Why in the world can’t you wear a white shirt with brown pants? That’s absurd.
I wear white, pale yellow, cream, khaki or tan shirts with my brown pants, with brown or burgundy shoes and matching belt. I usually don’t have to wear a tie to work, but I have two brown suits with a number of corresponding and complementary ties.
I always say you can never go wrong with a Hawaiian shirt. Hawaiian shirts go with anything, including brown pants.
You could be like Hypno-Toad and me, wearing whatever with whatever in ignorant bliss of the rules. Toad, if you’re as fashion-impaired as I, just make sure everything in your closet matches. I can pick any shirt, tie, and pants, secure in the knowledge I’ve not made Mr. Blackwell’s list. Especially after this thread, no pun intended, if it were me with those brown pants, they’d have an unfortunate accident, fast. An massive rip, an unexpected bleach spill, alien abduction, whatever gets them out of my wardrobe expeditiously.
I’ll say that while brown shoes are preferable, black is okay (as long as your belt is also black), but while some people can manage to make a black shirt and brown pants look understated and classy, most people just make it look goofy. My colors of choice with brown pants: cream, khaki, burgundy, powder blue, pink. All good.
Hubby only owns black dress shoes (I cannot convince him of any good reason why you would have more than one pair of shoes for work), but when he wears his brown pants, I usually have him wear his khaki or pink shirt. (And yes, if you’re wondering, I ‘dress’ him most days; the boy has no clue. He still doesn’t understand why you can’t wear a gray shirt with brown pants, as they’re both neutrals, and therefore you should be able to wear them with anything including other neutrals.)
Bless your soul, woman, as our debt to you is near incalculable.
That’s how it is with me. The only concern is that I’m not wearing all black or some such. I think those slacks will be going away.
PS, technically, I am Mr. Blackwell. Just not THE Mr. Blackwell.
Well, he always says “But I don’t understand!” and I tell him “You’re never going to understand, so you just have to trust me on this”.
At least once a week, he’ll call me early in the morning (he works out of town) to ask me if such-and-such a shirt will go with such-and-such pants!
Beaten to the punch again. I’ve really got to stop sleeping at night.
Shoes have to match the belt, not the pants. Brown pants with black shoes? Wear a black belt, and you’ll be golden.
No gray shirts with brown pants? What about gray shirts with khaki pants? I’m especially interested in this because, uh, I’m wearing this combination at work right now.
Hey, if you get all adventurous and wear black shoes with brown pants, what color socks do you wear? How are you supposed to pick your sock colors in general? Should I start a separate “what are the basic fashion rules?” thread? I can’t be the only one raised by wolves.
A crisp white button down with brown pants is really nice.
What a coincidence. I picked up some brown pants at Banana Republic last weekend, just because they looked nice. Today was the first day that I am wearing them and I was faced with this question this morning. The shoes, socks and belt decisions were easy. But what shirt to wear? I decided on a white shirt with pink stripes.
IMHO, gray only works with khaki if the khaki is more towards tan or buff than olive, and the shirt is more “charcoal” than true gray; IOW, if the shirt is close to black. Black and khaki is one of my favoritest combos evah.
I did not expect the brown pants thread to go this far. Weird.
Old age.
And elbow patches on ones’ sport coat.
The pants were a tan khaki, but the shirt was like gym-shirt gray. I was iffy on it myself, but I was running late and decided it likely wasn’t the worst outfit I’d ever gone to work in.
I like black and khaki too.
Yes, ma’am. I’ll have some green eyes, please.
This means I need to get a lime green top and a pair of brown scrubs, for I also would like some green eyes.
When you say brown, I assume that you mean dark brown? I only have a few dark brown bottoms, but I like to wear them with:
Lavender
Mint and Spring Green
Violet
Moss Green if it’s a cold month and I’m feeling boring (all of my moss green shirts are long sleeve.) On a side note, what I’ve always called moss green, Wikipedia calls "Fern green "
Teal
I really like the look of any pastel color (except yellow and blue) or any rich jewel tone with chocolate brown.