I do not know if you agree with me but I find that a man’s socks tell a lot about his style. I tend to be quite conservative on that front, but that is beside the point. Italian men are taught, from a very early age, that socks should match their trousers and they should be long, up to their knee. The idea, I guess, is that if they go up beyond the calf muscle it’s more difficult for the socks to slide down so that when a man crosses his legs no white hairy leg portion is on show.
While nowadays short socks are deemed acceptable with casual wear it would still definitely be a big faux pas if someone was caught with short socks while dressed up in a suit.
I remember how my poor husband, who worked in an investment bank in London, came home one day quite puzzled by all the comments that his colleagues on the trading floor made when they discovered he was wearing long socks. I think the most amusing ones were, “Do you come from Bermuda?” and “Are those hold-ups?”.
So next time you see a man in a suit with long socks, be kind to him. He is most likely just an Italian behaving like his mama told him to and not a cross-dresser in disguise!

-Michela