Clothing Colour Combinations – Outfit Colour Matching Guide

When it comes to dressing well, picking out the right clothes is only half the battle. You’ve got to get the colours right too.

Some colours go together, and some don’t. In these guides you’ll be able to see real life examples of clothing colour combinations, where I share my outfits and what colours go with what.

From matching shoes to suits and matching shirts to jeans, check out the outfit colour matching tips below.

Clothing Colour Matching Guide

Clothing Colour Matching For Easily Style Colour Coordination

The Colour Wheel

When you try getting advice on matching colours, the colour wheel system will end up coming up. This is kind of good for some things, for example home interiors, but for clothing it can be bad.

One thing it mentions is using the opposite colours, but when it comes to fashion this can be too much. For example bright red and green would not work well, although they are on the opposite ends of the colour wheel.

When it comes to using the colour wheel, analogous is possibly the best choice. This is the art of picking colours which are near each other on the colour wheel, rather than complimentary, which are colours on the opposite side.

When using colours scares you, the easiest way of pairing up colours is to use one of the staple colours as a base. These are black, white, grey and navy. You can then see the table above for which colours are perfectly matched to these.

Colour Theory

Generally when your main piece of clothing is black or white, virtually any colour works well with them. Rather than using the standard colour wheel which is suited to art, you should use an approach that’s more tailored to clothing.

Picking out a base colour and then matching a secondary complimentary colour is usually the way to go. You can add a 3rd colour, but this is usually done as an accent colour.

When picking out colours, a good rule of thumb is 60-30-10. That is 60% of your main colour, 30% of the secondary and 10% as a tertiary colour.

A good example can be a suit outfit. You’ll have a navy suit, so navy is the main colour. You can then pair that with a white shirt, the secondary colour. The third colour can be accent colours which can be used for a tie or pocket square.

Then there’s shoes too, which actually adds a forth element.