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Do dark brown shoes go with a dark navy blue suit?

Von Kaiser

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I have a navy blue suit that almost looks black. My brown shoes are quite dark. I was thinking about wearing an orange tie and white shirt with all of it. I thought the dark brown shoes would compliment the orange tie pretty well. Now I'm being told that the only kind of brown shoe that could go with a navy blue suit is light brown. I disagree. Who's right?
 

Matt S

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If the navy is as dark as you say I wouldn't wear that with anything other than black shoes. For a fashionable look people wear light brown shoes with lighter navy. It's not for work. An orange tie, light navy suit and light brown shoes sounds like it would be nice, but things are different with a dark navy. Other than black shoe, burgundy shoes would also look good. But I think dark brown should be saved for charcoal and medium grey.
 

anginaprinzmetal

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Originally Posted by Matt S
If the navy is as dark as you say I wouldn't wear that with anything other than black shoes. For a fashionable look people wear light brown shoes with lighter navy. It's not for work. An orange tie, light navy suit and light brown shoes sounds like it would be nice, but things are different with a dark navy. Other than black shoe, burgundy shoes would also look good. But I think dark brown should be saved for charcoal and medium grey.

+1
 

rnoldh

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Pictures sure would help.
 

Achilles_

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Personally I like brown shoes with anything but black. Dark brown especially. Pictures would help.
 

Leaves

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If it's for work and you work in a conservative sector, wear black shoes. Otherwise, pick the colour you like and think looks best, that's the most important thing don't you think?
smile.gif
 

ktrp

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Regarding how it looks, I imagine it looks reasonable. Dark tan might look more interesting, but its not reasonable to suggest dark brown lacks sufficient contrast with navy but black is somehow fine.

Whether they are appropriate is another question, and depends on the formality level, country, and location you are dealing with.
 

ArtOrSartor

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I can't say for sure without seeing anything, but I would say yes to the brown shoes. Of course, the caveat is that I don't like black shoes in the first place. If the navy is so dark it's almost black and the shoes are black, you run the risk of hitting that no man's land of having colors that are close but not quite close enough. It could produce that weird sensation where you look at something and you can tell that it's not right, but you can't quite figure out what it is and you don't want people saying that about you.

Black shoes seem more likely to just be a single, flat color throughout. That might make you look like a big suit-shaped blob of dark that has something just slightly off about it. On the other hand, in my experience, brown shoes tend to have more internal variation that gives your outfit a little more life.
 

bleachboy

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Personally, I think just about any color of shoe would work fine with a navy suit.
 

essej

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I also have a dark navy suit that so dark it is almost indistinguishable from black and matching shoes with it sucks.
 

DerekS

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i wore a navy suit yestereday with a pair of chocolate brown monk straps. looked great. at least i thought so.
 

Quadcammer

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brown works great with navy. I prefer a more tobacco color, but dark brown will look good.
 

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