Men Clothes Color Matching 101 (Updated)

One of the things guys ask me all the time is how to match one’s clothes. This question pertains mostly to colors because that’s where us men have the biggest problems.

How can you really stand out from the crowd?

What’s the one thing that will draw women’s eyes upon you? (without effort…)

Give up?

It’s color.

In fact, it’s not color… it’s color matching.

When you make a great color combination, you’ll really feel what it’s like to have people admire you.

Think about it:

If you stop wearing t-shirts with big logos on them or socks with sandals, you’re on the right track.

If you take good care of your personal hygiene, you’ll save yourself from embarrassing moments… But it won’t get you any attention.

If you start wearing a nice shirt or a tie, you’ll look good but you still won’t hit a home run.

BUT, if you wear a great color combination… that’s another story, isn’t it?

Learning to match colors is like learning to be good at a sport: the more you practice it, the better you become. If you’re clueless about where to start with color matching, I’m going to give you some excellent tips.

It won’t be easy at first and you’ll probably be afraid to wear this or that combination.

It’s ok, I’m here to help.

The Color Wheel to the Rescue

Let’s start with the color wheel. Do you remember it from grade school? If not, here’s a picture of it. You’ll see why we need it in a second.

Let’s throw in some notions about colors. Red, yellow and blue are called the primary colors. Any other color is a combination of these three.

The secondary colors are green, orange and purple. Mix any two primary colors in equal proportions to get them.

Two colors that are next to each-other on the color wheel are called analogous…

… and color that are on opposite sides of the wheel are complementary:

OK, now let’s see the color matching rules, that are BASED on the color wheel.

Remember these 2 Rules Forever and Ever

Analogous colors go well together only when they have the same level of intensity.

Complimentary colors create high contrasts. Be careful which ones you wear because some shades don’t go very well with one another. In general, complimentary colors go well together. Just make sure you avoid the red and green combination. You don’t want to look like an elf…

When you start to actually match your clothes, you need a lot more rules than the two above. Color intensity, luminosity and the colors’ shades need to be taken into consideration. However that’s not something you need to learn by heart.

Once you have the fundamentals, you need to start looking at stylish outfits to train your eye to feel what works and what doesn’t.

But to give you a head start, I want to spoonfeed you some of the color combinations that are used daily by myself as well as other stylish guys around the world. They’re in random order so pick whichever ones look and feel better to you.

any shade of brown + any shade of blue + a warm drop of color such as red or yellow

This color combination is the easiest one to make that will also look really cool. Brown and blue will always work together so there’s just no way you can mess this up. The hit of warm color is there to state: Yeah, I know what I’m doing.

red + brown + camel + navy blue + white

OK, this one is more complicated. It’s one of those color combinations you can use to pick up girls in a nightclub or in the street. Definitely not something you woudl wear when you visit your relatives. To tone it down, just make sure you’re not wearing too much red or too much white.

As you can see, you can decide how much you want to stand out using these colors by wearing more or less of them. You can fine tune your color matching endeavors just like a volume knob.

purple + brown + gray + green

My, oh my. If you can pull this off, you’re my hero. Purple and brown having the same level of brightness will definitely attract a lot of feminine looks. The thing is, no one wears this color combination.

Now, if you’d like to wear it but you’d also liek to tone it down just a little bit, simply replace brown with black. Black is back, as they say. In fact, black and gray, being the neutrals that they are, will work with pretty much any color on the wheel.

Good luck!