Hudson Williams Puts a No-pants Spin on White Socks and Loafers

At GQ’s Met Gala after party, the actor changed into ERL fall 2026 with glossy ruched loafers, semi-sheer dress socks and Bulgari accessories.​At GQ’s Met Gala after party, the actor changed into ERL fall 2026 with glossy ruched loafers, semi-sheer dress socks and Bulgari accessories. 

Hudson Williams followed his Met Gala debut with a very different kind of formalwear proposition later Monday night.

The actor arrived at GQ’s Met Gala after party at The Twenty Two in Union Square in ERL fall 2026, swapping the custom Balenciaga suit he wore on the Met steps for an abbreviated tuxedo look built around exposed legs, white socks and glossy black loafers.

Williams’ shoes gave the after-party outfit its sharpest contrast. He wore low black loafers with a glossy finish, rounded toe and ruched vamp, with the gathered leather creating a softer front than a classic penny loafer or evening slipper. The shoes had a low profile and dark sole, keeping the shape close to traditional formal footwear even as the styling moved somewhere less expected.

The socks did just as much work. Williams wore semi-sheer white dress socks pulled high on the calf, letting the white hosiery sit between the black loafers and brief-length white shorts. The socks were not hidden under trousers or treated like a practical layer; they became the bridge between the shoe and the rest of the look.

For the rest of the outfit, Williams wore a black tailcoat-style jacket over a white formal shirt, with a wide white cummerbund-style waist and white boxer-like shorts. A black beret added another formal uniform reference, while Bulgari sunglasses and jewelry brought the look back into after-dark party territory. Anastasia Walker styled Williams for the night.

The sock-and-loafer pairing has been showing up in celebrity dressing in more pointed ways lately. Janelle Monáe brought a more playful version to Coachella this year, wearing black patent heeled loafers with white socks tied with ribbons.

The black-loafer-and-white-sock pairing also had a fresh auction-market reminder this spring, with a signed pair of Michael Jackson’s black Florsheim Imperial loafers set for auction this month. Williams did not appear to be making a direct Jackson reference, but with the socks left fully exposed, the contrast carried some of that pop performance history with it.

Earlier in the night, Williams wore a custom powder blue Balenciaga look designed by Pierpaolo Piccioli for his first Met Gala. His “Heated Rivalry” costar Connor Storrie also made his first Met appearance Monday, giving the series two menswear moments on the carpet. The two-piece suit included folded-over trousers and pulled from matador codes, a sharp pivot from the ERL look’s cropped proportions and sock-led finish.

Williams was not the only guest whose after-party look put the footwear in focus. Take a closer look at more of the shoes celebrities wore across the post-Met party circuit.