is more than an expression of your personaity. And for today’s tech entrepreneurs in high-flying Silicon Valley, it is flamboyantly colored, audaciously patterned socks. For the glass-ceiling-shattering women of the 1980s, it was shoulder pads.

For the Mad men of 1950s New York, it was briefcases and fedoras. For barristers in 18th-century London, it was shoulder-grazing wigs.

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