If you're reading this, you're probably a tad confused about color matching your clothes. There's a good chance you asked yourself at some point, "Does this colour shirt go with that colour pants?" or "Do these colours match, or do I look ridiculous?"Don't worry, and you're not alone. Usually, guys have a tough time figuring out what colors go together when it comes to clothes. It's one of the most common questions I get! It's not always so intuitive when trying to combine shirts, pants, and shoes in different colours. So I put together this article with easy-to-follow guidelines and tips, plus a colour chart for clothes, if you're more of a visual person, so you're never unsure how to match your clothes again. FIGURING OUT WHAT COLOR CLOTHES GO together, so here's the basic idea. I'm keeping this as simple as possible—four things to keep in mind.#menswearneutrals. Menswear neutrals are the KEY to outfits that ALWAYS "match" and never clash. Learn these, memorize them, and use them. Watch the video above to see what I mean.
Contrast is key. You want a good amount of comparison among
the three. Light top, dark bottom, light shoes. Dark top, light bottom, dark
shoes. Avoid tonal outfits (all three pieces are the same colour or close in
value). It can be pulled off successfully but also has the possibility of
looking terrible. It's a more advanced style concept which we'll cover in a
different article. Avoid tops that are too close to your skin tone. It makes
you appear pale and washed out. Read this article for a more in-depth
explanation. HERE'S THE COLOR-MATCHING CHART FOR MEN (SAVE IT FOR REFERENCE
LATER). The whole idea is to show you how easy it is to pair shirts and pants
and how to finish off the outfit with shoes. Now you won't have to ask yourself
what color clothes go together constantly… use this chart, and you'll have
(practically) endless possibilities.
HOW TO READ THE COLOR-MATCHING CHART
Top Section: You have your pants, shirts, and shoes. I labelled
shoes A, pants B, and shirts C. (You'll see why in a minute.) This makes up
your base outfit, with every color I'm using in this example.
Pants Out! For every outfit example, I started each outfit
with the pants as the base. Most of us choose a pair of pants first, then a
shirt, then the mid-layer, shoes, a jacket, etc.
Bottom Section: Each column = one pair of pants. Look at
each column from top to bottom to see the different options for each pair of
pants. I labelled each column B1-B5, with one pair of pants per column.
A small selection of what's possible: The choices that don't
make a trying to keep this simple. In reality, there are many more possible
combinations! But try these first.
Interchangeable and versatile: Almost every shirt/pants/shoe
combo within each group of three is alike, so don't feel stuck with these exact
match-ups.