Seven pairs of socks are the talk of the statehouse today (Friday). Seven young women who are paid to serve as pages in the Iowa House are wearing knee-highs. Eighteen-year-old Megan Hess of Spencer says their page outfits — a navy-blue blazer with a skirt or pants — are kind of out-dated. “I don’t really mind it, but we just figured we look pretty dorky, so we might as well top it off with knee-socks,” Hess says. Hess is wearing white-and-pink-striped socks, which she describes as pretty traditional compared to some of the other fashion statements that’re being made. One young woman is wearing bright pink socks adorned with green and yellow bubbles. Eighteen high-schoolers are paid to be pages. They run errands for the 100 state representatives. The boys in the group are not engaging in the sock-fest. William Tuthill of Bennett, an 18-year-old high school senior, explains. “I just wear white socks with boots,” Tuhill says. Hess admits knee-socks with a skirt is not a fashion statement she would make back home to Spencer high school. “Not at all,” Hess says. “I would get made fun of so bad.” Hess has worn knee-socks for the past three days. Seventeen-year-old Jennifer Danilson of Boone became a knee-sock devotee during her first week as a House page.”I went through four pairs of pantyhose in the first four days of work,” Danilson says. “(Wearing knee-socks) beats tights or panty hose. It’s a lot more comfortable.” So, what pair is she wearing today? “Light blue argyle with navy design on them,” Danilson says. “We wear whatever. We don’t really care if it matches. Hot pink or yellow. It doesn’t matter.” It’s a definite look, according to Tuhill, one of the young men who works as a page. “It just kinda goes with the whole outfit here, I mean, just because it’s so, like, old-fashioned and everything,” says. “It’s like school uniform stuff.” If you’re still not picturing this, think of that Britney Spears video where she wears a school uniform with white knee-socks as she dances to “Baby, Hit Me One More Time.”
