A Guide to Matching Men’s Blazers and Pants
Blazer and Pants Color Combinations
When it comes to matching men’s blazer to dress pants, most guys play it pretty safe, or don’t play it at all and just wear single color suits. After all, there is a certain elegance to a coordinated outfit like a suit. But with so many men dressing for business casual offices, stylish men are learning to dress up with different blazer colors, instead of relying on singularity.
We’ve covered matching pants and jackets for the business casual office, now we’re doing the work for you. Below we’ll show you how we matched up a variety of men’s blazer colors and pants to make some killer combinations.
Blue Blazer and White Pants
When it comes to pants, most men limit themselves to dark colors. Stand out in a sea of black and dark gray by pairing a dark blue jacket with a pair of light gray pants. This unexpected twist livens up your whole look and serves to highlight the subtle personality of this blazer.
Let us not overlook how stylish this navy windowpane blazer is. Few men’s blazers combine breathable fabrics (this one fresco) with diverse patterns like windowpane. The fresco makes it feel special while the traditional navy blue color with windowpane pattern makes this a jacket one you can wear once a week all through the cooler months.
Top It Off
The finishing touches for this look play up the shades of white in the blazer windowpane. To make this jacket’s pattern stand out you can pair it with white pants as we did here. And for some added color, you can put on your favorite pair of oxblood dress shoes to bring the whole look together.
Khaki Blazer and Navy Blue Pants
Back in the day, men’s blazers were worn by members of the clubs that competed in regattas and signaled the refinement and class of the wearer. Jackets that were brown were considered more rustic than the jackets you would find on the banks of Thames cheering on Oxford. The no brown in town rule kept sophisticated urbanites from wearing so-called “sport jackets” in the city. But those days are over.
Today, men’s blazers of all types can qualify for the description of fashionable and urbane if you wear them well. Take this outfit where the blazer’s subtle pattern take center stage by pairing it with solid navy dress slacks or dare we say it: shorts. The result is the foundation of an extremely wearable outfit. The neutral color combination works for just about any skin tone and hair color. The subtle contrast between the blazer and pants colors means this outfit won’t cut you in half visually. That makes this combination very forgiving to all body types. So whether you’re long-legged and tall, short and stocky or anywhere in between, you can pull this one off.
Bring It All Together
During the day this look is office ready when paired with a solid blue shirt, and a knit tie like we’ve put together here. Need a look for your warm weather day out of the office? Go with some navy shorts and look casual cool. Have a dinner date after work? Drop the tie and you’ll be ready to make an impression. When an outfit has this many solids in it, the shoes will get a bit more attention, so step it up and wear your best pair of browns (well-polished, of course).
Gray Blazer and Jeans
Like its underrated homophone, the bass guitar, the base color of patterned men’s blazers is an often overlooked element of the whole. Refined men of style know how to amplify these elements. The choice of charcoal pants accentuates the base color of this light gray jacket on which the herringbone pattern lies.
Let this be a lesson to you when you pair any blazer and pants. Most stylish men’s blazers have some understated element that you can play up. Whether it’s a quiet color, a bit of texture, or a subtle detail like accent stitching on the cuff, there’s usually some cue that can inspire a great choice for a matching pair of pants.
Finish The Look
Since this outfit accentuates the neutral base of this outfit, you can feel free to emphasize the accent colors of this outfit with accessories. Here we kept things pretty tame down low with dark brown shoes and navy socks. Then we rounded out the look with a solid gray, knit sweater to create contrast and match with the jeans.
Gray Blazer and Brown Pants
Last on our list of blazer color rotations, the soft sophistication of ash gray. Played up with a gentle, light pattern, this look can be easily paired with a dark pair of pants to show contrast and is even easier to find a shirt or sweater pairing for. Need to escape winter’s bite? Turtlenecks all day.
Round It Out
Accessorize this outfit with a pop of color in your pocket square as we did, and if you need to dress it up further, you can pop a dark vest underneath with a light gray tie to match your blazer.
A Match Made in Heaven
So, we’ve shown you four killer combos to match up with your variety of blazer colors, but no matter what colors you wear, they’re not going to look good unless they fit properly.
Lucky for you, all of the jacket and pants combinations you see above can be found at BlackLapel.com
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What color pants would you suggest for my blue blazer with thin navy blue stripes ? What color shirt would go with it?
Hi, I’m going to prom with a girl and I’m going to wear khaki pants and brown dress shoes what shirt, tie, and blazer should I wear.
Please just help me I am stressing out I only have like two weeks.
Braydon! Congrats on securing the prom date!
First off, deep breath, it’s going to be great and you’re going to be A-O.K. Now, let’s get to your look.
Khaki pants and brown dress shoes, off to a nice start. This actually makes the rest of your outfit fairly easy to configure.
For the blazer, definitely go with a blue. Check out how this guy looks, nice, right?
For the shirt, you could go with pink like the gentleman in that picture, or if pink isn’t your thing, make sure you go with a lighter color to contrast the blazer; a solid light blue shirt which is a guaranteed winner.
If you go with a light blue shirt, your tie can be any color that pops against the light blue, see this guy for a frame of reference (you don’t have to use pink).
Another option for you is to go with a blue blazer and then a patterned shirt in a lighter hue. Truthfully, you don’t even need a tie (it could be cool to rock a no-tie look). If you insist on a tie and you go with a patterned shirt, just make sure the tie is a solid color (don’t add a pattern on top of a pattern), and make sure the tie is a darker color than the shirt (you could match the tie to the blazer color).
Let us know if you have any questions and most importantly have fun 🙂
P.s. — for reference, here is another man wearing the can’t-go-wrong khaki pants look.
A rather large friend (300 apprx) is having a jury trial and I am trying to support him with his attire have choice of 2 different navy jackets, either black or darker navy pants, black belt, black shoes, white dress shirt with darker blue tie. I had to guess the size of pants and jacket because nobody can help with this. Will the color of darker blue or black pants work? ?? If possible please respond with email, thanks
A rather large friend (300 apprx) is having a jury trial and I am trying to support him with his attire have choice of 2 different navy jackets, either black or darker navy pants, black belt, black shoes, white dress shirt with darker blue tie. I had to guess the size of pants and jacket because nobody can help with this. Will the color of darker blue or black pants work? ??
Sylvia,
If he has two different navy jackets, then you simply would work with the navy pants and the rest of the wardrobe that you described. Easy as that!
Let us know if you have any other questions.
My husband and I are going to an outdoor wedding in southern California in a week. He HATES suits. On top of that, due to the heat, he is adamant about not wearing pants to this wedding and instead wearing shorts and a dress shirt? I know nothing of men’s fashion, but I think he really should wear pants.
A. Is he crazy, or will dark brown shorts with a white/ blue pin striped dress shirt be ok.
B. If I can persuade him to wear pants and a jacket that are not a suit, what would you suggest?
Janet,
Thanks for reaching out! Hopefully, we can help provide some clarity as to the best way to handle this situation.
As far as answers go:
A. He’s not entirely nutz-o. Shorts can work, and more and more men have been starting to incorporate this look, at weddings too! This article on how to wear shorts with a blazer should be especially helpful to you. We would still suggest to instead go with a solid dress shirt and blazer combo. Going shorts and button down only is treading the line of too casual for a wedding format.
B. If you can persuade him, try and persuade him to tack on a blazer to his shorts look for the ultimate compromise. Otherwise, since a suit is technically a matching dress pant and jacket, any other alternatives would be to wear dress pants and a blazer that are different but work together well — this piece will help you out with building a look.
Hope this helps, and enjoy California!
I am going to a wedding rehearsal dinner. I want to wear my charcoal herringbone sports coat. Can you give me a recommendation for shirt, pants, and shoes as well as anything else that might make it look timelessly stylish? I was thinking Levis 505 indigo jeans (they fit me well) and some black buckskin shoes that have a boot bottom with a button down shirt (unsure of color). But, it could be any combination of those along with something else or none of those and something completely different paired with the sport coat. For reference, I am 57 years old, 5 feet 9 inches tall, and weigh 160 pounds. Any help is very much appreciated! I really need help!!!
Michael,
No worries! This one is actually pretty simple, glad to help.
You’ve almost got it all covered regardless! If you’re going to do a charcoal blazer and jeans combo for the rehearsal, and you already know you have black buckskin shoes in the arsenal, you can wear a solid white dress shirt to let the herringbone jacket empower your look. Keep the occasion in mind though, if you know people are going to dress wedding-formal for the rehearsal, you’ll want to step it up with charcoal dress pants and another solid, contrasting dress shirt (like a plain white). However, many rehearsals allow the more casual combinations, so your combination is already lookin’ great as long as jeans are allowed.
I’m going to homecoming and I have to wear a khaki colored pair of pants. The girl I’m escorting is wearing a dark grey, very sparkly dress. With dark grey being the color and khakis being the dress code, what should I do?
Miles,
Thanks for reaching out! This is a tricky one, but we’ll answer to the best of our style-knowledge. We advise you try to find a pair of khaki pants that are very light in color, similar to a sand color. Then, while a light gray blazer would be superior, pairing the light sand khaki pants with a white shirt and a dark gray jacket to match your date is totally fine. Just make sure the blazer isn’t charcoal, because that is a bit too stark of a contrast between the jacket and the pants. If you want to add a pocket square (which is the 100% baller move, talk about homecoming stand-out), have it be a mixture of a white, gray and one more color, such as red — like this. This will bring the whole look together perfectly.
Hello,
I have got a printed blue blazer with black tuxedo type collar. I has got the leafy print in yellow and orange shade.
Which color shirt and trouser will be the best match for this color.
Please advise.
Thanks,
Vishal
Woah! That is quite the blazer good sir. When you’re going with a blazer with that much pop, the pant and shirt choice has to be simple. When you’ve got a life-of-the-party blue jacket like you’ve described, it would be best to just match your pant color to your blazer’s primary color. As far as shirts go, keep it light and keep it basic. In this case, a light blue.
Hi,
Please advice me for choosing right combination for wedding.
i would like to wear something like in combination/contrast style not a full suit.
I have dark brown short length , please suggest what should be the color or pant and shirt pocket square and shoes,
Hie
I own a light grey blazer with reddish orrangish checked lines .
So what color shirt and trouser and shoes should i wear .
Also i own a dark coffee colour checked blazer . What shirt and pant and shoes should i wear?
Please suggest
For both blazers, stick to our rule of white or light blue dress shirts only.
With the patterned gray blazer, opt for charcoal gray or navy pants and medium/dark brown dress shoes. With the dark brown blazer, we recommend dark blue pants like Look #2 above. Mimic that outfit for some guaranteed style.
I have black coat and grey pants. So can you suggest me any color for the dress shirt which will suit with the pants and coat?
You can’t go wrong with a white or light gray dress shirt here, Affan. These colors are all in the same family and will give you a sleek and minimalist look.
I have fullneck black sweatshirt with check black and silver blazer I am stuck what color wear in pants I have choice of off white cotton pant or khaki or blue chinos what you recommend?
Honestly, neither of those pants will look good with your sweater and blazer. For a better idea of how to wear a sweater with a suit or blazer, head here.
Hey!
This is kind of a newbie question. But I’m totally not sure.
I’ve seen a lot of people pairing blazers with chinos.
Whats your take on wearing pants vs chinos? Where does one exactly cross the line when going from casual to formal.
Lets say the whole combination is to be worn in an office setting.
Thank you!
Great question, Azeem. The answer is it depends. Here’s what you have to consider:
1. Chinos are definitely a rung lower on the formality ladder than dress slacks. The trick is matching the pants to the formality of the office. If the office is generally a suit and tie place but has a casual Friday policy, then a jacket, dress slacks and a dress shirt without a tie is appropriate. If, on the other hand, the office setting is more casual, then chinos, a jacket and a more relaxed Oxford cloth shirt would work.
2. Some blazers look better with chinos than others. The more textured, rougher fabrics that blend wool with another material like cashmere for fall/winter or linen for spring/summer, have a more rugged appearance that looks good with cotton chinos. Solid colored, smooth 100% wool jackets tend to look better with dress slacks.
3. Finally, consider the color of the chinos. Darker chinos look dressier. White and light khaki colors have more of a beach look so they are, by nature, more casual. Some of the brighter colors like yellow and pink have a distinctly preppy vibe that is likely to be inappropriate for a dressy office. And, it probably goes without saying, but embroidered chinos with, say, whales on them, are a no-no for any office.
Take these things into consideration and act accordingly, Azeem.
Hello !
I want to wear Black blazer with Red printed shirt and dark chocolate trouser. I have black trousers too but i do not want to wear it for fitting reasons. What advice do you want to give me.
There are a lot of different directions you could take, but we would suggest you start with a tailor. If those pants can be altered to fit, then your problem is solved. You can wear the black suit all together.
If the pants can’t be altered to fit, then we recommend making another change to the outfit. The combination of a black jacket, brown pants and a red shirt just doesn’t add up. With some exceptions black and brown items shouldn’t be paired in an outfit. Earthy brown tones are infinitely more versatile than black, which pretty much only pairs with white, grays and subdued colors.
The shirt doesn’t sound like a proper dress shirt (Having a print and the color red are telltale signs that it’s intended to be worn casually. After all, when have you seen a stylish, guy in a suit with a printed shirt or a red shirt?). Our suggestion is to go with a classic, and foolproof, white shirt or, if you want to work in some red tones, try a pink shirt, which makes a killer pairing with dark brown.
For a jacket, replace the black with either a khaki, which is neutral so it will pair well with any shirt and still look good with the dark brown pants. Aside from this one outfit, a jacket like this gives you a versatile, useful piece in your closet.
Hello,
I recently purchased a sport coat in what I can only describe as being a French blue with fine light grey medium window pane plaid. The buttons are medium brown in color. I am having a very difficult time deciding what color pants to wear with it. Grey pants? Taupe pants? Regardless I will wear a white shirt.
Thank you
Hey Tyler – this sounds similar to our French Blue Check Blazer. If you click on that link, you’ll see we paired the blazer with white chinos. Khaki or navy chinos would also work with as well. If you need to dress up a bit more, dark to medium blue dress slacks will match. Gray pants might not provide enough contrast and you wouldn’t want to wash out this beautiful blazer of yours.
What would look best with black slacks, black shoes and a light shirt for an October wedding? (I have several shirts, but my favorite is a royal blue checked shirt)
This is a bad news/good news type of situation, Daniel.
Bad News:
It’s impossible for us to answer your question because we don’t have the information we need. While you mentioned a couple of items to wear, we can’t tell you what will look best on you because A) we don’t know what you look like and B) we don’t know what clothes you’ve got to choose from. These are the key points a stylist focuses on to build outfits. We couldn’t stand behind any recommendation that doesn’t take into account your body type (Are you tall? Short? Slim? Bulky?), your coloring (What’s your skin tone? Eye color? Got freckles?), your hair situation (Is your hair black? Brown? Blond? Red? Gray? Are you bald? Do you have any facial hair?), etc.
Good News:
The answers you seek are looking back at you in the mirror…literally. Knowing the answers to all the questions above you can start choosing clothes without fear of getting it “wrong.” We’ve got articles to help you pick clothes based on your body type, and even do specific things like learning to pick your shirt based on your own coloring.
Learn to do the things in those articles, and be sure to subcribe to The Compass so you won’t miss the other style advice we regularly dole out, and you’ll never wonder how to put together an outfit again.
