Take Your Suits to the Next Level…Using Colorful Socks!

With a relatively sedate color palette for suits, colorful accessories are one of the best way to inject color into classic menswear ensembles, and socks are one of the simplest and most fun ways to do so. Today, we’ll teach you how to pair colorful socks with suits to create a vibrant and beautiful rainbow and not a muddy mess.

A colorful pair of socks can be a great addition to your suit ensembles because the relative distance from your center of mass means that you can add unique and unexpected colors without being visually overwhelming. Colorful socks can also pick out other colors in your outfit; that’s why wearing colorful socks is actually a long-standing tradition in classic menswear, and it’s one of the ten keys to exceptional menswear that was adapted by vintage men.

Because we already have an extensive library of content pertaining to pairing your socks with your outfits, today’s guide will focus on pairing colorful socks with suits. This approach will allow us to emphasize ways that you can add color to even relatively formal looks, all with the aid of colorful socks.

What We Mean By Colorful Socks

But, first, we should be clear about what we mean by colorful socks. Technically speaking, one could argue that any socks that have some kind of color to them are colorful socks; but practically speaking, that definition doesn’t hold when discussing menswear. Therefore, we’ll define colorful socks as socks with patterns, or solids that feature a variety of colors, or unusual, individual colors.

So, for example, a pair of solid, dark navy blue socks are not colorful because dark navy blue is a very commonplace, sedate color in menswear, while a pair of solid yellow socks are colorful because yellow is a bright, bold color that is not as commonplace in menswear. A dark navy sock with orange stripes is colorful because it pairs a commonplace color with a more unique color. And finally, stripe socks that include navy blue and white are colorful because they combine multiple colors together, even if they are all relatively commonplace.

Because our channel is focused on classic menswear, it will not be discussed in the subcategory of colorful socks that include novelty socks, crazy socks, or statement socks – which you can learn more about from Raphael in another guide – because they are extremely loud, excessively bright, and vibrant. They’re simply too outlandish and whimsical for most of our looks, but if you can pull them off, more power to you.

Colorful Socks and Formality

Before starting, we should also make a quick note about colorful socks and formality. In most cases, the more formal the event is, the stricter the rule about colorful socks, so be mindful of the formality scale when determining how colorful to make your socks.

Black evening socks, for example, will almost always be mandatory for Black Tie affairs, unless the invitation explicitly invites Festive Formal or creative Black Tie. Also, colorful socks don’t belong at somber events like a funeral, and while light blue and yellow is a lovely look for more casual summer suit, it’ll be too casual for many conservative offices or business meetings, even though colorful dress socks and more conventional colors like blue and green are perfectly office-appropriate.

You can use our dress code guides to determine what kinds and whether or not colorful stocks can be worn with various dress codes.

With casual garments like jeans, denim, sport shirts, shorts, and the like, you can get very wild with your socks, up to and including crazy and novelty socks if desired. But, for most suit ensembles, especially more formal examples, you’ll probably want to stick with a more classic colorful socks that we’ll be discussing here.

Why You Should Wear Colorful Socks?

Of course, they’re your feet, so if you feel like experimenting with wild and crazy colors, your socks are a good place to do it because they’re relatively discreet and unobtrusive.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau famously enjoys novelty socks, even for State occasions, so don’t be afraid to have a little fun yourself, though those crazy socks haven’t set off any diplomatic incidents that we know of.

Sock Styling Tips: 1. Capitalize on Color Theory

Mastering the basics of how to coordinate and combine colors is an essential skill in menswear and is especially important when styling accessories like socks. Understanding why certain colors like red and green or yellow and purple naturally complement each other will create a starting point for you as you experiment with employing colorful socks and will also help you avoid colors that clash and look unappealing.

Preston will help you master this information in our guide on how to use the color wheel to assemble superior outfits. We highly recommend it, because it will serve you well in nearly every aspect of assembling beautiful colorful classic ensembles.

2. Practice and Progress with Pigment Perspicacity

Once you’ve learned the basics of color theory, it’s time to start practicing on how to employ that knowledge as it pertains to colorful socks. You’ll want to practice the basics before moving on to more advanced and unusual colorful sock combinations.

If you spend most of your life wearing black or navy socks with your black shoes, you probably don’t want to skip directly to wearing technicolor, rainbow socks. It would be like learning how to drive and then immediately entering a Formula 1 race.

Instead, we suggest starting with colors that are rich and appealing, but also relatively sedate and fairly common in menswear. This will make it easier to harmonize your colorful socks with your current suit ensembles without the risk of seeming excessive or unintentionally clashing. 

Exceptional beginner rules include blue, dark reds, brown and similar earth tones, and greens, especially olive green. After you’ve experimented with socks and these more foundational colors and seeing how they interact with your suit selection, you can determine what more vibrant colors you can add, which will complement your existing wardrobe, such as socks in pinks, oranges, yellow, and purples.

This approach will allow you to learn which colorful socks do and don’t complement your suits as you practice with an ever-widening rainbow of colors.

3. Cleverly Combine Colors

After you’ve learned the basics of color theory and how those colors interact with your own suit selection, you can apply the cardinal rule of classic sock matching: match your socks to your trousers, not your shoes, because the interaction between your socks and trousers is more noticeable as a part of your entire outfit.

There are many ways for you to pleasingly harmonize your sock color and your trouser color, which in a true suit, will also be the color of your jacket. You can match the colors by employing colors from the same family, like shades of blue.

