• Home
  • In General
  • Men
  • Women
  • Fashion Week
  • Couture
  • My Style
  • Celebs
  • Labels
  • Shop

On Your Mark | Mark St. James

Fashion Blogger Mark St. James on Menswear, Travel and Grooming

  • Style
  • Men's Fashion
  • Trends
  • Grooming
  • Categories
    • In General
    • Celebs
    • Haute Couture
    • Women
    • Fashion Week
    • Brands I Love
      • Alexander McQueen
      • Balmain
      • Burberry Prorsum
      • Chanel
      • Jean Paul Gaultier
      • John Galliano
      • Louis Vuitton
      • Marc Jacobs
      • Michael Kors
      • Tom Ford
    • Must Have's
    • Travel
  • #On Your Mark Instagram

What Color Matches Brown?

19/02/2015 by Mark St. James 9 Comments

How To Match Brown Properly

The Complete Brown Clothing and Matching Guide.

You found the perfect brown piece to craft an outfit around. It’s the ideal jacket, grosgrain belt, handbag (or manbag), ultimate pair of shoes or cheeky suspenders. Now what color matches with brown and how can you turn those key pieces into a great outfit? It’s not the most common question I get as a stylist, but it ranks in the top ten for sure. So here is a fool proof guide to matching with the color brown for men and women, and the science behind it.

Being a warm color, it automatically pairs well with other colors and shades in the warm family. But seeing as how you are decorating your body and NOT a futon… you may not want to wear brown with all the warm colors. Let’s face it, brown and hot pink may look great in a bedroom set… but wearing them together won’t always look good or appropriate to the season. So for the sake of making this easier to navigate, I’ll break the article down by seasons as seen through the eyes of the fashion world, Spring and Fall.

Matching Brown in Spring

Brown goes perfectly with warm colors like yellow, Orange and red but for Spring you may find yourself looking like a tree with changing leaves and end up looking a little out of season. For Spring stick to matching your brown with cooler tones like dark rich greens, blues and deep earthy purples.

A Quick Note about Green’s and Purples:
Green and purple are hybrids meaning they are both green and purple or CAN BE both. Typically, depending on the shade a green or purple color will fall more into the cool colors or the warm colors but not both. For example a lavender which is a lighter purple will fall into the warm colors whereas an eggplant, which has more blue, will be a cool color.

Green and Purple are cold and warm

For the Men:
A perfect outfit would be a supple brown suede bag, paired with a white button-down, cream cardigan, slim navy chinos, a belt in a similar color and ivory Chuck Taylor’s.

For the ladies:
A photo worthy outfit would be a brown suede tote against a cream sundress, ice blue skinny belt and matching sling-backs with a mint green floppy hat. The colors may put you out of your comfort zone but in reality you’d be Vogue ready and cute as a button.

How to properly wear brown

When I described the men’s look I placed Navy with Brown which puts a lot of people off. Truth is those two colors are like peas in a pod. Not only are they basically complimentary colors (opposite on the color wheel), they nearly ALWAYS match. A soft navy works wonders with a slick polished patent brown, or a light tobacco color. Also keep in mind the outfits I chose always had a base color to ground your looks. It’s not 100% necessary but it will keep you from sweating the small stuff and worrying about matching every color against every other color.

matching Brown for the seasons

Matching Brown in Fall

Fall is quite the opposite in both weather and style, therefore borrowing colors from the warmer portion of the color wheel helps to keep you relevant to the season and looking hug-able. An outfit with analogous colors (colors close to each other on the color wheel) looks great in Fall.

For Men:
Brown jacket and brogues with orange pants and a burnt orange tee will look intensely welcoming and warm regardless of the weather around you.

For Women:
A brown scarf against a mustard yellow blouse paired with a camel colored skirt will say I embrace the season and look good doing it!

The only other thing I caution you with is mixing within the brown family. A caramel and a butterscotch will give you a toothache. A dark oak and cherry wood will leave your audience board. And a chocolate with cocoa will be delicious… but shitty. So don’t go dabbling in the dark arts and end up looking like Gandalf the brown!