Hey
I have a royal blazers with black shirt and pants but I have been brain storming on which colour of shoes that I should pair them with to look fabulous,
We’d suggest a dark brown. It will create a nice contrast against your dark top half. If you go with a black shoe, you might blend in once the sun goes down. 🙂 We have an article addressing this question you should check out! Also, be careful with that black shirt. There’s a certain set of rules on what you can wear with a black shirt, so check them out and proceed with caution.
Alright, I have a black blazer and white top. What pants color should I combine with? Does red tie combines with white top and black blazer? And, does dark blue shirt combines with a black blazer?
The best pant color for the black blazer in our opinion is gray. Matching with a cool gray or a patterned pant like this.
The problem is that you don’t want to overdo the black look (unless you’re at a black tie event) so offsetting the black with a lighter bottom helps keep the look from being too serious.
As for the tie, we have a tutorial that might help you with some of your matchup questions, In our opinion, the red is pushing the look to the edge of presidential, it is usually used when you’re looking to intensify your seriousness, and the contrast will be blinding. The black suit is very situational, but if you choose solid gray pants, pick a tie like a hunter green, patterned gray or even a navy tie. If you’re set on the red tie, look around and consider a more muted tone.
As for your shirt question, we beg you to reconsider a lighter choice, a white or light gray would match perfectly.
I have two questions: Can I wear a navy blue suit with a navy blue trouser and then a navy blue vest that has stripes with a maroon tie and brown shoes?
Secondly, Can I wear a navy blue suit with navy blue vest with a maroon tie and a maroon trouser then with brown shoes? Please tell me which is better and why and also suggest any other combinations.
Sure you can wear those outfits, Chideha. (It goes without saying but just for the record, we are not the fashion police. In fact, the fashion police are just an old wives tale. You can wear whatever you please. Nobody’s going to accost you in the street for your outfits.)
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, on to your outfits. They sound fine as abstract concepts. But getting dressed isn’t an abstract concept. As you can see above, we were very specific in our explanations of why these outfits work. Those are the things to look for to create harmony in your outfits. For advice on which particular colors to wear, the key is not focusing on whether the clothes match each other, but whether they look good on you. The answer to that question isn’t in the comments of this website, but in your mirror. What should you look for in the mirror? Glad you asked. Check out this article on Choosing the Right Suit Color and Choosing Shirt Colors That Match You for guidelines. These articles won’t tell you what to wear (that’s your job), but they will tell you how to find the colors that look best on you. Keep those guidelines in mind every time you get dressed and you’ll never wonder does this go with that? ever again.
heyy!!
I have metallic grey texture jodhpuri blezer, which colour trouser will go for it??
Go for a dark grey bottom, doing so will accentuate your blazer, giving it a lighter feel and flashing the texture and details that may be overlooked.
Hi mate,
I have a biscuit color summer 2 button blazer, I am confused on the color of the pant I should wear, so need your expertise on the pant color?
Biscuit color? That’s a new one for us, but we’re going to take a guess that you’re talking about something along the lines of our Sandstone Khaki jacket. That jacket, along with its darker brother, the Rye Brown jacket, is a neutral earth tone. That means it’s nearly impossible to clash with it.
As you can see from how we styled those jackets in the photos, you can really run the gamut from navy blue pants to white jeans. So what specific pants should you wear? We can’t answer that for you here in the comments because that depends on a lot of personal questions we’d have to answer about your build, your skin tone and hair color, your personal style preferences, your wardrobe, the weather where you live, etc.
The good news is, you know the answers to all of those questions and, with the help of those articles we linked you to, you can put together combinations for days.
hey.. i have navy blue trouser and white shirt.. which color of blazer and tie will be suitable??
There are literally hundreds of answers to that question, Sandeep. As you can see from the pictures Black Lapel Blazers page navy blue pants and a white shirt can be mixed and matched with almost anything.
But here’s the thing, as Compass subscribers know (and if you haven’t subscribed yet, this is the signal that you should subscribe to The Compass), putting together a great outfit has almost nothing to do with whether the colors of the clothes match each other. The important thing is whether the colors of the clothes match YOU. It’s what we call dressing from the inside out and we refer to it regularly. To apply the principles to yourself all you need is a mirror and to read these articles: How to Choose Your Clothes and Pick Shirt Colors That Match You, Even If You Have No Eye For Matching. Read those stories and you’ll never have to wonder “does this match that?” again because all your clothes will naturally match when they match you.
Hi,
I have a silver grey pants and a light pink shirt and a black blazer. will it match?
Pink and gray generally complement each other. Black and pink is not as strong of a combination. Black tends to make lighter colors look too strong and you can end up with a jarring contrast that clashes. So we’d consider another blazer besides black, like a navy blue blazer that works better with a pink dress shirt.
But if you learn anything from reading The Compass, let it be this: how well your clothes match each other is not the most important thing about putting together an outfit. You could put the most perfect color pairing together and still not look that great. And you could pair two colors that sound like they’ll clash but put them on and come out looking great. That’s because the most important thing you need to keep in mind when you get dressed is looking right back at you in the mirror. How do YOU look? What color hair do you have? What’s your skin tone? Any distinguishing features? When you start with those things and pick your clothes to match you, two things happen. 1) picking clothes becomes really easy when you know what works for you, and 2) your clothes naturally match each other when they match you because you become the unifying force. We call this dressing from the inside out. How do you learn to do it? Step one subscribe to The Compass where you’ll get a regular dose of style advice that’s focused on dressing from the inside out. Step two, read articles like How to Choose Your Clothes and How to Pick Shirt Colors that we’ve published in the past with step-by-step instructions on dressing from the inside out. These will set you on the path to timeless style.
Can you plz tell me the combintion of pent shirt with bright maroon-red colour blazer? And one thing more plz give combinations for a day farewell party in schoo
There’s bad news and good news, Raman. The bad news is, the key piece of information we would need to help you figure out what looks good on you is what you look like.
The good news is, Instead of giving you a random recommendation that may or may not work for you, we decided to show you how, armed with only a mirror, you can pick the perfect shirt every time. Check out the article on picking shirt colors that match you and, we don’t want to oversell it but, your life will be changed forever!
Good day. I don’t have a single blazer in my wardrobe and I’m planning on buying one. My attire is limited to plain white or black thin striped with grey long sleeves, black or grey pants, and a grey necktie. As you can see, there’s not much variation in color so the obvious choice for the color of blazer would be black or grey(depending on the shirt) but is there any other color that would look nice with these combinations? Black seems too common. And I might consider buying new shoes too so can you recommend a color for that also? I’d appreciate your suggestion. Thank you for your time.
Well Dan, it sounds like you’re doing some wardrobe building. That’s a bigger task than we can address here in the comments to this one article but that’s the key benefit to a free subscription to The Compass. As our name implies, we offer guidance for being the sharpest guy in the room, so our first recommendation is subscribe to The Compass and you’ll get guidance on building your wardrobe delivered to your inbox weekly.
As for the specifics of building your wardrobe, one of the things you’ll see repeated in The Compass is that we don’t believe in getting clothes because they looked good on some other guy in a picture or on a mannequin. You’re not dressing some other guy. You’re not dressing a mannequin. You’re dressing you, so we propose starting with you. Do your clothes fit your proportions well? What’s your skin tone? Hair color? Do you have hair or are you bald? Facial hair? Eye color? All of these things are far more important to building a killer wardrobe than the kind of “does this shirt go with this?” that most guys fret over. We call it dressing from the inside out and it is the secret to choosing clothes that make you look good.
One thing’s for sure, you need to add some color to your closet. All black and gray is not only restricting. Don’t believe the old wives tale that black goes with everything. It actually severely limits what else you wear because it makes any strong color look loud and clownish so then you’re stuck only grays to compliment your blacks and generally dull, lifeless outfits. Our rule of thumb, as you saw if you clicked on the link to the article above, is to pair your jackets and your hair. But that doesn’t mean you have to wear an exact match. If you’ve got black hair, charcoal gray, midnight blue, navy blue and other deep-dark colored jackets will complement you and are much better base colors than black for bringing some color to your shirts and accessories (you’ll notice that all of the links above feature the jackets in outfits that consist of at least one non-black or gray piece that really brings the whole outfit to life).
As for shoes we’ll offer the same advice. While it’s good to have some black shoes a good pair of dark brown shoes are the most essential part of any man’s dress shoe wardrobe and are a go-to for almost any outfit.
So hopefully we’ve freed you from the grayscale jail that so many men do time in and help you find clothes in colors that work for you.
Hi
I have a dark beige color blazer, what color of pants and shirt to wear . I will be wearing the black shoes and I have a fat body with mixture of black & grey hair.
So the question is what goes with dark beige? Everything. Beige is neutral. There are almost infinite possibilities, Mike, way too many to name in a comment.
But that answer isn’t really satisfying, is it? It’s not the answer, it’s the question that’s the problem. Rather than starting with a random object from your closet, always build your outfits from the inside out. Make sure your clothes match you, then the rest will fall into place. Here’s how:
You mentioned that you’re carrying a little extra baggage and that you’ve got black with gray hair. Those are much more important starting points. If you’re looking to minimize your girth, consider a full suit which lengthens you out and slims your silhouette just by nature of the fact that you’ve got on one fabric from neck to ankle. As for colors, our rule of thumb is that you can’t go wrong when you pair your jacket with your hair. Start with a medium-dark gray jacket and you’ll have a much easier time putting together an outfit than fighting against your own coloring with beige.
This kind of dressing from the inside out is the key to what makes well-dressed men look so great. It’s not their ability to match the color of the dots in their polka dot ties to the color of their shoelaces or any other external matching. It’s their ability to work with what they’ve got. For more on how to do this check out our stories on Choosing Your Clothes and Picking Shirt Colors That Match You.
I saw on pinterest from inspirations style a gentlemen wearing a brown gingham checker blazer, white shirt, brown polka dot tie, brown pinstripe pants and vest. Does this combination of patterns go together?
Most guys think mixing patterns is way more complicated than it is. Sure you can mix three patterns like a stripe, a check and a dot, as long as you understand scale. We’ve broken it down in our Guide to Mixing Patterns With Confidence (which you’d have seen if you were subscribed to The Compass–hint, hint). There we explain how simple combining patterns can be.
Thank you
I am looking for ideas for attire for my fall season wedding. I am thinking of going with a brown tweed (no checks) style blazer/jacket and working around that. Could you recommend good pants and tie colors to suit the occasion and the look?
We regularly feature outfit breakdowns, Paul, so our first bit of advice is to sign up for Compass emails so you don’t miss an article.
Generally speaking, brown coordinates well with blue, so blue pants, a blue shirt and a tie with blue in it will probably work. But you’ll notice that it’s not a very forceful recommendation. That’s because we don’t have enough information to go on. You, on the other hand, have all the answers looking back at you in the mirror. The secret to style is now how well your clothes match each other, it’s how well your clothes match you. We call this dressing from the inside out and we highly recommend you learn the basic rules of dressing from the inside out before building an outfit for your wedding. Don’t worry, it couldn’t be a simpler concept to grasp. Basically, you just have to take a good look in the mirror and build your outfits based on what you see. For a full article about dressing from the inside out check out How to Choose Clothes and to go more in depth with specific examples, check out Pick Shirt Colors That Match You.
I have a new coke colour cheque blazer what combination of pants will work the best for it
Without seeing it and seeing you, it’s impossible for us to tell you what’s going to look best for you. But Look #3 shows you how to handle a check jacket. Let the jacket’s colors guide you. If the base color of the jacket is charcoal, try charcoal gray pants. Then play up the accent color from the jacket in the accessories and you’ll have a cohesive outfit in no time.
I have a work holiday party where you are expected to dress up more than our usual business casual. I have a dark grey blazer and am thinking a lighter grey pants with black shoes. I want to stand out a little and feel my bland red, blue, and orange solid ties will blend in. I have a light blues shirt but am not opposed to buying a new shirt and tie. Thanks BL
Sounds like you’re going in two different directions, Adam. On the one hand, you’ve got a monochromatic outfit (all shades of gray) that could make for a modern minimalist look. But you’re looking to throw in a lot of colors in hopes that they will punch it up a bit. These two ideas don’t add up.
Our recommendation, either go all the way with the modern minimalist look and wear a white shirt and black or gray tie or dress in the colors that work with you. The minimalist look will stand out if you do it right. Wearing clothes that fit (not with a bunch of colors on them), is how to stand out. For proof, just search for images of well dressed men and you won’t see many colors at all.
A more colorful approach could work, though. Just be sure to limit the color palette to one or two colors and make sure that those colors work for you. How do you know whether they work for you or not? Start by checking out our guide to dressing from the inside out and picking shirt colors that work for you. These articles are great for building a wardrobe, but useful for building a single outfit that looks great on you.
I’m proposing to my girl tonight…I picked up a pair of teal slacks, planning on pairing them with brown wingtip shoes and brown belt. I have a light grey blazer as well. Should I wear white or a light blue shirt? Also, what color tie?
Good luck, Cameron. Not that you need it.
We recommend the white shirt. But that recommendation comes from the fact that it’s the safer choice. We don’t have enough information to tell you the choice that will look best on you. Why? Because while we know what else you’re wearing, we don’t know the most important thing about matching any clothes or making any outfit: what you look like.
Thankfully, that information is looking right back at you in the mirror, you just have to know what you’re looking at. We break it all down in our article on Picking Shirt Colors That Match You, Even If You Have No Eye For Matching. There we explain how to always make the smart choice when it comes to picking a shirt. Give that a read. Not to oversell it, but it will change your life.
I have a black self printed white coloured blazer so which color of shirt and tie best for me?
We can’t say we fully understand what this blazer looks like, but honestly this is what popped into mind after reading your description. If your blazer resembles this one, take cue and pair it with a white dress shirt and black tie.
I’m going to be pouring wine at a high end resort this Saturday evening. I will be outside and it will be hot. I want to wear a dress shirt and khaki pants but I am concerned that I might not be “dressed up” enough. Are there any tricks that I should know where I could possibly show up with a tie and blazer and possibly take them both off if I notice that the atmosphere seems to be a bit more casual?
If that’s an invitation to drink some wine at a high end resort on Saturday, Luis, then count us in!
But enough about our weekend plans, let’s get you kitted out. Our baseline answer is: yes, you can keep cool in a suit (or blazer & slacks). We’ve written about how to do this a few different times…
While all of these articles reference summer, they’re useful for anyone dressing for a warm weather situation.
I just purchased a brown and black houndstooth sport jacket with a bit of a plaid pattern. I’m confused if I can wear black pants because of the black thread in the houndstooth pattern but I know black and brown are usually frowned on. Also what color shirt would go best with this outfit?
True, combining black and brown is generally frowned upon. For instance, we wouldn’t advise you to wear a pair of brown shoes with black pants. However, if one garment contains both of these colors, like the houndstooth jacket you mentioned, that’s a bit different. Black pants will work well if the jacket’s got black in it.
As for shirts, a white shirt will work with everything. But for more options, focus more on what goes with you than what goes with your other clothes. If all of your clothes are in harmony with your own coloring, the matching will, largely, take care of itself. So, we recommend checking out the article we published on Picking Shirt Colors That Match You.
NEVER wear black with brown. Black can be worn with taupe or even tan but never chocolate brown.
