Shoes, belt should match no matter the pants color
QI like to push the envelope with color, but not break it, and can use some advice about accessories and color. Today I have on charcoal gray trousers, a blue shirt with a very thin brown line, and a blueblack and brown tightly-patterned (meaning not busy or distracting looking) tie. I wore black shoes to go with the pants and a brown belt to bring out the subtle colors. Is something like this OK?
AWell, yes, anything is OK if you are comfortable with it, and pushing the envelope with color in your clothes is a fine way to express your individuality. Also, I am impressed that your choice of colors for each item has a reason.
Among the many general color rules and their variations, repeating colors in an outfit is the most important one. Your decision to wear black shoes follows the shoe color rule: Shoe color should be based on the color of the suit or the trousers. Wear black shoes with trousers in the gray/black and navy families. By choosing the color black, you did that right.
And I like that you decided to combine two patterns, one in the shirt and one in the tie, but were careful not to choose two eye-catching, conflicting patterns. This is a mistake that many men make (especially men’s fashion magazine editors). Instead, since your shirt has a stripe, you picked a not-busy, subtly patterned tie. Good.
On the other hand, while I would not say it was wrong, I am not as comfortable with your choice of a brown belt, for two reasons. First, the general color rule for belts is: Whether black or brown, a man’s belt should be in the same color family as his shoes. They need not match them exactly. That is, they can be different shades of the color, darker or lighter. But they should be in that family.
The second reason is a bit more obscure. In your combination, the color brown only appears in the small, tightly-patterned necktie and in the very thin line in the shirt. Unless someone were standing quite close to you and being unusually observant, he may not even be aware of brown as part of your mixture. Since brown is such a subtle part of your color combination, the brown belt might seem to be coming out of left field.
To further explain, my necktie shopping advice has always included this suggestion: when considering which one to buy, do not stand too near and peer too closely at the tie to determine its color. Instead, step back a foot or two, and decide what color your eye actually sees. As an example, when looking at a bold blueand-red striped tie, your eye clearly sees the two colors. But, looking at a subtle blueand-red small-patterned tie, you may see those two colors only when you are very near to the tie. From a bit of a distance or from part way across the room, your two-color tie could appear to be a shade of purple.
Without actually seeing your tie, it is hard for me to guess just what one’s eye would see as its color from a distance, but I doubt it would be the brown. The same is probably true of that thin brown line in the blue shirt; it could almost disappear. Your brown belt would not appear to be repeating anything else in your color mix.
If you are fond of the blue shirt with the brown line, it might work better with a tan suit, with khaki pants, or, in cooler weather, with a brown tweed jacket. Dark brown shoes and some shade of brown belt would work well. Keep in mind: Pushing the envelope should be subtle. Heavy handed pushes make a mess.
Another option for the look you described — dark gray trousers, black shoes and a nice blue shirt, with or without a line: How about a handsome patterned tie with either a bold blue stripe or a spaced blue design on a black or charcoal background, and a black belt? Perhaps not quite pushing the color envelope, but still a great look.