Gandalf warns about mixing browns

Last but not least, remember to never mix brown with black… unless you’re a pro. But mixing brown and black is a whole different story. And that story is coming soon… probably next week so sign up for my newsletter and stay tuned!

Hey! Why Not Read Some More:

  • Ripped Denim Q and ARipped Denim Q and A
  • Mackage Fall 2013Mackage Fall 2013
  • Custo Barcelona Fall 2013Custo Barcelona Fall 2013
  • Michael Kors Fall 2013Michael Kors Fall 2013

Filed Under: Fashion Blogger Tagged With: How to match brown, Matching Brown, Men's Fashion, Style tips, Wearing Brown, What does brown go with, Women's Fashion

Comments

  1. Fashion Darling says

    25/02/2015 at 12:22 pm

    Great post Marquis, I’ve never felt comfortable wearing brown, now maybe I’ll give it another go.

    Reply
  2. mobile legend hack says

    26/12/2019 at 7:16 pm

    I think this is among the most significant information for me.
    And i am glad reading your article. But wanna remark on some
    general things, The site style is ideal, the articles is really
    nice : D. Good job, cheers

    Reply
  3. Earl says

    07/08/2020 at 3:17 pm

    I could not resist commenting. Very well written!

    Reply
  4. Anthony says

    08/08/2020 at 3:31 pm

    It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d most certainly donate to this
    outstanding blog! I suppose for now i’ll settle for book-marking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account.

    I look forward to new updates and will share this blog with my Facebook group.
    Chat soon!

    Reply
  5. adream says

    08/08/2020 at 8:44 pm

    An impressive share! I have just forwarded this onto a colleague who had been conducting a little homework
    on this. And he actually bought me lunch due to the fact that I found it
    for him… lol. So allow me to reword this…. Thank YOU for the meal!!

    But yeah, thanx for spending some time to talk about this subject here on your internet site.

    Reply
  6. Ify says

    19/11/2020 at 4:27 am

    Will brown handbag go with red shoe and sliver shoe

    Reply
    • Mark St. James says

      01/12/2020 at 7:09 pm

      Metallics go with everything. while red and brown are warm tones so you’re good there! Go for it!

      Reply
  7. Jane says

    25/06/2021 at 1:05 am

    Can brown bag go with silver shoe

    Reply
    • Mark St. James says

      28/06/2021 at 7:25 pm

      Hi Jane,
      I love Brown and gold personally. If it is more of a grey brown or ashy brown then it can go but I still prefer gold.
      Thanks!
      Mark

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Search The Blog


Just saw #Ka @cirquedusoleil in #vegas and wow. I Just saw #Ka @cirquedusoleil in #vegas and wow. I highly recommend front and centre. We were part of the show! Absolutely insane. @mgmgrand
#Vegas here we come! #Vegas here we come!
What a crazy last few weeks. 15 cities, 6 bookings What a crazy last few weeks. 15 cities, 6 bookings (up in the triple digits), 1 new store open, 3 trunk shows, and a metric ton of laughs. One more day and I’m off to Vegas for some well deserved sun. Hit me up if you’re gonna be there next week 😘
I’m in love with the new triple wrap bracelet I I’m in love with the new triple wrap bracelet I picked up from @sapphiremoongalleryandgift from the talented Shellie Atwood who custom made this for me! I feel so special! Fits perfectly! It has malachite and obsidian with a touch of hematite and one lava stone. 😍
Clothing rep life. Off to a trunk show. Going to d Clothing rep life. Off to a trunk show. Going to do a mini series of my life as a rep. Stay tuned. 
Also shout out to @aaronparker24 who gave me these sweet Touring sunglasses.
Having friends visit is always a riot, especially Having friends visit is always a riot, especially when we’re surrounded by good food. Aaaand whatever photo 9 is…
Thanks for the pic @jrv_yeg
Follow on Instagram

About | Friends | Authors | Privacy | Editorial Policy |Contact
Copyright © 2022 Marquis of Fashion

»
«