Also, brown is a very unpopular color suit. The 4 most popular color SUITS are Black, Navy, Grey & Tan. Brown is good in a casual look like maybe a brown leather jacket. Anything dressy like a suit with a tie should not be brown. That went out 40 years ago.
We generally agree, Don, but check these brown suits out, they might change your mind 😉
Awesome guide blacklapel, thanks! Quick question, I have a red carpet charity gala coming up and I’m told the look is casual chic. My date is wearing a black and egg shell colored dress. I was thinking about going with a black blazer that has a jacquard lapel, white shirt and pocket square, black tie, and egg shell/ever so slightly off-white pants. I wouldn’t normally wear this but for the function I thought it’d be a clever crisp look. Your input would be great! Thanks!
This sounds like a fun event and the outfit sounds sharp. The black and white top and bottom idea is a high degree of difficulty, though. Why?
First, it’s super high contrast so your clothes will compete for attention with your face. If you’ve got a lot of contrast from the neck up, say black hair and light skin, then this won’t be a problem. But if you’re, say, fair skinned with blonde hair, beware of black jackets in general and black and white combos in particlar because they’ll just draw all the attention down to your clothes and away from your face.
Second, If you’re on the short side, a high contrast between your jacket and pants can split your body visually and make you appear shorter. If you’re a taller guy, this can help split up a lanky frame and be a good thing, but either way it’s something to consider.
We’re hoping our concerns are unfounded and you can pull off this outfit, because it sounds cool, but if not, just adjust by bringing the jacket and pants closer together by swtiching one of them to gray.
I have a full suit of black color.so which color of shirt and tie best for me?
i weared with white shirt & black tie 3 time.
Ah the black suit. Has there every been something so many guys own that is so hard to wear? Perhaps not. Never fear, we’ve written a whole article about How to Wear a Black Suit With Style that’s almost as tailor made for you as one of our fabulous custom suits…almost.
I have a black sports jacket. I was think a pink short sleeve shirt it light tan pants. What you think?
We can’t see how it looks on you and how it looks on you trumps everything. That’s why we suggest dressing from the inside out.
But while we can’t speak to how it looks on you, we can speak to the combination of colors in the outfit. The black jacket is throwing us off, Daniel. Black and tan may make for a good beer, but the combination in your outfit doesn’t work quite as well. Black and pink creates a start contrast that will overpower almost any wearer since black makes any saturated color look really strong. The problem here is that you’ve got three different color families in one outfit: black is grayscale, pink is pastel and tan is an earthtone.
One color family is the simplest way to come up with a strong look and most guys don’t ever bother to master that, but they should. For instance, you can’t go wrong with a white shirt and gray slacks to go with that black jacket. Two color families is a little more difficult but can be cool. Making the jacket and earthtone (say a dark, textured brown) would tie in to the tan pants and let the pastel in the pink shirt become the accent of the outfit. But once you get into three distinct color families, things go downhill and the outfit starts to look like a hodgepodge. Simplify, Daniel and you’ll be surprised at how easily things come together.
I have a normal black jacket. Can I wear it with gray dress pants? I’m planning on using them with a plain white dress shirt and a yellow, blue-dotted tie.
Oh dear. This outfit was cruising right along. Then, suddenly, a yelled and blue dotted tie ran out into the road, the outfit swerved and crashed and burned.
The addition of yellow and blue seems totally…well…out of the blue. For this monochromatic outfit, stick with a black or gray tie. If you do add a color, stay way from hard contrasts that clash (like yellow) and go with muted tones like a burgundy tie.
Hello..
I have a reception (wedding) to attend tomorrow night. I have a dark maroon valvet blazer .. Can it go with blue/black jeans and formal black shoes? Which shirt I should pick ? And yes , I am a bit fat .. Please help
Unless it’s waaaaaaaay more casual than most weddings, don’t wear jeans to a wedding, Qamar. Black dress pants? Sure, but black jeans are asking for trouble.
I have a black free pants but with white lines ? Which shirt ?
White shirt, Qamar. You can’t go wrong with a white shirt. But the pinstripe pants without a jacket? Not so sure about that one. You definitely don’t want to go pinstripe on the bottom and solid up top. Take a look at the photos above for some other inspiration.
i have black coat, peach sweater, peach (skinny chino) and the classic all black takkies, would it be suitable for a summer wedding?
Peach is a nice color and it was trending in menswear over the summer, usually in the form of a linen suit. We’re fans of the peach sweater, peach chinos, and black sneaker look, but we’re wondering if the black jacket is necessary? If they wedding dress code requires you wear a jacket, then definitely wear a jacket. We’re just concerned about the stark contrast between a black jacket and peach-colored sweater, and it might look a little out of place at a summer wedding. A lighter, better color combination with peach is gray. Do you have a light or dark (preferably light) gray jacket you could wear with this outfit instead? If so, we think that will suit you the best.
ihave a coffee shade dark silver blazer what goes with it…
Sorry Saahil, we have no imagination for what color this blazer is and what it looks like. A picture or example would be more helpful here.
I have a white shirt from Eton and a pair of beige chinos from Hilfiger. Im having a hard time finding a blazer to go with this look. what do you recommend?
This depends on your style and also what the occasion is for this outfit. Let’s start with your style and which blazers would go along accordingly. Is it preppy? Wear the classic navy blazer with gold buttons. More old-school cool? Try a brown blazer with a subtle pattern. Are you a style guy? Rock a windowpane. Need a more business casual look? Opt for an interesting blue blazer. Your style should guide your decisions, but don’t forget to abide by any dress code rules.
I have a shawl lapel black shiny blazer and matt dark grey pants.. What kind of shirt would look good?
Some tough love, here John: we’re not sure any shirt can make a black shiny blazer look good. Why? Black blazers are pretty limiting to start with. Inappropriate for business settings, they’re limited to evening casual wear. Shiny is never a good thing when it comes to wool clothes and under the lights of a night out you’d be likely to get a metallic look. We’d suggest taking your cues from any of the jackets above and working with classic blazer colors like blue and gray and brown. And invest in quality. With timeless looks like these, you’ll want something that you can wear for years to come. If that means you spend a bit more today, think of it this way: you can get cheap and trendy stuff every season for the next 10 years or you can get one versatile go-to piece that you buy today and wear for 10 years.
all my life i have been telling the guys I WORK WITH THIS EVERY WEEK THEY THINK I HAVE BOUGHT SOMETHING NEW I ONLY SHOP OFF SEASON SHOP WINTER AND THE SUMMER
We hear ya, Chuck. Keep on shopping. By the way, have you seen our latest collection? It’s definitely worth a shop 😉
classic white with black button
I have a dark emerald green jacket and dark brown trousers, what colour shirt would you recommend? I was thinking light pink.
Cheers
We’re going to have to steer you away from that thought for this outfit. A light pink shirt would look nice with the dark brown trousers, but adding a emerald green jacket on top of that is too much. Emerald green and brown are both strong solid colors, so you should decide between two dress shirt colors that go with virtually anything: blue and white. We’ll err on the side of a white dress shirt for this outfit, but you could pull off a pale blue shirt too if you wanted. Hope this helps, Joe.
Jacket Appears solid charcoal blue from a distance.
It is actuall small grey checks with blue stripes running through
How can I dress up for a new dress down with jeans. Thanks
This sounds like a great blazer and appropriate to pair with jeans. We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again, but you can never go wrong with a crisp white dress shirt. Wearing a tie with it isn’t necessary, but if you do want to dress up a bit more you can wear something like this navy knit tie. A knit tie is a good option for this outfit because it’s a more casual take on a tie, similar to your casual smart outfit here. Other shirt options could be a light blue dress shirt or oxford.
Hi, I have a black trouser, white shirt and black and black wingtip dress shoes.
Can I use camel or gray blazer? What color shirt and tie could be used?
The best match would probably be your gray blazer, but it also depends what you’re dressing up for. If you’re dressing up for a dinner date or a night out, we say wear the camel blazer and rock an open collar (no tie). If you’re dressing up for a more professional occasion, wear the gray blazer and white shirt with a simply patterned tie in a core color.
Hello! I have a black pants, white shirt and knitted ties. A gray blazer would be a good choice? What could wear shirts and ties?
Hello, Luis. Yes, the gray blazer is a good choice here. Looks like you learned something from this article, so head over to it’s sister article for a lesson on matching your shirts and ties.
Thank you very much for the reply 😉
One last thing. In the photos of examples of article blazers have patterns, it is mandatory? Tweed, herringbone, houndstooth, ect. They are valid? Or plain blazer okay?
Patterns give your look personality but many guys stick with plain solids because of an irrational fear of mismatching. That’s too bad. Patterned jackets are nothing to be afraid of.
As we noted in look three, patterns can make matching easier because they give you more colors to work with. If you have a jacket with gray and brown and burgundy accents, Gray pants, brown pants and burgundy chinos all complement it nicely. When you have a jacket that is 100% one color and pants that are 100% some other color, it’s that much harder to get the combination to work because color can’t hold the outfit together.
So, no, it is not mandatory that you wear patterned jackets, but it sure does make things easier and more stylish.
Does navy blazer and cream pant match prefectly?
which pant, tie and shirt colors match a navy blazer perfectly?
There is no such thing as matching perfectly, Asmatullah. Some combinations work better than others, but the truth is the colors of your clothes matching is only a small part of dressing well. The much more important thing to keep in mind is how well do you your clothes match you. That’s what we call dressing from the inside out and we’ve written a whole article about it called How to Choose Your Clothes that we recommend reading before you get dressed again. We’ve covered this more in depth with our recent piece on picking a shirt that matches you. Follow these guidelines and you’ll see that making a great match is easy.
I’ve a chocolate brown jacket with ~1cm pinkish pinstripe and a blue grey jacket, what colour pants would go with?
Sorry, Alex, but a pinstripe jacket doesn’t work with separate pants. Why? the lines of the pinstripes should be uninterrupted and travel the length of your body. When you break that up it breaks up the whole look and makes you look like you forgot half of your suit. So we don’t recommend any alternate pants with the jacket you described. That’s one that you should keep paired with its pants.
I have light beige color blazer. Can you advise any good combination of pant, shirt and tie with it?
There’s a lot of possible combos with a light beige blazer. Using the rule in Look #2 above, you can try bringing more brown to town. With a pair of dark brown slacks and white dress shirt, your light beige blazer will have a very complementary outfit. If you need help matching shirts and ties, read more here. You could also choose to move towards the blue/gray color family. We like this pair of pants with a shirt with a small blue pattern. Since beige is a more summery, casual color for a blazer, you can even think about foregoing the tie on this outfit.
I have an off- white /light grey linen blazer with black spots here and there .That
spots are part of the material.I got a plain black shirt and dark blue denim jeans
with lite shades patterns over it.Would you prefer me any other better combinations
that would be better for my blazer so that I could wear it for my cousins wedding ceremony .
I am a guy with 177cm height , Lil over weight and medium colour.
Don’t wear jeans and a black shirt to a wedding ceremony if you can help it, Mohammed. Both of those items are too casual for the occasion. Instead, wear a white shirt (which works with everything) and some dress pants in gray, blue or black. These two changes will dress your look up appropriately and keep you looking sharp.
can i wear coffee colour suit with cream shirt and blue-black colour pattern tie
Can you? Sure. Would we recommend it? No. Why? That tie will disrupt the color harmony by introducing black into an otherwise earthtoned outfit. Swap it out for one that does not include black for a safer bet.
Of course, all of this has nothing to do with how it will look good on you. To understand that you’ll have to start to dress from the inside out. Here’s how.
Can I wear a blue colour suit with orange pant and dark brown penny loafers
We’ll assume you’re referring to a suit jacket since wearing a blue suit would negate the need for separate pants. Orange and blue is a high contrast combination with two very strong saturated colors. This can come off a little gaudy. That may be okay, depending on where you’re wearing it. A medium blue jacket and orange chinos and loafers might be great for a walking tour of Milan this summer. Wearing it to work at a law firm? Not so smart.
Only you can determine what’s appropriate. Once you decide on that, the trick is not to focus on the color combination in a vacuum but to look at the colors on yourself. Stylish men know, it’s not how good your clothes look, it’s how good your clothes look ON YOU. For more on this, check out our article on dressing yourself from the inside out. Not to oversell it, but it will drastically change the way you see the world!
Hello.
What are the rules for matching textures? For example. I have a pair of textured weave dress pants. Does the blazer have to have the same texture or stitching?
Thanks.
Jon, the Unsuit is its own rule-breaking category of clothing. Most of the looks in this article are a mix of plain and textured weaves. We’re huge proponents of contrasting textures whether it be herringbone pants and a knit tie, or throwing a two-toned chambray shirt into the mix. Play away.
Hey, I found a pair of awesome teal dress pants, it’s not that crazy of a color/shade( it’s not navy but it is acceptable I’m my point of view) , but it distinctive and “pretty”. Should I buy it, if I did what should I match it with, all I could think of is white shirt with tassel loafers. I also found pinstripe light navy pants, what would I match those with ( jackets ).
These are all questions we can’t answer for you, Amr. There are so many factors that go into your purchases, from style to budget to fabrics to quality of construction to how they fit into your current wardrobe, to wear you plan to wear them, etc.
The most important thing, though, most guys don’t even consider: how well do these clothes match you. It’s the secret to dressing with style. Well-dressed men aren’t masters of matching clothes to other clothes. They’re masters of matching clothes to the wearer. What looks good on you may look awful on someone else and vice versa. It’s so simple, yet so many guys get all hung up on what the clothes look like together on some guy in a magazine who looks nothing like them or some mannequin in a store. Instead, we all need to learn to dress from the inside out. If you understand what colors and color combinations and patterns and cuts look good on you, you’ll never have to wonder should I add this to my wardrobe? Dressing from the inside out is such a big deal we devoted a whole article to it that we highly recommend: How to Choose Your Clothes: Mastering Men’s Fashion From the Inside Out.
Now, armed with that knowledge, you tell us, do teal dress pants work with your coloring and your existing wardrobe? If so that’s a start. Then you’ll have to consider versatility. Wear those standout teal pants once a week and they start to lose their uniqueness. It may be better to have some basic blues and grays and tans before going out for a spin around the less versatile portions of the color wheel. As for pinstripe pants, we suggest wearing them with the matching jacket to keep the clean lines of the pinstripes going all the way up and down.
i have a black textured suit, but i dont have any pants to pair it up with. i have a red plain lovely tie and a plain dark navy blue tie too and a brogues brown shoes and a white shirt. i dont know what colour of pants i need to buy.
We’ll assume you meant you have a black textured jacket. (If you had the full suit, you wouldn’t need pants.) In that case, you’re looking for what to wear with a black blazer. Don’t listen to the myths about black. It doesn’t “go with everything” like people say it does. It’s actually pretty limiting as a blazer. Gray pants are the way to go. Any strong colors are going to create too jarring of a contrast with a black jacket and any earthtones will make for a strange combination.
Also, the reast of your wardrobe doesn’t really lend itself to wearing black. For instance, you mentioned brown shoes, but those would not look good with a black jacket. And while we said that strong colors are jarring against black, too dark colors, like a navy tie, create a mushy low contrast look. Our advice is to stick with shades of gray when you wear this black jacket but to only wear this jacket sparingly and go with a more versatile blazer in blue or gray, like any of these.
