I hope you don’t mind someone new to the thread weighing in. Either is okay in most cases, though I think matching shoes to the slacks gives a longer, leaner line to the legs. This is especially true if your pants are very light and your top is very dark. In that case, having your shoes match your top chops you in three pieces, which is not always a good look if a person is short, or has proportionally short or heavy legs.
Your outfit sounds very nice!
Regarding shoes/pants - either is fine provided that your shoes are never a lighter color than your pants/tights. Wearing a dark pant with a light shoe will make your feet look like canoes. I remember seeing a woman wearing a black and white striped top, a white skirt, black tights and white shoes. I’m sure she thought that she looked very nice, but really - words fail me.
Personally, I prefer to wear a shoe/boot that’s the same color as whatever bottom I’m wearing - as KayElCee said, it makes your leg line look much longer; however, depending on the day I do mix it up once and a while - I’m wearing tan pants and brown boots today, for instance.
Finally, while it’s ok to match your shoes to your purse, it’s really not required. I’m carrying a leopard print pony bag today which goes with my boots, but doesn’t match my boots - ya know?
Your outfit sounds very nice!
Regarding shoes/pants - either is fine provided that your shoes are never a lighter color than your pants/tights. Wearing a dark pant with a light shoe will make your feet look like canoes. I remember seeing a woman wearing a black and white striped top, a white skirt, black tights and white shoes. I’m sure she thought that she looked very nice, but really - words fail me.
Personally, I prefer to wear a shoe/boot that’s the same color as whatever bottom I’m wearing - as KayElCee said, it makes your leg line look much longer; however, depending on the day I do mix it up once and a while - I’m wearing tan pants and brown boots today, for instance.
Finally, while it’s ok to match your shoes to your purse, it’s really not required. I’m carrying a leopard print pony bag today which goes with my boots, but doesn’t match my boots - ya know?
Your outfit sounds very nice!
Regarding shoes/pants - either is fine provided that your shoes are never a lighter color than your pants/tights. Wearing a dark pant with a light shoe will make your feet look like canoes. I remember seeing a woman wearing a black and white striped top, a white skirt, black tights and white shoes. I’m sure she thought that she looked very nice, but really - words fail me.
Personally, I prefer to wear a shoe/boot that’s the same color as whatever bottom I’m wearing - as KayElCee said, it makes your leg line look much longer; however, depending on the day I do mix it up once and a while - I’m wearing tan pants and brown boots today, for instance.
Finally, while it’s ok to match your shoes to your purse, it’s really not required. I’m carrying a leopard print pony bag today which goes with my boots, but doesn’t match my boots - ya know?
Your outfit sounds very nice!
Regarding shoes/pants - either is fine provided that your shoes are never a lighter color than your pants/tights. Wearing a dark pant with a light shoe will make your feet look like canoes. I remember seeing a woman wearing a black and white striped top, a white skirt, black tights and white shoes. I’m sure she thought that she looked very nice, but really - words fail me.
Personally, I prefer to wear a shoe/boot that’s the same color as whatever bottom I’m wearing - as KayElCee said, it makes your leg line look much longer; however, depending on the day I do mix it up once and a while - I’m wearing tan pants and brown boots today, for instance.
Finally, while it’s ok to match your shoes to your purse, it’s really not required. I’m carrying a leopard print pony bag today which goes with my boots, but doesn’t match my boots - ya know?
I skipped the other answers so as to have an unbiased post. Yes, you can wear a black sweater with brown pants. You should wear brown shoes, the same or a darker brown than the pants.
Uh, oops.
Mods - if you could delete about three of those, that would be swell.
I may be picky, but I never mix brown (tan or khaki is different from brown) or navy blue with black. If I wear a black top, the pants are black or some shade of grey. Or jeans. If I wear a brown top, I’d wear tan pants. If I wear a navy blue top, I’d wear tan or if it matched, a shade of grey pants. And If my shoes are black, my belt is too.
Thanks! I actually got a compliment at lunchtime, which made me feel even better about it. I’m making a mental note to duplicate this outfit the next time that I can – it might even be good enough to be a “first date” outfit. 
Of course not! I suppose I understand the reason for asking, but I can’t imagine there ever being a thread around here that would be “current participants only.” We’re a pretty easy-going bunch. 
Thanks for the shoe color advice – you’re right about the possibility that I could be visually chopped into thirds, and since I do have legs that are both short and heavy I’ll stick to shoes that match my pants.
I have a good friend whose fashion sense I really admire, and she’s been helping me update my wardrobe and stop relying on dark-colored tunics. grin I’d originally asked this question of her in an e-mail, but when I realized she might not get it/reply before this morning I created this thread. She finally replied this evening, and said, “It all depends on the shades of the blacks and browns.” She also seconds having the shoes match the pants: “There are exceptions but if it isn’t done right it looks weird.”