We might as well admit it: We’re not going to stop people from wearing orange socks in public.

For most of the world, orange sock-wearing is a fashion disaster of epic proportions. However, in the Netherlands where the national colour is orange, not only are orange socks encouraged, the right to wear them in enshrined in national laws.

First worn by William of Orange as a symbol of the Dutch revolt against their former Spanish masters, orange socks were written into the country’s constitution in the 18th century, and has only recently been challenged by a number of controversial European Court cases, all of which have been dismissed out of hand.

A closer look at Rembrandt’s famous painting of The Night Watch, currently hanging in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam show that many of the crowd scene are wearing orange socks, as the watch goes out on its nightly patrol to root out footwear criminals.

Although we are yet to set up a socked.nl subsidiary to supply orange socks to the people of the low countries, the gentleman may still purchase top quality black socks from our British site at socked.co.uk

Celebrity Wearers: Dennis Bergkamp, Jason Orange out of Take That