How would a charcoal pants and jacket ,pink blazer and light blue shirt look
We’d suggest switching the shirt to white for this look, Pam. Gray and pink make for a strong color combination, but the blue shirt sounds like an unnecessary addition of color. Make the shirt white and there won’t be any competing for the spotlight in this outfit. The jacket will be the star of the show.
Super dark nearly black navy blue coat. Light gray inner polo. Black tie. not so dark gray pants (yet not so iight). Thoughts? Or is it better if I’ll use black pants instead? Thanks!
Your blazer and pants combination sounds like a good match. We suggest you stick with the dark-ish gray pants. We are a little concerned with what you mean by a “light gray inner polo” paired with a black tie. In no situation do we think you should wear a polo shirt with a tie. The light gray color is OK, but it should be in dress shirt form if you’re going to wear a tie on top of it.
Hey, I have a black jacket, a white shirt and grey pants…I also have black and blue pants. Can I mix a black jacket with grey pants or I should just stick to black on black.
Yes! A black jacket with gray pants is a great match and this color combination is typically more flattering to most skin tones than black on black is.
Just purchased a silver sports jacket with black slacks for my daughter’s wedding rehearsal dinner. What color shirt would match best? I will wear an open collar shirt with no tie.
An outfit is made of pieces, a jacket, pants, a shirt, a pocket square, a pair of socks, shoes etc. But think of an outfit less like a jigsaw puzzle (there is no “perfect” shirt color for this outfit) and more like a collage where the parts come together to make a piece of art. In this case, think about what this collage needs. Right now it’s all black and gray. Sounds like it needs a splash of color. How much color? That depends on how you look. If you’ve got some coloring in your face/hair that can be echoed in your outfit, that’s a start. Say you’ve got light blue eyes. Then a light blue dress shirt would be the way to go. Darker blue? Try a darker blue shirt. Or if you’ve got an auburn tint to your hair then a shirt with reddish tones would be in order. Got jet black hair? Try a shirt with some black in it. If you’re low on contrast and color, or just don’t want to add this much color to your outfit, there’s always the timeless white dress shirt option. If you go that route, just add a pocket square with some color in it (again, echoing some of your own coloring) just to give this look an accent.
We’ve given you plenty to consider here, but the main idea is still simple, look to yourself, for color inspirations, then put together your outfits.
I have a very dark navy sport coat. I would like it pair it with a white shirt and blue pants. I know what you’re thinking – navy sportcoat with blue plants doesn’t work. I need advice though, as I have read that as long as your pants are not too close of a color match, that the blue trousers could be acceptable. In my case, the blazer is a very dark navy, almost black, and the pants are a medium-blue. There is a high color differentiation and no chance that someone might think I was trying to unduly make a navy suit out of the pairing. Could this work? If so, what type of ties would go well with the outfit? Neither the blazer nor the pants are patterned.
What you describes is a tonal outfit and we’re all for it. Contrast is the key component. You can dial up the contrast like we did with this Light Blue Gray Sharkskin jacket and Navy Blue Pants combo or this Charcoal Gray Blazer and Gray Pants combo. Or, you can go with more subtle differences in contrast like this Persian Blue Herringbone Blazer and Navy Pants outfit or this Medium Gray Blazer and Charcoal Gray Pants outfit.
As for a tie to work with your blue-on-blue tonal outfit we recommend sticking with the blue color family but changing up some other element of the tie. How? We like a knit tie for the job. The textural contrast with all of the smooth worsted wool provides the right amount of visual difference. You can go with a solid navy blue knit tie for a truly minimalist approach or a striped tie that echoes the two tones of blue in the rest of the outfit like this navy knit tie with light blue stripes or this blue striped knit tie that has three different shades of blue in it.
So we’ve given you plenty to chew on there, Derrik, but you’re on the right track.
Hi, am a 48 yrs man with height of 168cms, weight around 68 kg, black hair, brown (near to black) eyes, skin color Tan. Could you please suggest me 5-6 combinations of blazers+pants+shirts+ties with regard to colors for my office. I have my own office for academic/competitive exam guidance. Thank you so much in anticipation. Warm Regards, Anil
Sounds like you’re looking for some personal styling, Anil. The way we see it, you’ve got two options:
While we don’t provide a full personal styling service via the comments of our publication, we do provide hundreds of articles in our publication to help you style yourself. So first, we encourage you to, if you haven’t already, subscribe to our mailing list. Next, we recommend reading the How to Choose Your Clothes article, which gives you some basic rules to follow whenever you’re putting together an outfit. Then we suggest reading our wardrobe building articles like How to Build a Shirt Wardrobe With Only Two Colors and How to Build a Suit. Finally, check out some of the articles on putting together outfits like our Suit and Tie Combinations for All Seasons and Blue Suit Combinations for Every Occasion.
Armed with the knowledge we provide here, you’ll be ready to build a closet full of versatile and timelessly stylish outfits.
Thank you so much for your helpful suggestions. I really appreciate it. Have a great day ahead. Thanks again.
What color jacket can i wear with brown slacks?
Since brown is an earthtone you can stay in that family of colors with a tan/khaki jacket. We pair the Bowery Tan Windowpane Custom Blazer with brown slacks.
Blues also work well with brown. We paired the Hudson Navy Windowpane Custom Blazer with caramel toned chinos when we photographed it but this jacket would also work with darker brown slacks, as would other lighter blues.
Brown is neutral enough to go with lots of colors. About the only jacket we wouldn’t recommend wearing with brown pants is black.
Black blazer, dark navy pants, white shirt, and brown shoes. Thoughts?
The black blazer is the misfit in this outfit. Why? For one, the combination of dark navy pants and a black jacket provides no contrast. It’ll look like you meant to put on a black suit but grabbed the wrong pants. And a black blazer with brown shoes is a mismatch.
A jacket in just any other color would work as long as it’s a good shade or two lighter than the pants. That will give you the contrast you need to bring this look to life. For inspiration, take a look at our page of blazers. You’ll see a lot of outfits built on a navy pants and brown shoes combo like yours. Sometimes the difference between the jacket and pants is subtle, sometimes it’s more stark, but there’s always some contrast and you’ll see how that one touch works wonders for an outfit.
I have a navy blue suit, is it possible to use the jacket from that to go with the first look on here? I just heard there’s a difference in suit blazers and blazers so I wasn’t sure
You can use a navy blue jacket to recreate the first look above. In fact, we did it for you when we shot our Navy Blue Custom Blazer with the same pants.
As for the difference between a blazer and a suit jacket. The blazer and the suit are two branches of the same tree, men’s tailored jackets. There was a time when blazers were distinctly different from suit jackets but these days the two branches have, for the most part, grown back together and suit jackets are commonly worn separate from their matching pants.
I have a butter colour with black label and light ash pant and lailac shirt. Can I combine these?
Can you? Sure. Should you? That’s a different story.
As we’ve noted in many of the comments below, the question is not what color clothes go with what other color of clothes. It’s what combination of colors and contrasts looks good on you. It sounds like a lot of colors going into this one so we would probably caution you against it, but since we don’t know what you look like, we can’t say with any certainty whether this outfit will look good on you. There’s an easy way to find out, though: try it on. If you look in the mirror and you don’t feel confident about what you see looking back at you, change clothes. If you don’t feel confident it doesn’t matter what you’re wearing, people will smell it on you like dogs smell fear. Confidence, on the other hand, goes with everything.
I have black, grey, light grey, and tan pants for work am adding a white shirt and various ties. I need a sport coat to pretty much go with all of it . What recommendations do you have ?
You’ve got a good collection of neutral pants and white shirts, so you can wear just about any color of jacket you want. But the real question isn’t what jacket looks good with those pants, but what jacket looks good on you. That’s what separates the well-dressed from the rest. They don’t fret over their clothing colors matching, they just wear what looks good on them.
Of course, we don’t have the tools to tell you what looks good on you. We don’t even know what you look like. But the answer is looking back at you in the mirror. Use your own coloring (your skin tone, hair color, eyes, etc.) as a guide. That’s what we call dressing from the inside out and it’s really easy to do. That’s why we devoted a whole article to the topic, which we highly recommend: How to Choose Your Clothes: Mastering Men’s Fashion From the Inside Out. There you’ll see that matching your jacket colors and to the tone and shade of your hair will instantly bring your look to life.
I’ve got a velvet cream colored blazer,I need to know the perfect match for it…shirt color,trouser color nd my shoes…
With a neutral colored item like a cream blazer, you can wear just about any other color you want with it. We can’t tell you the answer to your question because we don’t have any idea what you look like, or what colors look good on you. But there is hope. The answers you seek are looking back at you in the mirror. Understanding what colors and combinations work for you is easy. It starts with understanding your own coloring and contrast. We call this dressing from the inside out and we’ve created a primer on how to do it called How to Choose Your Clothes – Mastering Men’s Fashion From the Inside Out. Give that article a look and you’ll have that perfect pairing you’re looking for in no time.
My husband (age 72) will be attending an afternoon wedding…..will be wearing his new burgundy blazer(his preference) and needs help pulling a look together. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated !
A burgundy blazer, huh? That sounds great. We approve!
The trick to putting together an outfit is less about making sure the clothes match each other and more about making sure they match the man. With that in mind, we’ve got several suggestions:
We know we gave you a lot to consider here, but we know it’ll prove helpful. Here’s to knocking ’em dead when you show up at the wedding!
I have a university dinner tomorrow night. I have decided to wear a black blazer with a light blue dress shirt and off white trousers.
I am still confused whether should I go with the off white trouser or not.
Kindly reply. Thanks in advance !!
Hi, Khabeer. We aren’t sure about the off-white trousers either. Not because they won’t look good with your light blue dress shirt, but because of your black blazer. Black and white go together, well, like black and white. Things can get tricky once another color is thrown into the mix though. How about keeping this a two-toned outfit? If you have a white dress shirt (which we think you should), you should pair that with your black blazer and off-white trousers. Then we say yes to the off-white trousers! Enjoy your dinner.
i have a solid black trousers and a white shirt and iwould like to know with what coulous of jacket and tie to match?
thank you.
Black and white are neutral. In fact, they’re not even colors at all. So there’s really nothing to match with and any colored jacket and tie can work. Or you could not add any colors and simply go with shades of gray for the jacket and tie for a monochromatic look.
So what’s our recommendation? Don’t worry about matching the colors of your clothes. Instead, focus on matching your clothes to you. That’s the trick to dressing well. We can’t say, without having a good look at you, what colors will look good on you but you can. You just need to look in the mirror. The key is to look at your own coloring and the contrast between your hair and skin tone. It sounds complicated but it’s really not. We call it dressing from the inside out and we wrote a whole article about how to do it. It’s required reading for any man who wants to understand what clothing colors to buy/wear. Check it out here: How to Choose Your Clothes: Mastering Men’s Fashion From the Inside Out.
I have maroon pants with a little white check on it. And i have a black coat with it. Can you please guide me with shirt and tie combination which will go perfect with it.
Without any idea what you look like we can only offer recommendations that go together with your clothes. Go with a white shirt and a tie that incorporates dark red and black, like this one.
Now, we’ll warn you, thi combinations may not look great on you. The answer to what looks good on you is not going to be in the comments section of any website but it will be there every time you look in the mirror. When choosing color combinations, making sure your clothes match you is many times more important than trying to match clothes to other clothes. We call that dressing from the inside out and we’ve written about it extensively here on The Compass in our article: How to Choose Your Clothes – Mastering Men’s Fashion From the Inside Out, which is recommended reading for any man who wants to dress better.
i have a shiny silver blazer and i need to know what are the best matching pants for it
Woah, a shiny silver blazer? We imagine you have exciting places and events to wear this to. While we don’t have much experience with shiny silver blazers, we recommend wearing black or very dark gray pants to match your blazer.
Just purchased a light lavender sports coat , wanted to wear jeans but am unsure Jean color as well as shoes and shirt , thinking white shirt with baby blue accents already in my closet and darker blue jeans but not quite indigo as suggested, brown shoes
Have a little more faith in your outfit building skills, Matt! We would’ve recommended something quite similar to what you were thinking about wearing here. Darker blue jeans are always a good idea and definitely stay away from indigo as that color usually incorporates purple undertones. Brown shoes pair well with dark blue jeans and the white shirt you mention. Speaking of your white shirt, the baby blue accents shouldn’t be a problem as long as your shirt is primarily white. Otherwise, this sounds like a great spring/summer casual outfit.
I going to a wedding, so i have a red chino and a beige linen blazer, so what must follow next with regards to shirt color, cravat color and shoes color ?
In regards to shirt color, we recommend a white button-down shirt to keep things crisp and clean. You should definitely wear brown shoes to compliment your beige blazer, but a light or dark brown shoe color will both work. As for cravat color, we foresee a lightly-colored (perhaps light pink or red), subtly-patterned cravat looking really good with this wedding ensemble.
Thanks you guys are the best !!!
I’ve got a wedding to attend in the evening. I can’t be wearing a tuxedo as it’ll be OTT because the wedding isn’t of a closer one.
I’m thinking of a more smart-casual look with a slim-fit chino and a slim-fit blazer. However extremely confused in the choice of colours and not sure what to go for. Would really appreciate if you could please throw in some ideas and/or combinations.. oh and also the choice of shoes?
Looking forward to your feedback..
Cheerios
Matching your clothing colors to each other is really quite simple. The above examples are all two-color combinations. In look one it’s got shades of blue and shades of red. In look two it’s shades of blue and shades of brown. In look three it’s shades of red and shades of brown. Don’t overcomplicate it. Pick two colors that work with your own coloring and repeat them throughout your outfit. Do they have to be exact matches? No, in fact, exact tone is a sure sign of a style amateur. The pros know that staying in the same color family is all it takes to make a look hold together. Follow these simple guidelines and your looks will always be cohesive.
I am going to a gala and want to wear my brown velvet jacket. What is a good combination I can put together?
I also have a black velvet jacket that I want to wear to another event. What is a good combination I can put together?
A gala always requires black tie. They’re fancy-schmancy. That being said, we couldn’t approve more of your choice to go with a velvet dinner jacket. You can see how we’ve put together a gala-appropriate look here (minus the velvet). You should wear black tuxedo pants, a white tuxedo shirt, and a black bow tie to match your dinner jacket. This is what we mean by a “black tie” combination. As for your other event, you should stick to a similar, classic black tie combination. Again, we recommend black tuxedo pants, a white tuxedo shirt, and a black bow tie. Enjoy your events, Keith.
I have got a desert or rather gold color sleeveless cotton jacket and my skin complexion is fair white. What color cotton shirt and trouser should I go ahead with.
appreciate your help…
That jacket (or is it a vest?) is a neutral color so you can pick just about any color of shirt and pants to wear with it. The trick is to pick clothes that work with you first and each other second. We can’t do that for you, but we can do the next best thing: teach you how to do it for yourself. So get yourself in front of a mirror and take a look at our article on How to Choose Your Clothes: Mastering Men’s Fashion From the Inside Out. There you’ll see some very easy guidelines for choosing colors that work for you.
Would like your thoughts on a shirt color that would go with a cream blazer and chocolate slacks. I’m going to a grandson’s college graduation and want to wear a colored, open neck shirt. White is the obvious; wondering if a color might be a nice option
We can tell you that creamy and chocolatey earth tones will be likely to pair up nicely with cool blues, so we’d start with a blue dress shirt regardless of what you look like, but the color should be a color that works well on you. What color is that? Without knowing what you look like we can’t say, but we can guide you on how to spot it yourself. Check out our article on How to Choose Your Clothes: Mastering Men’s Fashion From the Inside Out. There you’ll see that picking colors isn’t that hard as long as you know what to look for in the mirror.