This approach is relatively easy to do and generally produces more conservative, formal looks. You can also use complementary colors and naturally set each off in a pleasing way, like orange and blue. These pairings are a good option for regular wear because they are visually interesting but not too loud.

Finally, you can make a statement with socks and trousers that contrast and, therefore, make all the colors stand out even more, like red and buff. By harmonizing your socks with your trousers, you can make the most of the colors you’re employing in all aspects of your outfit, while still looking refined and stately.

4. Classic Patterns Offer Awesome Color Opportunities

When it comes to bringing more color into your colorful socks, patterns offer a wide range of opportunities. Classic patterns, in particular, can support many colors, while maintaining a good sense of balance and subtle dignity.

Some of our favorite colorful sock patterns include two-tones, stripes, argyle, and understated, repeating patterns like paisley, clocks, geometrics, and polka dots. To maintain a more formal atmosphere but through colorful patterned socks, keep the sock body in more conservative color, with more vibrant colors in the detailing. These classic patterns will allow you to introduce many colors into your socks that will harmonize well with your suit.

5. Pair Patterns Perfectly

While the patterns of your socks are a great way to introduce color, how those patterns, or lack of a pattern interact with your suit is also important. In general, suits with solid colors look best with patterned socks because the obvious contrast prevents the division between socks and trousers from becoming muddied.

Conversely, patterned suits look best with solid color socks because the juncture of the two is less likely to appear visually overwhelming, to the extent that yellow socks with green shoes and checked trousers can be considered less visually overwhelming.

Of course, you can also match solids with solids and patterns with patterns, like pairing pattern socks with a patterned suit with more subtle matching colors to unite the two patterns. Unless you want a very bold look, be sure the patterns you’ve selected don’t clash.

When pairing solid suits with solid socks, ensuring a higher contrast between the two will avoid dull combinations, while more proximate colors will appear more formal.

By taking both your sock and suit patterns into consideration, you can make sure that your look appears holistic and well put together from top to bottom.

6. Offset the Sensational with the Sedate

As you play around with colorful socks, you’ll quickly find that some colors are simply much bolder than others, and, therefore, somewhat less versatile in the classic style. You can still utilize these colors in your outfits; however, by pairing brighter or bolder colors with more common neutral colors. This allows you to introduce a fun, vibrant color without going overboard, while the more understated colors allow for wider versatility and visually calms everything down. 

Dual-color pairings – like those found in striped or two-tone socks – are one of the easiest ways to apply this principle. Common color pairings and classic menswear include blue and yellow, charcoal and orange, red and gray, blue and orange, and pink and gray. Pairings like these make it much easier to introduce unexpected colors.

Although, some colors will simply be too bold or loud for a classic palette. Usually, any color with electric or neon before its name will be a strong indicator.

7. Use Texture to Tone Down Titanic Tints

Speaking of loud colors, when dealing with a vibrant solid sock, you can use texture to tone down what might otherwise be an excessively brash, bold color. The satin-like weave of this plum sock is just a little too reminiscent of a cheap, synthetic silk necktie; conversely, the slightly stubbier, ribbed texture on these plum socks looks less synthetic and more natural, and, therefore, generally more appealing.

Sock texture is generally the result of how the socks are woven or from what material they are made. So, if the color is just a little too out there for you in one texture, try a different texture to see if the greater visual interest of the weave or material takes some attention off how vibrant the color actually is.

8. Sample Seasonality

Another way to rock wilder colors is to keep them seasonally appropriate and savor seasonal sock sensations according to the Italian sartorial tradition of scorpacciata, which Preston explains in a separate post. Rotating your socks based on season colors will give you more leeway in selecting colors and more opportunities for expanding your sock color horizons.

Oftentimes, colors that are in season can be worn with relative ease, even if they are relatively bold. Pink socks would be strongly out of place in a winter wonderland but are perfect with the pastels of spring. Inversely, while a dark navy and orange sock might appear a little heavy and plotting in summer, it’s ideal on a crisp, fall day. As they say, to everything, there is a season, and that applies to socks as well

9. Suits Can Offset Socks (and Vice Versa)

While socks can have a big impact on your overall look, they offer a relatively small portion of the outfit itself. Therefore, you can always tone down the overall impact of a pair of colorful socks by pairing them with a more conventional suit because the greater bulk of the suit compensates for and somewhat obscures the socks. Obviously, the socks will still be noticeable, but the more conservative suit will make the entire look less overwhelming.

Accordingly, a colorful suit, paired with colorful, bold socks, can appear exponentially more dramatic, but more subtle colorful socks can also go a long way to toning down a more outlandish suit. Ultimately, socks are a small portion of your outfit, and how they interact with your suit can sometimes have a bigger impact than just the socks themselves.

10. Don’t Forget Your Shoes!

We’ll close today by noting that, while we have been focused on pairing socks with suits today, your shoes also have an important role to play in crafting an elegant, refined look. To help you cover this topic, we recommend that you acquire our guide to combining socks, shoes, and pants, which you can download for free.

Conclusion

Colorful socks can be integrated into most suit ensembles without sacrificing the fun that colorful socks entail or compromising on the formality of a suit. Although with apologies to Prime Minister Trudeau, it would feel a little out of place when addressing the World Economic Forum while wearing rubber duckies on our socks.

Let us know in the comments how you like wearing colorful socks, and if you’ve got any favorite color combinations!

Outfit Rundown

I’m wearing a navy suit with a gray turtleneck and a dark blue-and-purple-infused pocket square, along with some shadow-striped Fort Belvedere socks. Check out the Fort Belvedere shop for socks like these.