What to do with mud colour trousers

[Aloysius16]

Over the last few years I have acquired a few fairs of ‘muddy’ colour wool trousers, from beige through to green/khaki. For whatever reason I can’t find a jacket colour that looks right with them. None of my blue or brown jackets suit. What should I try next. Perhaps a more traditional tweed in a contrasting form of mud?

 

[Phileas Fogg]

A navy blazer would be a good place to start. You’ll risk looking like a corporate drone but it’s probably your best option.

p.s. no offense to corporate drones. You guys make the world go around.

 

[dieworkwear]

IMO, those are staple colors and fabrics for trousers. I wear them with nearly anything -- navy hopsack, brown tweed, heavy serge, etc.

Perhaps post a photo of a fit.

 

[Aloysius16]

A few muddy selections with navy and brown cashmere jackets. Still can’t quite compute the colours together. I have a green jacket but the tones were too similar.

 

[dieworkwear]

I think these two outfits work well

These two outfits are less successful

This is partly because the jacket vaguely looks like a suit jacket (solid color and a self-stripe that suggests a fine herringbone). Flapped pockets also contribute to this. However, hard to say in this photo, as you don't get to see the texture. It may be a very clear sport coat in real life.

Also, the jacket has a warm tone. Colors have temperatures that range from cool to neutral to warm. Cool colors have a gray cast. Warm colors have a red or yellow cast.

In most cases, the temperature of the coat and pants should match. Some examples:

In these two examples, the person has paired a cold jacket with warm pants. These outfits are better when the tops and bottoms match.

When temperatures don't match, the jacket and pants look like separate, clashing pieces. When they match, it becomes a more cohesive whole. Each item doesn't stand out so much on its own. It works in concert with the outfit.

Here is Simon pairing a warm colored tan jacket with cold grey pants. The outfit would be better if he was wearing Mark's pants

Another example: On the far left, you can see cold stone grey trousers with a cold brown jacket. The middle is neutral. Far-right is an intense blue jacket with warm tan pants. You would not be able to wear the cold brown jacket with the warm tan pants. Each jacket here fits with the temperature of the pants.

Sometimes temps don't have to match. Burgundy shoes can be worn with navy suits because of social convention. Same with Nantucket red chinos. Or you can use a warm color to enliven a summer or "happy" look. Here's Mark in a cold blue outfit, but with fox suede shoes to make the outfit look more seasonal and "happy."







With the warm brown jacket you have, I would wear that with brighter off-white pants. The pants are too "cold" looking

 

[Aloysius16]

Ah, yes, I think the colour temperature thing does explain it well. The brown jacket is a soft cashmere with a wide herringbone, so definitely not a suit, but the colour is on the warm/red side as you suggest. I think my puzzlement was about the colour temperature of the trousers. I suppose I think of muddy earth tones being red/warm, when they are not at all really.

I have another question now that I think of it. I like the shoulder style of both jackets which look similar and distinctive to many of my others. They both have very thin shoulder pads, but what feels like some wadding in the sleeve head which rounds that area out and extends the shoulder line without looking bulky. I much prefer this style to other jackets which have more height in the shoulder but are square and angular at the sleeve head (which is more common in a classic English cut I think). Is there a particular name or way of describing this style? Both jackets are Italian and certainly more than 10 years old (the blue is San Andrea for Paul Stuart, the brown is Zegna Couture).

 

[dieworkwear]

Ah, yes, I think the colour temperature thing does explain it well. The brown jacket is a soft cashmere with a wide herringbone, so definitely not a suit, but the colour is on the warm/red side as you suggest. I think my puzzlement was about the colour temperature of the trousers. I suppose I think of muddy earth tones being red/warm, when they are not at all really.

I have another question now that I think of it. I like the shoulder style of both jackets which look similar and distinctive to many of my others. They both have very thin shoulder pads, but what feels like some wadding in the sleeve head which rounds that area out and extends the shoulder line without looking bulky. I much prefer this style to other jackets which have more height in the shoulder but are square and angular at the sleeve head (which is more common in a classic English cut I think). Is there a particular name or way of describing this style? Both jackets are Italian and certainly more than 10 years old (the blue is San Andrea for Paul Stuart, the brown is Zegna Couture).

Not sure I understand what you mean about the shoulder. Do you have a photo?

 

[Aloysius16]

Rubbish photos, but the line from the top of the shoulder to the bicep seems rounder on the first jacket than the second.

Also, the first one seems to be angled a little forward and cut closer the body near the armhole. The other one (the green line) is more horizontal along the top of the shoulder and then vertical down the upper arm. The armhole area is also a bit further from the body and the shoulders are squarer rather than angled forward.Brooks Brothers typically have this kind of fit in extremis (this one isn’t BB). Sometimes this type of square shoulder jacket can have a ‘pagoda’ type shape along the shoulder line, concave rather than convex.

Maybe this isn’t a particular type of shoulder, just a question of fit though...

 

[Aloysius16]

Just noticed that the second one is probably a good example of a cool toned brown too.

 

[dieworkwear]

I don't think there's a name for that style. It's just a feature of the silhouette.

At this angle, it doesn't look like a pagoda shoulder to me.