I’m an active 78 year old whose standard is a blue blazer, white shirt , kakis and highly polished penny loafers. As such , my cream / chocolate ensemble need guidance when it comes to compatible shirt colors. Thanks
Your standard outfit, the blue blazer, white shirt, khaki pants and penny loafers is a classic.
When you switch to the cream/chocolate ensemble, a solid light blue shirt is the classic choice.
As we said earlier, your best bet is to understand what colors work for you, but you won’t go wrong with blue.
I am planning on wearing gray dress pants with a navy jacket for a wedding in a couple of weeks. What are your thoughts on a light purple gingham vs light blue gingham style shirt, and what color and style of tie would work best? Thanks for your advice.
Gingham gives you a more relaxed look. That may be just what you’re going for in this separates outfit, but just wanted to be sure we pointed that out. As for which color to wear, often we receive requests for advice on what color clothes match each other and our answer is always the same: it’s pretty much irrelevant. How well your clothes match each other is of minor importance compared to how well your clothes match you. If blue looks better on you, light blue is the way to go, if light purple works for you, then that’s the one to wear. This is what we call dressing from the inside out and it’s simply our way of reminding guys that it’s you wearing the clothes, not the clothes wearing you.
“So,” you say, “that’s all well and good but it doesn’t answer my question.” The answer, however is looking back at you in the mirror. You just need to know what to look for. That’s why we wrote our How to Choose Your Clothes: Mastering Men’s Fashion From the Inside Out article. There you’ll see the basics of choosing the right colors for you and how to match your clothes to your face for maxmimum effect. We highly recommend giving it a read. Not to oversell it, but it’ll change your life.
i have got a beige blazer, a white denim and a white tee and my skin tone is dark! wil that make a perfect pair?? on the other hand i have a denim blue washed shirt and a blue jean for the beige coat! what pair can i opt for a party?
Your best best, Naveen is to put both outfits on and look in the mirror at each and decide from there. Without seeing it on you, we can give a general recommendation, the second option is a bit stronger contrast and may work better on a dark-skinned gent. Still, it’s more important that your clothes look good on you than if they match each other, so trust what you see in the mirror.
I have a blazer combination of two colors i.e. black and dark red(near to maroon). plese suggest me the colour of trouser i should wear with the blazer. and also the colour of the t-shirt or shirt(if u recomend) i should wear under the blazer. Plz help me out
Sure, we’ll help you out Ujjwal. Let’s start with the black blazer. If you’re wearing your black blazer, you can match it with gray pants (in any shade) or a pair of black pants. With either of these pants and blazer combinations, you should opt for a white, gray, or light blue dress shirt. As for your dark red/maroon blazer, you could also wear this with black pants. These are very saturated colors, so we wouldn’t recommend adding another color into the mix with the shirt you wear. A nice, black t-shirt is probably best fitted for this outfit—a casual but cool look. Hope this helps!
Hello. I’m on a cruise in the Bahamas and have a creme colored sport coat with flecks of khaki. Can I go with a baby blue shirt, dark navy pocket square and either khaki pants or navy. Thanks
Wow Rob, that might be the most specific situation anybody’s ever asked us about. Kind of makes us feel like we need to be super specific in our answer like “If you’re stopping in Freeport go with the navy pants, but if you’re going to Nassau you’ve got to wear khaki pants.”
Actually, the truth is both pairs of pants will work. The whole outfit sounds good. We especially appreciate the rarely seen dark pocket square on light jacket combo. In fact, it’s because of that pocket square that we are swayed to recommend the navy pants. They’ll tie the whole look together and make for a cohesive unit.
Hope this helps. Next time, feel free to send your question by mail, handwritten on the back of a ticket on the next cruise to the Bahamas.
I have a blue coat and a white shirt. What color of pant do you think can match with them.
Anything goes with that combination, Godswill, but start with the basics, khaki and light gray are both classic pants colors that pair with blue jackets.
As for rules which shade of pants, that depends on a few things (how dark is your blue jacket, your personal preference in colors, etc.) but one rule of thumb is, if you’re tall, you can go with a high contrast combination, like a navy blue jacket and light gray pants. If you’re on the shorter side, go with less contrast like a navy blue jacket and dark gray pants.
So I have already bought a dull blue(sort of) blazer and a black shirt and I’m thinking light grey pants. Any suggestions?
A blue blazer and light gray pants is one of our favorite combinations (you’ll see that pairing in our Unsuits collection here and here and here and here, hey, we said it was one of our favorite cobmos). So no objections there.
One thing you’ll notice, though, in all of those examples is that there are no black shirts in any of those outfits. We think black shirts are fine for casual evening affairs, but we don’t recommend for other occassions. Instead, stock up on white and blue shirts and wear them with this jacket and pants combination.
Hi,
Currently in my collection I have a charcoal suit that has been worn almost to every wedding for the past 4 years. I have a light blue blazer that I don’t wear that often. I have a pair of light grey trousers that I want to make use out of and also for the record I have a dark skin tone. I am looking to purchase a blazer to go with the trousers. Please help. 😀
Since light gray trousers are neutral, just about any color of blazer will go with them. But matching your clothes to each other doesn’t guarantee you’ll look good in them. Stylish men know that matching your clothes to yourself is the trick. That means choosing colors that work with your coloring, and patterns and textures that work with your body and personal style. If you fill your closet with clothes that fit these criteria you won’t have any problem making stylish outfits. How do you learn to do that? Check out our story on How to Choose Clothes: Mastering Men’s Fashion From the Inside Out. It will not provide you with easy answers (there aren’t any), but rather a simple way to figure out what to add to your wardrobe by understanding what works for you.
I have a light gray blazer and blue navy pants, what color of shirt, tie and shoes can i match it with?
Without getting a good look at you and knowing what’s in your closet and knowing your tastes, it’s impossible for us to give you a strong recommendation, Erasmo. Of course, we can’t look at every individual who leaves a comment on our articles or we’d be spend all our time going over photos of the over 100 guys who have left a comment on this article alone (not to mention the 300 other articles, each with their own comments section that we’ve published). Actually, we do want to mention those articles. One in particular, where we break down how to look at yourself in the mirror and build an outfit that works with your skin tone, hair color and unique features. That article is called How to Choose Your Clothes: Mastering Men’s Fashion From the Inside Out and we highly recommend giving it a read. It’s all about how the key to dressing well is not matching your clothes to each other, but matching them to yourself.
I am going to a beach wedding and want to pair a blue linen blazer, with lighter blue linen pants…is this ok or a fashion disaster?
Absolutely not! In fact, we sell a suit very similar to what you’re describing. Check it out here. We’re happy to say you couldn’t have made a better beach wedding suit choice 🙂
I have silver white tie… And i want perfect color for prty please suggest me
Sorry, Arjun, we’re at a loss for what you’re looking for here. This story is about matching blazers and pants, so if you’re looking for more general guidelines on color combination, check out another story of ours—Mastering Men’s Fashion From The Inside Out.
Finishing professional school and seemingly a third of my classmates are getting married…
I have a pair of black and dark gray herringbone suits that get the job done season in and season out. However since most of the weddings will be frequented by the same people, I was hoping to add some variability and versatility that can last me until I get out from my loans.
With that background, what two jacket/pants color combinations would you suggest for modern spring/early summer weddings…
Ah yes, you’re of the age now that every time you log onto Facebook you’re going to see a new engagement post. But, never fear, weddings are a grand old time and we’ve got tons of content on what to wear to them. Based off the two suits you own, here’s what we’ve got for you:
1.) Wear your full dark gray herringbone suit. Since a dark gray suit can throw off business-y vibes, try going tie-less. Pair the suit with a light blue dress shirt, patterned or plain, and a fun pocket square if you have one.
2.) Wear your black pants and dark gray herringbone jacket. You don’t want to wear the full black suit because there’s a chance you could match the groom, groomsmen or worse, the wait staff. Wearing suit separates leaves you capacity to wear a spring-appropriate tie against a white dress shirt for good contrast.
Enjoy the weddings! Who knows, maybe you’ll be next out of your friends…
I have a grey/brown wool blazer and I’m just wondering what would be the most suitable pants colour to go with this blazer? Thanks
We typically like the pair this color blazer—which we call Charcoal Brown—with medium to dark blue pants. You can check out this outfit for inspiration, or take a look a these Blue Gray Birdseye pants for a more interested match-up than, say, a pair of navy blue pants.
i have my annual day on this saturday!
so i’ve bought myself a dark purple blazer
so my question is what kind of shoes fit my outfit?
please reply ASAP! 🙂
TIA 🙂
Simple tip, match your shoes to the buttons of the jacket. If they’re black, wear black shoes. If they’re brown, brown shoes.
Hello. Next month we will have our “Gatsby” theme graduation night. Ive grey wool blazer. Do you have any suggestion on the colour combination of pants and shirt. Thanks in advance
Hello, Justin. It seems you’ve landed on the wrong post! Check out this guide on How to Suit Up Like Gatsby.
What color pants with you pair with a purple sportcoat?
Wow, purple, huh? That’s a bold move. We say tone it down with the pants and go with light gray. The last thing this outfit needs is another color. Keep it simple, Gary.
Can you pair a different coat with a navy vest and navy trouser combination?
Certainly! We’re big fans of re-imagining the classic 3-piece suit. In fact, we even wrote a story about it.
I have maroon blazer and white shirt which color of formal/trouser is looks good with it for my cousins wedding. is Polo fit or balloon fit trouser looks good with it??
Balloon fit trousers have an inherently relaxed, casual fit and therefore probably aren’t appropriate for a formal affair such as a wedding. We would recommend slim fit trousers in black or a pair of dark gray pants.
I have a pink pant. What colour of blazers or jacket can i wear with and also can a black shoe go?
We wouldn’t recommend black shoes, you don’t want to start looking all Victoria’s Secret-y. You’re safer with shoes in about any shade of brown. As for blazer color, a mid to light blue is good with pink. Check out our Rivington Blazer. If you want something lighter, we have khaki and tan colored blazers that are light in color and made with lightweight fabric for the perfect summer outfit.
Pink pants (we’re assuming you’re talking about chinos) are a preppy stalwart. You see them with navy blue blazers (complete with classic gold buttons) and white oxford cloth, button-down color shirts all summer in places like Cape Cod, The Upper East Side of Manhattan and yacht clubs everywhere. None of those guys wear them with black shoes, though. Most often, you’ll find them rocking driving loafers or boat shoes in shades of brown or blue.
hi guys,
what do you guys think of a dark gray jacket, pink shirt, and light khakis?
Gray and light khaki can make for an interesting combination, but you’ve got to have a light touch with both colors and a dark gray jacket will likely throw off the balance. Gray is from the stone family of tones, khaki is from the earth tones. Generally speaking it’s best to stick with one or the other set of tones. So make the pants light gray instead of light khaki and you’ll have a well put together look that’ll highlight the pink shirt and draw attention up to your face instead of down to your legs.
Hello Sir. I am having my 50th birthday and am planning to get a brown blazer and tan shoes. I have a beard n stocky. Please advice a trouser or jeans would be nice and which colour. Also which could should I wear.
Hello St. Ignati(o)us, I could’ve sworn you were turning 525, but if you say 50 then we’ll go with that 😉 Anyways if you’re planning a casual birthday, you can opt for dark blue, well-fitting jeans. If it’s more informal than casual, you could wear khaki or navy colored chinos. If you want to dress up to ring in the big 5-0, you could wear suit pants/trousers in almost any shade of blue. Happy birthday!
I have black blazer and white shirt which color of jeans is looks good with it for my cousins wedding,but i’m of dark shade
We always recommend a shade of dark blue jeans, no matter what your personal shade is. Dark blue jeans are naturally more flattering, presentable, and more mature looking. You could even wear black jeans if you want to look more formal and black jeans would complement your dark skin tone as well.
I have a black blazer and black trouser set. But I don’t want to wear Black trousers with the Blazer. What other color pants can I wear with this blazer?
I was thinking of cream/beige pants with white shirt. Tan belt and Tan shoes. But will the black blazer look good with it?
Do you mean….a black suit? (lol) Anyways, we agree with your sentiments on not wearing the two together. You can wear cream/beige pants with this blazer, but just be aware that this is more of a casual look. If you want to look a little more professional or formal, opt for a pants in a medium to light gray.
What color trousers, shirt, and tie will match up well with a camel blazer? I have been looking at black or dark grey trousers, and have blue, pink, and white shirts to pick from. I really get hung up on the tie. Any suggestions?
We’re thinking your camel blazer worn with dark gray trousers and a white shirt will look best. Our tie preference is navy blue or a lighter shade of gray than your trousers—camel isn’t the easiest color to pull off so don’t get carried away by mixing too many other colors with it.
I have worn light grey pants, navy jacket, light blue shirt with a navy and pink plaid tie to a couple of weddings and have received many compliments. I really like my jacket and grey pants, what other shirt & ties would work well with those?
How about reversing the roles of your original shirt and tie combination? You could wear a bolder shirt like this or this, and let the tie take more of a back seat. Check out some of the subtly patterned, blue knit ties here. Knit ties are inherently more playful and good for a wedding.
sir I have black blazer with greyish lapel what would you
reccomend about the pant ,shirt and tie combinations with this blazer
.please also suggest combination with jeans pants and casual shirt….
Thank you sir!
For the more formal approach to this blazer, we recommend a solid white shirt, light gray suit pants, and perhaps this maroon knit tie. As for the casual approach, we’re going to suggest you wear dark wash jeans and we think this Black & Wine Gingham would work perfectly. You shouldn’t try to pull off too many colors with such a strong blazer, so sticking within the black/white/gray color family is smart and then pick one accent color to keep it interesting!
I have a charcoal three piece suit that I recently bought. Unfortunately I managed to get a couple stains on the slacks and after dry cleaning them they were not able to get them out. I have a formal to go to this weekend and was wondering if I could pair the jacket with a pair of black slacks or some other color. also based on this decision what color shirt should I wear?
Sorry we weren’t able to get back to you in time for this wedding (got a company to run)! Just FYI, a formal wedding means “black tie optional” so a sharp suit and tie combination is still acceptable. Check out this story for more rules on wedding dress code.
I have a dark grey (charcoal) jacket with a very subtle black pattern (not sure what to call it). Anyways, I’d like to go with a black shirt underneath but I’m not sure what color pants to go with. Suggestions?
As soon as you choose to wear a black shirt, you’re decreasing your range of options. We suggest more dark gray, light gray, or black pants to go with this shirt and jacket combination.
I’m wearing a black sport coat, white shirt, charcoal grey pants. What color tie should I go for here?
Since everything is monochromatic in this outfit, any color tie would work. The trick is that it should be muted. A bright, saturated tie against a black and white outfit would be too strong and steamroll your whole look. Suddenly everybody will be looking at your tie instead of at your face. So if you want to add a color, go with a dark, muted one like marooon.
Or, make things really easy on yourself and just follow this outfit’s coloring to its logical conclusion, a gray tie like this Charcoal Lavender Striped Tie. Not only is it an easy match, but it’ll work with tons of other stuff in your closet.
Thank you immensely!
Anytime, Anthony!
