What colors go together: color combinations for outfits

Look at lightness and brightness, not just the color

Every color in your wardrobe has three qualities. The hue is its name on the color wheel: blue, red, green. Its value is how light or dark it is, from pale sky blue to navy. Its intensity is how bright or muted it is, from a vivid cobalt to a dusty, grayed blue. When two colors seem to clash, the hue is often not the problem. Usually one piece is much brighter than the other, or the two are so close in lightness that they look like a failed match instead of a choice.

A quick way to see value is to take a phone photo of the outfit and switch it to black and white. If everything turns into the same middle gray, the outfit may look flat; if one piece jumps out as far lighter or darker, that is where the eye will go. Intensity is easier to judge by eye. As a starting rule, keep the brightness of your colors roughly similar, all muted or all clear, and let the lightness do the contrasting.

Build on neutrals that go with almost everything

In clothing, the working neutrals are wider than black, white and gray. Navy, cream, camel, tan, khaki, olive, brown, charcoal and blue denim all behave as neutrals, because they are muted enough to sit beside nearly any other color. An outfit made only of neutrals almost always works, and it is the base for everything else in this guide. If you are building a small wardrobe, our guide to building a capsule wardrobe starts from the same idea.

Navy is the most useful of them. What colors go with navy blue? White, cream and light blue for a crisp look; camel, tan and brown for warmth; gray for something quieter; and burgundy, rust, forest green or soft pink as accents. Khaki pairs with navy, white, light blue, olive and brown, and it looks sharper with a darker top than with a pale one of similar lightness. Mixing neutrals of different temperatures, such as cool gray with warm camel, is fine as long as there is some contrast in lightness between them.

Wear one color in several shades

Tonal dressing means building an outfit from one color in different lightnesses: a pale blue shirt, a mid blue sweater and navy trousers, or cream, oatmeal and chocolate brown. Design guides call this a monochromatic scheme. It looks deliberate with very little effort, and it avoids the problem of two almost matching pieces, because the differences are clearly intended.

Texture carries a tonal outfit. Three smooth pieces in similar blues can look like a uniform, while a ribbed knit, a crisp cotton and a soft wool in the same range give the eye something to read. Keep at least one clear step in lightness between the pieces, and let shoes or a belt in a neutral close the outfit. Tonal outfits in earthy colors like olive, brown and camel are the easiest to start with, because those shades vary so much between fabrics anyway. Tonal dressing is also the backbone of minimalist style, which relies on a few related shades rather than strong contrast.

Add one accent color to a neutral base

The single most reliable way to wear color is one accent against neutrals: a red sweater with navy and gray, a green bag with denim and white, a yellow scarf with a camel coat. With only one bright element, there is nothing for it to clash with, and the neutrals make it look chosen. If you want to repeat it, repeat it once and small, such as the accent color in a sock, a pocket square or a stripe in a scarf, so the outfit feels connected without matching like a costume.

Where you put the accent decides where people look. Near the face, in a shirt, knit or scarf, it draws attention up. On shoes or trousers, it moves attention down and tends to read as more casual. For accessories that should stay quiet, such as belts and shoes, our guide to matching belts, shoes and socks explains the conventions.

If you want a short list of pairings that rarely fail, for men and women alike, start here: navy and white, camel and black, olive and cream, gray and soft pink, navy and burgundy, denim blue and rust, chocolate brown and light blue, forest green and navy, cream and chocolate, and black and white. Each pairs a darker shade with a lighter one, and each has at least one neutral, which is why they work in so many fabrics and seasons. Try one as the base of an outfit and add a third color only if it is quieter than the first two.

Try neighbors and opposites on the color wheel

Once neutrals and a single accent feel easy, the color wheel offers two more reliable pairings. Neighbors, such as blue with green or teal, or rust with mustard, create a calm, related look; designers call these analogous colors. Opposites, such as blue with orange, red with green or purple with yellow, create strong contrast and are called complementary. In their pure forms opposites are loud, but muted versions are everyday classics: navy with rust, olive with burgundy, dusty blue with camel.

Color block clothes take this further by putting large solid areas of different colors side by side. It works best when the colors share an intensity, all saturated or all soft, and when there are only two or three blocks. One reason to judge colors together rather than separately is a well known effect described by the chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul in 1839 while studying dyed threads at the Gobelins tapestry works: colors placed side by side change how each other look. A gray can look warmer next to blue and cooler next to orange, so a pairing that looked fine in the store may shift beside a different piece.

Test colors against your skin and hair

The color nearest your face affects how you look more than the rest of the outfit, and the only reliable test is your own. Stand near a window in daylight, without strong makeup if you can, and hold pieces of different colors under your chin one at a time. Some will make your skin look even and your eyes clear; others will seem to drain color or add shadows. Take a photo of each, because the effect is easier to see side by side than in the moment.

Pay attention to contrast as well as hue. Compare the lightness of your hair, skin and eyes: if they are very different, as with dark hair and light skin, strong contrasts like navy and white often look natural on you. If they are close in lightness, softer combinations with less contrast often sit better. Seasonal color analysis and similar systems turn this observation into categories, and some people find them helpful, but a few honest photos of your own will tell you more than a quiz.

Find the palette you already own

Before buying anything, look at the colors you actually wear most. Most wardrobes already have a working palette: two or three neutrals that carry most outfits and one or two accent colors that keep coming back. Write them down. Pieces outside that palette are often the ones that rarely leave the hanger, which is useful information when you next work out your personal style or shop.

Photographing pieces and seeing them side by side makes this much easier than rummaging through a closet, which is one of the practical reasons to make a digital wardrobe. Color palette generators that pull shades from a photo can be fun for inspiration, but screens and cameras shift color, so confirm any pairing with the real garments in daylight.