I have a black pant and a dark green pant.There is a formal get together i have to attend. Can you help me with the Blazer and Shirt combination both with the black pant and the dark green one??
It’s really more a matter of what looks good with your coloring than what looks good with your pants color, Aman. As we highlighted in our story on Mastering Men’s Fashion From the Inside Out, there are some simple guidelines that every man can follow every time he gets dressed that will pretty much guarantee his clothes match. So our first bit of advice is to check out that article.
With that said, we can offer an example of a jacket and shirt that looked good on one of our models with black pants. It’s the Gray Birdseye Blazer which we styled with black chinos and a Black and Wine Gingham Shirt. This came off really well on this model and might work for you too.
What colour of tie,blazer and pants will match with peach pink shirt?or what should i wear for peach pink theme?i dont want to wear white or cream coloured pants as it might get dirty
Did you look at the photo in Look 3 above, Cal? We really like that tie, blazer and pants with a pink shirt. Alternatively, check out how we styled this Navy Blue Unsuit with a pink shirt for maximum effect.
These looks both work on this model, but to understand what truly works for you, we’d advise taking a look in the mirror. As we highlighted in our article on Mastering Men’s Fashion from the Inside Out, it’s more important to match the colors of your clothes to the colors of your face and hair than it is to match the clothes to each other, so we suggest giving that a read before going too deep into color matching.
An excellent article!
I am planning on wearing a blue blazer with dark grey or light grey chinos. Should I wear a white shirt or a light blue one? If I want to want to top it off with a tie, would you suggest it?
The answer, Abhi, is looking back at you when you look in the mirror. For some, a higher contrast white shirt on a blue blazer will highlight your features. Others would look better with a low contrast, blue shirt under a blue jacket. We can’t tell you which is best for you, but we can help you figure it out. Check out our story on dressing from the inside out. There we give you tips on how to choose colors that work with your skin and hair colors.
As for the tie, since everything you’ve described in the outfit so far is solid, we highly recommend a patterned tie. Preferably, you’d choose a tie that related to the blue and gray in your outfit, like this.
I want to wear a blazer on my engagement plz suggest me colour combinations of pant shirt with gray nd black blazer
Thnx
That’s an easy one, Niraj, white shirt, solid gray pants. Why? Everybody looks good in a white shirt and the rest of the outfit is neutral so it all works together and you’ll get plenty more use out of the pants and the shirt long after your engagement party.
I have black Coat. And Blue shirt.What will be good colour for my pant.Any suggestion?
Black is tough to pair with strong colors because the contrast of a bright color and the darkness of black can be jarring. Don’t make that mistake. Go with medium or light gray pants.
White shirt matching paint
Is there a question here Sharad?
I purchased a brown cotton jacket. Suggestion on the pant color?
Blue pants, Rahul. As we said in the section on brown above ” The neutral color combination works for just about any skin tone and hair color.”
i have anavy coloured mens jacket(wrangler), which colour trouser or denim suits best for my blazer for a party
The answer has more to do with how you look than what we think. If you’re a shorter guy, a pair of light blue pants or jeans is a good idea because they won’t split you in half like constrasting pants would. If you’re on the tall side, you can wear pants that contrast more with the color of your jacket like we did in the first look on this page with light gray pants.
I commonly wear a brown waistcoat with matching brown pants, and I’m wanting to put a jacket on top of this, but I can’t figure out what would look best. Would black work? Or should I go with a different color? Thanks
Black and brown is a really difficult pairing to pull off. It’s not impossible. As you can see from the first photos in our story on the Three-Piece Remix you can wear a brown waistcoat with a black jacket. The secret to pulling off that look was the waistcoat’s dark gray tones and the fact that there was a pattern on the waistcoat which gave us an accent color that we could play off of with the tie and pocket square.
Regardless of what color you go with, pattern is essential to pulling this look off. If you add a solid jacket to a pair of solid pants and a solid vest there’s nothing to tie the whole look together. Avoid this by going with a patterned jacket that has brown as either a base color (like this one) or as an accent color (like this one). These will keep things interesting and cohesive.
Got a spring wedding rehearsal dinner. Have a navy jacket and brown jacket. Wearing a navy jacket and khaki pants for the wedding so I wanted to go brown jacket for the dinner. What pants/shirt combo would you suggest??
Brown is a neutral so you can really wear any color pants you like with the exception of black (black and brown is very hard to pull off). We love the combination of brown and blue. Just make sure to give it some contrast. If the jacket is dark brown make sure the pants aren’t also really dark blue or the combination will look muddled. If the jacket is lighter, more towards tan/khaki, then light blue can work since the colors stay separated even in lighter hues, but dark blue pants will work too.
Now that that’s settled. Get to work on that toast, Matt!
Hi, My wedding is coming up very soon. the fabric design I really want is no longer available so I’m going for option B which is wearing an “Unsuit”. Question is I’m clueless. i don’t want a scenario where I look too casual for my own wedding.
Any preferable combinations for a Groom? I’m dark skinned by the way (hope this helps in color selection)
My colours for the big day are Purple and Yellow. so far I think I’m gonna be wearing a yellow lapel pin or flower of some sort and I’m thinking a rich dark purple cravat and pocket square. a white shirt for sure. just need to know what blazer and pant combo I should try.
Thank you.
Wearing an Unsuit at your wedding is unorthodox, but kind of cool (we think). While it’s risky, it’s also YOUR wedding so you should wear something that reflects your style, not what everybody else wants you to wear. So we’re on board with this idea.
Now, to pull off the Unsuit for your wedding idea, you’ll need to keep the look dressy or, as you suggested, you’ll look underdressed. To do that, keep the top and bottom in the same color family. The Charcoal Gray Unsuit, for instance, is classy and, because it’s gray, will balance out the colorful tie and pocket square. Just pair it with a white shirt and either black or dark brown shoes and you’re all set.
I AAM going to wear Red colour blazed place suggest paints-shirt colour combination.. Thanks
Anytime a large part of your body will be covered in red you’ve got to think long and hard about how much more color you want to add to the outfit. Our suggestion: none. Wear neutral pants and shirt colors like khaki pants and a white shirt. That will ensure that your jacket takes center stage and you don’t get the rainbow effect of wearing a bunch of strong colors.
I am going to wear a black chinese collar suit… and not able to decide which shirt and shoes to be wear with….please suggest..
That’s a little out of our expertise area, but there are some basic rules that we can offer for you to follow:
Easy, right Amar?
Hello, I have a tan linen blazer(more of light brownish). What color of trousers and shirts will go with this blaze
Anything but black will work. Actually, even black can work, it’s just really hard, especially with a lighter brown. Blue is a natural partner with brown (earth tones and water tones go well together). It really depends more on the situation. If you were planning on wearing this jacket casually we might suggest a pair of mid-blue jeans. If you were wearing it to the office in the summer, maybe we’d say blue linen pants. In the cooler weather, perhaps a heartier darker blue pair of pants would work. For a dressier look, maybe a pair of businesslike blue gray birdseye pants. The point is one size doesn’t fit all, but with a neutral jacket color like that, don’t let color clashing worry you. You almost can’t go wrong.
I have a pair of black and white check wool pants and I was wondering what color of blazer I could wear with them. Thank you for your help.
This is pretty much as neutral as they come. Anything goes. You could wear just about anything with these. The question to ask, James, is not what colors look good with these pants, it’s what colors look good on you.
The bad news about that is nobody sitting on the other end of a website answering comments is going to be able to answer that question for you. The good news is, the answers are staring right back at you every time you look in the mirror. Looking at your own skin and hair coloring and the features of your face, you can come up with the colors that work best for you. It’s called dressing from the inside out and we are big proponents of the idea. In fact, we’ve written an article with some tips to figuring out what works for you that’s built on the same principles. He highly recommend you check it out.
I have blue blazer with which trouser and shirt i should team it up in farewell party
Light gray pants and a white shirt (similar to Look 1 above) is always does the trick. Not rocket science, but it doesn’t need to be. Keep it simple and elegant.
hi i need some help. i am going to wear camel colour blazer with black shoes. can you please suggest me on pants and shirt colour? thank you very much
Since the jacket is camel colored, a white shirt is appropriately light and looks good on men of all types. As for the shoes, don’t wear black shoes with a camel colored blazer. A camel blazer cries out for brown shoes. Don’t ignore those cries. What shade should you wear? Use the buttons on the blazer as a guide. If they’re dark brown, wear dark brown shoes. If they’re lighter, wear lighter shoes.
For pants, the choice of colors is yours. Everything else in this outfit is neutral so you really can’t clash unless you go with black which, as we stated above, isn’t really appropriate with a camel colored blazer. The decision really comes down to your personal style and body type and where you intend to wear this outfit, but a medium or light blue pair of pants will do the trick. If it’s a casual setting, that may means blue jeans. If it’s business casual, that may mean chinos. If you want to class things up a bit, you might try blue slacks like these blue sharkskin pants.
Hi, I have a Light Grey Suit Jacket. Any suggestions for the pant color which can match with white shirt and tan loafers.
You can’t get any more neutral than a light gray jacket, white shirt and tan loafers, Gaurav. That leaves the door open to just about any color of pants you want. Of course, appropriateness comes first. Jeans might look great with this combo but you wouldn’t wear that to a job interview, say.
Without much to go on it’s hard for us to offer anything but the safest bet: navy blue pants. But don’t let that limit you. If it’s a casual summer wedding try something lighter like light blue linen-blend pants which look particularly good with light brown shoes. If it’s a fall business casual look, try an unexpected color combo and wear dark brown pants (which also look good with tan shoes).
The point is, you can’t go wrong with such a simple color combo (we mean “simple” as a compliment, we see too many guys trying to put together outlandish outfits when they should be dressing more simply like you’re suggesting). You’re on the right track, Gaurav.
I have a maroon jacket
Can you suggest pants, shoes, tie and shirt colours please, thank you.
(It’s supposed to be semi-formal or casual+formal mixed)
There are literally millions of combinations you could come up with if you start with only one garment, like a jacket. Instead of trying to create an entire wardrobe for you with no information, we suggest you check out our guide to matching shirts and ties where we give you step by step advice on how to come up with shirt and tie combinations that work. Follow those guidelines and you won’t go wrong.
Navy blue suit jacket with brown dress shoes. what color shirt and pants?
There are limitless choices with something as neutral as a navy blue jacket. Your best bet is to follow the first bit of advice we gave above and go with light gray pants. That jacket above has a subtle windowpane pattern, but the advice still applies. As for the shirt, a white one always does the trick, but the patterned one we featured above also works.
I have a bluish grey suit can you suggest me a shirt and pant to go along with it
Bluish-gray is color neutral so a crisp white dress shirt and either blue or gray pants is your smartest choice. Blue is the most versatile color in men wear and technically gray isn’t even a color at all, so this jacket won’t clash with most of your shirt and pants wardrobe, but when in doubt, go with a white shirt. It’s like the Wonderbra of menswear: it makes everyone look better.
I am going to wear mustard blazer. Please suggest shirt and trouser accordingly. Thanks in Advance
Your best bet is a white dress shirt to go under a mustard colored blazer. As for a pair of trousers, you could probably make a few things work. We think navy trousers pair nicely for a more high contrast look. For more subtlety, you could wear dark grayish/brown trousers to bring all the colors in this outfit together.
I have light red blazer which colour shirt and Jens/trousers suit best for party .
That’s kind of a two-part question, R.K. If you’re going with jeans, a medium wash blue would look good with a light red blazer. If you’re going with chinos or wool, however, we like light gray for the job. Gray is neutral so it won’t compete with the jacket color and because it’s light it won’t overpower the jacket’s lighter tone.
HI i have a dark grey blazer which colored pant and shirt would look good and also which color shoes black or brown ?
want to wear for a wedding ?
Hey there. We’re thinking a lighter gray pair of pants like these or a brighter blue pair like our royal blue fabric. To make sure you look like you’re going to a wedding and not the office, you can spice your shirt up a little bit. You could easily throw some purple into the mix and look festive for the event, or this royal blue micro check shirt. If you decide to add more gray to your look, we suggest wearing black shoes. But if you end up wearing blue pants, go for the brown shoes.
Hello. .. i have a camel colour blazer and white shirt…
suggest me any shirt…
Do you mean suggest you a shirt other than white? We rather like a white and camel color combination, but you could also wear a luxurious light blue shirt like such.
I am thinking of wearing gray pant with black shirt & black jacket just want to know its a right combination or not
We’re fans of wearing gray with black to keep your look cohesive. That said, you’ve got to be careful to differentiate them. Black and light gray is a nice high contrast look. Black with charcoal gray can just look like a muddy combination. So, to sum it up, our recommendation is to proceed with caution.
Love the article, what would you do with a brown velvet blazer?
Our short answer: it depends on the level of formality. We’re fans of a formal brown jacket & black pants look, but that’s a harder color combination to pull off in a more casual look. If we are going more casual, blue & brown is usually our go-to color combination. We’d definitely rock a pair of well-fitting, dark wash blue jeans with a brown velvet blazer with a crisp white shirt and simple accessories. Blue suit pants are an option too. Navy is an easy pick, so we may try something like these Charcoal Blue Pants. For something really unexpected, we may even try a pair of very dark burgundy pants for an opulent Victorian, winter look. Here’s a better question, what would you do? Take some pics and tag us on social media so we can see.
Hi! My husband and I have a wedding this weekend with the attire listed as “formal” . He only owns a navy blue blazer at the moment and is adamant about not buying a new one just for this event. I wasn’t thinking that khaki pants would be appropriate for an evening winter wedding “formal” look. I see photos online of navy blue blazers with black pants…but reading the comments here I see that that’s kinda “awkward” (and he even stated that it doesn’t go). Can you offer any help or guidance?
He’s a stubborn one, huh? No worries, we’ll give you some options. Khakis are barely appropriate for a summer formal wedding, so you’re right about them being inappropriate for this wedding. Sooo many guys struggle with what’s appropriate to wear to a wedding that we dedicated an entire story to decoding wedding dress code. If you check that out, you’ll see that a “formal” wedding typically also means the wedding is “black tie optional”. Since your husband only owns a navy blue blazer, black tie isn’t an option for him. Navy and black can work if both pieces are more formal, i.e. a dinner jacket and black suit/tuxedo pants. To give you an easy option, your husband could wear matching navy suit pants. Another option would be dark gray/charcoal suit pants. Hopefully this helps and you can convince your husband to pull off one of these looks!
I have a black blazer. Which colour tee and trouser/jeans would suit best.
You should use Look #1 above as a guide and pair your black blazer with a pair of light gray trousers. However if you want to wear jeans, we recommend going with black jeans. Keeping your color choices basic might be your best bet here, so maybe opt for a black, gray, or white tee.
Hello Team Black Lapel! Finally a place to get satisfied with the matters of Confused Separate Combinations as well!
I have got a Dark Blue Navy Blazzer (slim fit) with a black waistcoat to wear under it on a winter ceremony lowering with Ligh Charcoal Grey Slim Fit Trouser (cotton) Kindly let me know asap if this separate combination is gonna work or not! Plus do suggest if ammendments required and yes don’t forget to suggest a good shirt and tie along with the final separate combination!
You’re off to a good start with a navy blue blazer and gray pants. That’s a look we like enough to feature it as one of our Unsuits. Where your proposed outfit goes a little off is the black waistcoat. navy against black is a weak combination. We recommend going with a waistcoat that features blue and gray in a pattern. That way the waistcoat doesn’t interrupt but holds together your look.
As for recommending a shirt and tie color, obviously we like the combination we featured in the Unsuit we referred to above (pink shirt, and blue knit tie) but we can’t give you a strong recommendation without knowing what you look like. After all, it’s only minimally important how well your clothes match each other. It’s more important that they match you. Never fear, though, we’ve written down some of our secrets to picking colors that work for you in our story on dressing from the inside out. Not to oversell it, but check that article out and it will change your life.
I have a brown herringbone sport coat and a vest of identical material. They are meant to be sold separately, not as a part of a suit. Can you give any advice regarding the types of pants (and shirt and tie) I can match with them? Any advice is appreciated!
I’ve found some inspiration for your dilemma. Check out this guy rocking our Cobble Hill Blazer and Vest and a pair of Gray Pants. His look is a little more casual since he isn’t wearing a tie, but if you chose to pair your jacket and vest with gray pants, you could opt for a dark gray or blue tie. Here’s a bit of a different approach to wearing a brown jacket and vest with non-matching pants. With blue suit pants, you could definitely rock a tie in any other shade of blue. In both scenarios you’ll see a white shirt, which is probably your best bet with such a sophisticated combination. Now get to it!
To elaborate a little, my upper body would look something like this:
https://cdn.lookastic.com/looks/blazer-waistcoat-dress-shirt-tie-pocket-square-large-1796.jpg
(Sorry, don’t know how to embed links)
What would be a good pair of pants to match with this combination of jacket and waistcoat? I have a feeling that gray or blue pants might be a little difficult to pull off. Maybe khakis or chinos in a different (darker/lighter) shade of brown? Maybe a dark pair of jeans? Thanks!
Dark brown pants would work as well, as would dark jeans. You really can’t screw this one up. But don’t “have a feeling” gray or blue won’t work. Put on some gray or blue pants with it. The best way to figure out what looks good is to get dressed and look in the mirror. Try it before you knock it.
Hloo.. I need some help!! Can you plzz send me a picture of white coat,black pant,orange shirt,black tie,black turban
Sorry, Tanvir, we don’t do on-demand photo shoots. Are you wondering what the outfit will look like? We can tell you in one word: awful. Why? An orange shirt, a white jacket and black pants will make you look like a creamsicle gone horribly wrong. Don’t do it, Tanvir.
If orange is the idea, try an orange tie like this, or this with a dark blue suit like we did here. If black is the focus, check out our story on how to wear a black suit with style where we show you why not to wear black with strong, saturated colors like orange.
Hello good day. New Years is coming up and I have a wine colored blazer. What kind of undershirt, pants and shoes should I wear. Thank you
There are literally thousands of colors that won’t clash with a burgundy blazer. To recommend colors without any other information would be doing you a disservice. An outfit isn’t paint-by-the-numbers like that. What we recommend, instead, is that you take a look in the mirror and look for two things: contrast and color. The contrast between your hair and your skin should determine how much contrast you have in your outfit. If you’ve got a low-contrast face and you wear, say, a black and white checkered shirt, you can draw all of the attention away from your face, down to your shirt. The colors you have in your face, eyes and hair should be echoed in your clothes. So if you’ve got reddish tones to your skin or hair, they’ll be accentuated by the blazer.
Dressing for the colors and color combinations that work well with your coloring is ten times more important that matching your clothes to each other. For more on that, check out our story on how to dress from the inside out.
i hav a semi formal party. i hav thought of dressing up with a solid white shirt…i am a bit on the chubby side.. so it would be helpful if u could help me with the blazer colour,tie colour,trousers and shoe type and colours…and any other remarks..
Hmm…sounds like you’re looking for a total makeover. That’s not something that can be handled here in the comments section of our publication. To offer any meaningful advice we’d have to get a look at your face, hair and body type, know your style preferences, understand where else you intend to wear the clothing…the whole nine.
Fear not, while an individual style consultation might be too much for the comments, we do have a team of stylists to help you get the look you want. Use our concierge service by emailing us at concierge@blacklapel.com and a stylist will work with you one-on-one.
https://www.therealreal.com/products/men/mens-outerwear/blazers/mugler-wool-blazer-w-slash-tags-5
Great article. I have this speckled black blazer (link above) that I really love, but was wondering what color pants might be best with it? I was thinking along the lines of khaki… I have grey but the fabric is of lighter weight than the jacket and it’s my understanding that the fabric should be of similar weight.. Also, figured a white shirt beneath and a bright pocket square for some flair? Then it comes down to brown or black shoes? (leaning towards brown here with the khakis..) Guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
We’ve seen black and khaki gone wrong more ways than we can count. Black is in the achromatic family (whites, blacks and grays) while khaki is in the earthtone family (dark browns, tans, beiges, and some rusty reds and burnt oranges). Those two families are like the Capulets and the Montagues and too many guys try to put them together and end up with a look that is like Romeo and Juliet at the end of the play, dead.
Your solution is to go with gray pants that will pick up on the flecks from the jacket. Ditch the brightly colored pocket square in favor or one that is also in the achromatic family (aka white or gray) and go with black shoes and your whole look will be cohesive and stylish.
I have a peach coloured blazer and jeans which kind of shirt should i wear with it?
White. Don’t overthink it. A white shirt goes with everything and won’t make you look like a rainbow with a peach colored jacket and blue jeans. Keep it simple, Aman.
Thank God I found this link, I need some help…
I didn’t do research before purchasing my first blazer and went with black. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I have in mind black blazer, red V-neck, grey pants (they’re not too dark not to light) and black dress shoes. Green light or red flag?
Sorry we missed you before going on our holiday hiatus from comment replying, Omar. Nonetheless, we would have given you the green light. Despite our disdain for black and red combos, you get a pass on Christmas since these two colors feature prominently in St. Nick’s getup.
Give that blazer another whirl on New Year’s Eve, Omar (black is at its best at night) and in 2016, branch out into more forgiving colors and patterns for your blazers.
hi there i want a suggestion on a casual luk for a lyt function panning to wear a solid/plain blazer with black shirt
confused about the bottom weather to wear a denim jeans or a trouser
A black shirt is casual, so we’d suggest going with jeans to keep the lower half as casual as the top, Raj.
For my office party. I have black blazer and tan trouser so may i know which color of shirt or t shirt will be oerfect which type of show will be perfect?
A black blazer forces you into a bit of a corner. Any colors can look jarring against a black jacket. Stick with a white shirt, Arman. Keep it simple.
I have a black blazer. What shirt and pant should I team it up with?
Black pretty much pins you in to wearing gray slacks. Bright colors tend to look too strong when contrasted against black and you don’t want all of the focus to be on your legs when people see you. Stick to simple medium or light gray pants to create contrast without clashing.
Hi! I need some help please….
What should I pair a dark gray tuxedo with white lines? can you suggest what shirt, tie, pants and shoes be most appropriate? Not used to attending red carpet-sort-of parties, until some crazy ideas popped outta heads of our office—for a different Christmas party mood?
And, if you may, please, can I wear it in a not-so-conventional way… like with sneakers, or jeans? Thank you…
We’ve said it before but we’ll say it again, Ryan Gosling gives men some damn good inspiration. His tuxedo jacket is slightly different than yours, but he’s pulling this look off in that non-conventional way. I like his choice of black jeans and black shoes (you could wear black sneakers), but maybe opt for a slightly nicer shirt 🙂 Although it’s a Christmas party, I would stay away from colors outside of white, black, and gray or else you may end up like looking like one of your office crazies.
Hey good day. I’d like to ask… will this look be okay: navy blue suit and black pants with blue shoes? thanks im nt really sure, it’s kind of awkward
You already had the inclination it’s awkward, so go with your gut. While personal style can develop by taking “risks”, navy blue and black is a hard combo to pull off unless it’s the jacket and lapel combination on a tuxedo. Without the right amount of contrast, your look just blurs together or this could even look like you put the wrong pants on – not what you want. If you’re going for a more tonal ensemble, check out these BL guys for inspiration.
hi, I want to pair a beige color checks blazer ,with a suitable color trousers,kindly lend your help.
I’m having a bit of trouble picturing your “beige color checks blazer”, but I’ll go with a more aggressive version of our Bowery Tan Windowpane Blazer. You’ll see this blazer worn with a pair of dark jeans, so you could easily wear your blazer with a pair of navy trousers. To add some uniqueness to your look, I say go for dark brown trousers, it’s a more unexpected combo.
Hi…I would like to ask for the color of coat suit matched with a peach colored shirt and also I would like you to suggest me the tie with it.
To be frank, I don’t think a peach colored shirt is going to look good with any colored suit. Peach is an OK color for a Ralph Lauren Oxford Shirt and khaki shorts look if that’s your style. But when it comes to dress shirt and suit combinations, it’s a no-go from our style camp.
How about a pink shirt instead? A pink dress shirt can be paired with a classic navy or gray suit and with either of those, choosing a tie is easy!
That’s ok but its my sister’s wedding….and she told me to wear peach colored shirt….so I have to wear that….please help me….!!!! Thanks
Yikes. Okay, well, like they say, “when life gives you peaches make peach Nehi soda.”
Our best advice is to go with something neutral like a solid dark brown or dark gray tie.
Hi. Im going to the wedding tonite and I like to wear dark blue blazer, lighter blue shoes and dark brown pants. Was that good or should I replace dark brown pants with light grey shirt? What kind of shirt color is match? Thanks
Sorry we couldn’t catch you in time for the wedding, Christian! We always say that blue and brown are a match made in suit heaven, so it sounds like you were onto something here with your ideas. Anyways, I’m curious to see how your outfit turned out. If you took any dapper pictures and use Instagram/Twitter, tag your picture with #BlackLapel and #SuitCity to be entered to win various menswear goods!
what pants should i pair with a tuxedo with a color of dark umber? Thank you
A tuxedo would include the pants, Kenzo. Are you saying you’re looking to pair a dark umber dinner jacket with some pants? If that’s the case, we’ve done all of the work for you already. When we styled our midnight brown dinner jacket and dress pants, we did it like this. We suggest you do the same.
Hello sir..I have a checks brown blazer and a white plain shirt and tan brown shoes pls suggest me the trouser colour and if it’s blue then pls let me know the shade of blue u suggest…Ty…
What about dark brown trousers? Staying in the same color family can create a sophisticated-looking monochrome outfit.
Plz help. I have dark brown black blazer. Please tell me about shirt and trouser or Jean of which colour.
Blue and brown is a classic combination. Try a medium blue shade or jeans and a light blue shirt. Easy, right?
I would like to know how can I complement a grey(blueish) blazer with blue shoes. Pants and Shirt? Thanks
With blue shoes, you’ll probably want to keep the pants pretty subdued to show them off. We sugggest a neutral shade of pants like dark gray to accomplish that. For the shirt, 99% of the time a white shirt trumps all others. This is not exception to the rule, Jerry. Put on your best white shirt and you’re good to go.
Easy, right?
Yes , thanks but the blazer is Light grey (blueish) with elbow patches blue, is it still good use dark grey pants? and if i want to use a color shirt what would you suggest? thanks in advance.
Our original recommendation still applies, Jerry. The elbow patch color being blue doesn’t make a difference. We didn’t just recommend white shirts to try to stifle your creativity. We actually really do believe it’s your best option. You’ve got enough going on with elbow patches and blue shoes. Don’t go overboard and add another color of shirt.
If you are absolutely 100% dead set against a white shirt then a light blue might be okay, but we still wouldn’t recommend it.
I have a red dress shirt with a red and silver tie and a light gray kind of silver blazer I was wondering if I should wear silver slacks or black?
Red and black can look great, if the red is deep and dark but it sounds like you’re talking about a lighter red shirt. Black with a more saturated red can be a pretty jarring combination. We’d suggest steering clear. If the gray slacks match the jacket, they’d work. If they don’t match the jacket, make sure they are differentiated from the jacket. If the jacket and pants don’t match make sure that it’s clear that you’re not trying to make a suit out of two items that aren’t.
I have a gray blazer, and I’m wondering what color pants, shirt, and tie set would go great with it.
Gray is achromatic (not really a color, but a shade between black and white). That makes it as neutral as a Switzerland. So you can wear any colors you like with it.
So that narrows it down to…well…just about everything. So what’s colors should you wear? There’s bad news and good news. The bad news is we have no idea what colors you should wear. The good news is you do, you just aren’t looking in the right place. The answer, BJ, is looking back at you in the mirror. It’s a little known fact that it is of minor importance how well your clothes match each other. It is of the utmost importance how well your clothes match you. We call this dressing from the inside out and we’ve written about it extensively so that guys in your position have a reference point. This simple concept will change the way you dress and the way you shop. Check out our stories on Mastering Men’s Fashion From the Inside Out, Creating Your Own Shirt Style, and Building a Suit and you’ll have all the information you need to choose color combinations that look great on you every time.
I have a black blazer. I waned to pair with jeans. Is this ok? Can I wear black or brown shoes?
Nope. You can’t wear that.
Just kidding. Yeah, sure you can wear a blazer with jeans. Here’s the deal: black is an evening color so this is a move better pulled off when you’re going out at night, than in the harsh light of day. At the bar, this comes off well. At the office, adding some color to your blazer lineup would be more fitting. That doesn’t mean you can’t wear a dark one. Navy blue is a classic blazer color for a reason (because it looks so good with so many combinations of shirts, ties, pants, etc.).
As for the shoes, our rule of thumb is follow the buttons. If the buttons on the jacket were, say, light brown, then a pair of cognac brown shoes might be in order. Since 99.9% of black jackets have black buttons, we can safely assume that yours does. And so, black shoes it is, Josh.
Hi i m sheheryar i have a cort try dark purple casual coatn light purple shirt n normal grey cotton trouser (not dark or not light but strong grey) plzzzz tell me n guid me is this combitination looks gud or not????
I m waiting ur reply plzzzzzzz reply me on my mail box plzzzz thanx
So if we’re understanding your question, Sheheryar, you’re asking whether a dark purple blazer, light purple (or lavender) shirt and medium gray pants is something we would wear. The answer is no. We’re having trouble picturing the purple and lavender top of the outfit looking good. It’s the purple blazer we can’t get past. It’s too bold for our taste. We love a lavender shirt and gray pants but would recommend either a matching gray jacket or a dark blue blazer would be more our style.
Am having a silver linen blazer am using a navy blue trouser but am confused what colour of shrit to use and probably shoe to go also.I will appreciate some advice please.
Navy blue and gray is a classic combination, Victor. It’s a classic because it’s so versatile. You can wear any number of colors of shirts and shoes with this outfit. Still, that doesn’t mean you have to make things complicated. A lot of guys think that dressing well means pulling off some sort of dazzling tricks. It doesn’t. A crisp white shirt and some well-polished dark brown shoes will make this outfit come alive more than any showy combination of patterns and colors. Your outfit should draw attention to your face, not beg for its own attention. Keep it simple and you can’t go wrong.
Need help matching navy blue jacket, white shirt,gray pants what color tie or bow tie would match ?going to a christmas party.
Thanks,
Marvin, the answer is within you. We have no idea what color tie will look good on you. That’s because we have no idea what you look like. This is the secret to dressing well. Matching your clothing colors to each other is minimally important. What’s important is that your clothes match you. When it comes to ties we have a simple rule of thumb. Match your ties to your eyes. When you’re wearing a pretty color neutral outfit like a navy jacket and gray pants, almost any tie color can work. If you’ve got brown eyes, try an earthy brown shade. If you’ve got blue eyes, go with a medium to light blue that accents your eyes. Green-eyed? Mix in a green hued tie.
For a full explanation of how to make this trick (and other color matching secrets) work for you, check out our story on Dressing from the Inside Out.
I’m having an internship in the the next two months, which is gonna last 6-8 months. I’m planning to have a blazer/jacket with shirts and gray trousers. Paticularly, I’m not that fond of navy nor can I pull it off. I’m thinking of a dark grey/charcoal jacket with some textures as it suits me more, also my office is not that formal so I think it would be fine. What do you think? Any suggestion? Also can I ask for an advice on the fabric regarding the tropical weather?
A charcoal gray jacket and trousers is an excellent choice for just starting out! Just because Navy is so common for a first suit doesn’t mean it’s for everyone. As for a suggestion, I think our Gray Birdseye Suit is just what you’re looking for. It’s dark gray with a subtle texture that is still office-appropriate. Don’t be scared away by the fact that it’s 100% wool, it’s an all seasonal suit (tropics included) and the fabric breathes very well.
Hi
I have a tailor made dark charcoal color Blazer. I have a cotton white shirt and navy trouser.
will this combination go well? I am going to attend a marriage in next week.
what could be other options with this colored blazer.
Also , I am looking for a tie. will it go well with this.
Thank you
This combination goes well together, just make sure it’s appropriate for the wedding’s dress code. As for the tie, you could opt for a brighter light blue tie to add some festivity to your look. If you want to be a little more formal, you could match your tie to your navy trousers.
I’m having a chocolate brown blazer(little denim type stuff) and a blue shirt with small white dots print. I need to attend a marriage party and I’m confused with my trousers and shoes.
The brown and blue combination you’ve got going on with the shirt and blazer can also work for your pants and shoes, Rahul. Go with a pair of medium to light blue pants and some cognac and or tan shoes to echo the color combination up to and you’ll be all set.
Of course, like we always say, all color recommendations are subject to how they look on you. A great combo is made even greater when it aligns with your features and coloring. For more on that, check out our story on Mastering Men’s Fashion From the Inside Out
I purchased a dark brown Blackberry blazer. Suggestion on the Shirt color?
Generally speaking dark brown and pale blue makes for a nice combination, so a light blue shirt might be in order.
Still, we’re not really satisfied with that answer and you shouldn’t be either. That’s because the question is about matching clothes to each other. Actually, whether your clothes match each other is not the most important question. The question to ask is, “how well do my clothes match me?” If you’ve got a low contrast face and hair combination then a high contrast suit and shirt combination might overpower your face and draw attention down to your chest. A color combination that complements you is the key to dressing well. Don’t worry, figuring out what looks good on you is not rocket science. It’s actually very easy. We wrote a whole article about it called Mastering Men’s Fashion From the Inside Out and we recommend reading that before deciding on a shirt.
Hi guys so I bought a grey wool blend blazer and a wasitcoast to match. Basically i’m looking for the perfect colour chinos to match and also a dickie bow/tie and pocket square. I was thkinking of copper coloured chinos? just wondering what other suggestions you may have?
Gray is a neutral color so pretty much anything goes when it comes to colors. Most guys think color is the key to putting together an outfit, but they’re wrong. It’s actually pretty difficult to come up with a truly clashing color combination. Focus, instead on patterns and textures. It sounds like your jacket is a solid. A pair of solid pants might come off looking boring and safe. Patterned pants are difficult to pull off, but subtle weaves and small patterns like birdseye and houndstooth can add visual interest and break up the color block look of all solids.
Actually I am having black shirt and purple shirt and now for both shirts I m having cream color pant nd jeans now the main problem is I m planning to buy a blazer so which color would suit best for both I m thinking of brown blazer what do u suggest??? Please help me
A brown blazer is always a winner. They work with a lot of colors and are easy to wear dressed up or casually. Just don’t wear one with the black shirt. Instead wear it with blue and white shirts to bring out the browns.
I’m attending a beach wedding where the dress code is ‘beach formal’.
I’m planning to don a grey-silver blazer, a white v-neck tee & black pants. Not sure what color shoes should i go for…
Or is this look completely off for ‘beach formal’? Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks a million!
Gray and black wouldn’t be our first choices for beach colors, Jason. Not to say that it can’t be done but those colors are more in line with an evening affair. Also, if you’re taking the “formal” in “beach formal” seriously, then you should avoid a T-shirt. Never fear, Jason, we’ve tackled this topic before. Check out our Decoding the Dress Code: What to Wear to a Wedding story for our take on a beach formal look that’ll knock ’em dead.
Thanks so much for your valuable feedback. The link was great but I’ve scrapped the blazer/suit look due to the heat (I forgot to mention the wedding’s in Phuket). Will going for look comprising:
1. Dark Blue Shirt (sleeves folded to elbows) with a light blue skinny tie.
2. Khakhi coloured trousers (chinos).
3. Brown leather shoes & matching brown belt.
Hope this works! 🙂
Phuket? Can we come? All jokes aside (not really joking though), this sounds like a perfect warm weather wedding outfit.
I just made a slim modern style navy blue double breasted suit. Im going to buy shirt tie and pants. Can you guys give me some ideas for colours/styles? It’s for a formal graduation celebration.
We could just give you generic advice, Byron, but that wouldn’t be very much like a custom clothier, now, would it? Instead, we’ll suggest that you follow our suggestions from our article on dressing from the inside out. There we suggest matching your ties to your eyes. For example, if you’ve got brown eyes, look for ties in shades of brown to wear with your navy blue suit. We also suggest focusing more on the level of contrast in your outfit than the specific color combinations. If you’ve got a lot of contrast between your hair color and skin tone, you can wear highly contrasting outfits like a navy blue suit with a stark yellow tie on a white shirt. If you’ve got less contrast, go with lower contrast ensembles like a navy blue suit with a medium blue tie and a blue and white check shirt. Once you take a good look in the mirror and understand what works for you, you’ll find matching things up to be easy.
I just bought a brown houndstooth blazer with subtle hints of blue in the fabric that I plan on wearing with premium blue jeans. Can I get away with a blue shirt, or should I stick with white? If so, what shade of blue, and would patterned work or contrast too much with the jacket?
Wearing a blue shirt is a good idea, Chris. As for the color matching, choose a blue that highlights the hints of blue in the jacket to bring your look together.
As for pattern, mixing patterns with a houndstooth can be done but it’s an advanced move. Make it easier on yourself and stick with a solid shirt.
I have a black jacket and charcoal pants. Having a hard time coming up with shirt and tie combo. Any ideas? Also, I’m on the short side (5’4″), in case that matters.
Thanks,
Jeff
Usually we would suggest amping up the contrast between your jacket and pants, but since you’re on the shorter side, it’s a smart choice (you must have read our Flawless Fit Series story on dressing for the shorter gentleman).
Instead, we’ll suggest that you sharpen the contrast with your shirt and tie. If you’ve got high contrast between your skin tone and hair color, go for a high contrast combination of your shirt and jacket and wear a solid white shirt. If you’ve got less contrast between your hair and skin, go with a shirt that’s got some gray in it to balance out your look.
As for the tie, we like monochrome accents with black jackets so a patterned gray tie is our first suggestion. If you do want to infuse some color into the outfit, do it carefully. A bright saturated colored tie against a black jacket can get really clownish really quickly. Instead of fire engine red, try deep dark burgundy. Instead of bright lavender, try a toned down gray with lavender stripes.
Sorry we couldn’t give you a simpler answer, Jeff but, to paraphrase Snoop Dogg, stylin’ ain’t easy. (Actually, it is once you master these principles. That’s why you have The Compass.)
What matches well with a white linen blazer?
Hi John, good call on the white. Best color to close out the summer with. Since it’s august, I would recommend light weight chino shorts or pants in a subdued color – like these or these. As for a shirt, you have a lot of matching options. A white Oxford is a solid choice, but check out this Light Blue Gingham if you want to add some play to your outfit. Lastly, you definitely want to pair this blazer with a pair of loafers, sans socks. Happy hunting!
Hey! I have a black self design Casual blazer and I am planning to wear a white v-neck T-Shirt in with light charcoal Grey pant! Will the grey pant have its elegance or should I go with black pant? Please Reply
Hey Uzair.
I like the idea of the light gray pants in this outfit! Since you’re wearing a t-shirt, matching different colored pants with your black blazer will keep your look casual. If you want a more elegant/sleek look, black pants definitely work as well. I’m picturing a pair of cool kicks to finish off your outfit, but I’ll leave the personal flair up to you.
I have a dark purple shining blazer, what colour of shirt,pant & tie will match the best.
reply asap
thanx
Woah there, shiny dark purple. That’s a first for us. Since your blazer sounds vibrant, you should pair it with darker pants, like black, a black tie to match, and a white dress shirt will do the trick.
For more one-on-one advice, Satyam, we suggest using our Black Lapel Concierge service by emailing us at concierge@blacklapel.com. That way we can offer more specifics about filling out your wardrobe with more versatile pieces.
Hii..I have a light gray blazer and m thinking of wearing a navy pant with a light blue shirt. Would this combination look good or should I for go some other options. Can u suggest any. It would be a great help.
It sounds like you’re aiming to lighten up your outfit, much like Look 1 featured above. This combination sounds good as long as your shirt is a light enough shade of blue to contrast with your navy pants. Otherwise, this is a great spring look.
Great Guide !
I have a dark grey blazer. Im thinking a pair og Navy slimfit suit trousers would be sufficient ? Am i totally wrong ?
Are you totally wrong, André? Hardly. You’re on the right track combining blue and gray. You’ve just got to dial up the contrast.
Dark gray on dark blue will make for a pretty contrast-free outfit. Instead, do as we did in Look 1 above. There, we highlighted how the dark blue jacket really stands out atop a pair of light gray pants. Just apply the same thinking but with the gray on the top and the blue on the bottom. That means pairing the dark gray blazer with a pair of light blue pants that distinguish themselves from the jacket. Or you could stick with the navy pants and change the jacket to a lighter gray like this. Either way, if one of the two pillars of this outfit lightens up you’ll strike sartorial gold.
I have a sports jacket that I’m having a hard time finding the right dress shirt, tie and pants for a good match-up. It’s a Van Heusen Studio Modern Jacket. I’ve provided the link to picture. Hoping for any input and help.
http://www.kohls.com/product/prd-2041171/van-heusen-studio-modern-fit-blue-shark-sport-coat-men.jsp?pfm=br-thematicpage
Well Tony, that jacket’s strange trim detailing is extremely distracting. In fact, it’s that distracting trim that’s probably the culprit in why you’re having trouble wearing it with anything. Unfortunately, you probably can’t get rid of that. So work around it. Here’s how:
As you can see in this outfit, we love the combination of light blue and cognac/tan colors. That combo is not so easy to pull off with the dark trim on this jacket, so you’ll have to adjust. Instead of the classic brown and blue combo, try light gray pants and, say, a white shirt. This combination of solids will keep your trim from being one of many little details that make for a busy outfit. Remember, when it comes to style, simpler is almost always better.
I have a light blue blazer should I wear white or grey pants with it. I was thinking light blue blazer white or light pink dress shirt cognac loafers. What color tie or bow tie
Sounds like you’ve got the makings of a good spring/summer look, Dwayne. We’d go with the gray pants most of the time and wear the blazer with the white pants in the middle of the summer for a change of pace. As for the shirt, we’d suggest counterbalancing the pants. So that means wearing the white shirt with the gray pants and, for the summer version of this outfit, switch to the pink shirt with the white pants.
As for the tie, the whole outfit is pretty neutral and light, so you can go in a lot of different directions. Perhaps the sharpest pairing would be a tie like this one, that draws on the cognac color from your shoes for a well put together combo.
Now don’t forget the pocket square, Dwayne. That’s a great place to mix in a little pattern to this all solids outfit. One like this would really cap off your look.
I have a black canali blazer and navy blue hugo boss trousers. Is that a no-go combination?
Being a tailored clothing brand, we will always say wearing anything but Black Lapel clothing is a no-go!
Even if we set aside our preference for our own clothing, though, we don’t recommend wearing navy blue and black. Both are so dark the combination ends up looking weak and muddled. Opt for a different colored jacket. Check out our Unsuits for some great blazer and navy blue pants combinations (all of the jackets you see there can also be purchased as blazers.
Very impressed with the light grey pant for winter dress been looking for a light grey flannel no luck. I have a Hugo Boss dark navy made in Germany and wear with light grey slim fit pant also use a pair of dockers in mid brown. Photos do the trick for a guy like me. Thanks for the post.
We love light gray for winter. We don’t make a light gray flannel (yet), but we wear our worsted wool light grays throughout the cold weather.
I have a Dark brown blazer. Can you suggest me the colour of pant, shirt and tie.
Looks #2 and #3 above both feature dark brown blazers. So we recommend pants, shirts and ties like the ones in looks #2 and #3. That’s a pair of navy blue pants, a white shirt and navy blue knit tie in look #2 and charcoal gray pants, a red chambray shirt and a brown knit tie in look #3.
I have a grey with purple plad pattern blazer, curious what trouser combos would be appropriate thanks
Since spring is right around the corner, check out the light gray pants in the first look here to nicely complement your blazer. This will help solve your curiosity. But also, you can check out this unsuit for further inspiration.
I have a charcoal blazer to wear for a business event. Should I wear khaki pants with brown shoes or a lighter shade grey pants with brown shoes
We vote for the gray pants, Tyler. Gray and khaki is a tough combination to pull off in a business appropriate outfit. Staying in the same color family unifies your outfit so stick with gray pants like these to add just the right amount of contrast to your look.
What about the shoes, match the coat, or the pants?
The simplest rule of thumb for shoes is to match them to the jacket buttons. Black buttons? Black shoes. Light brown buttons? Cognac tan shoes.
Easy enough, right?
I purchased a dark brown Calvin Klein herringbone pattern blazer. Suggestion on the pant color?
We like pairing Navy Blue pants with dark brown blazers, like we did with the Bedford Plaid Unsuit above or the Charcoal Brown Unsuit.
Shades of gray can also work with dark brown. Actually, just about any color will work, since brown is neutral. The trick, when working with a herringbone is to stick to solids to keep the jacket and pants from competing for visual attention.
In other words, you can’t go wrong with solids colors, but beware competing patterns.
Informative article with many good style points. I like the coordination of all the pieces and the depth of the patterns.
Thanks Gavin. There’s more where that came from in the Unsuits section of the site.
So I have a blue blazer, a black blazer, a brown cord blazer, and two summer blazers (plaid and a more casual piece)
I have navy, charcoal, brown, and black wool trousers
What are my next steps?
That sounds like a good collection of blazers and pants you’ve got there. The next step for you would be adding some grays to the mix. A Gray with Purple Windowpane Blazer will add a hint of color, to an otherwise neutral outfit and fill a gap in the wardrobe.
As for pants, we’d suggest gray again. A pair of Light Gray Pants, like the ones in the Knickerbocker Windowpane Unsuit above, work with just about any of the blazers you’ve already got in your closet.
With a couple of strong grays like these in your closet yoI’ll have a bulletproof wardrobe.