9 Simple Ways for Men to Look Better in Earth Tones

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In the current trends of modern menswear, monochromatic looks of gray, black, and blue are becoming increasingly commonplace. While there can be a certain chic element to many of these types of looks, they aren’t the only options for you when trying to look stylish. Today, we unearth how earth tones can also provide a positive effect on your outfits!

When we look at the color schemes within nature for inspiration, we find a variety of hues that we can use to help us create certain outfits. Colors like orange, yellow, or the brown of an autumn tree or a crisp blue lake surrounded by pink, green, and purple foliage; you can find numerous color schemes that can be incorporated into a variety of outfits on all levels of formality.

While some might write these colors off as being drab or uninspiring, we can’t find this to be further from the truth. In fact, these looks will inherently carry a lower contrast to them and will work with any skin tone. They also allow you to stand out from the crowd with bold color statements, which are usually avoided in menswear, without looking out of place.

What Exactly Are Earth Tones?

While this answer can vary slightly depending on who you might ask, the most widely seen answer is that it’s usually something associated with brown and something that’s also associated with plants and soil. This creates a subconsciously inviting situation for the onlooker and puts anyone at ease with their surroundings.

If you are curious about color theory and how to incorporate different methods within your outfits, we have a guide to using the color wheel in menswear ensembles to help you out.

Raphael wearing an olive green coat with a tan vest, diagonal stripe tie, white & blue check shirt, Blue Cornflower Boutonniere, & cream pants plus green gloves.
Raphael wearing an olive green coat with a tan vest, diagonal stripe tie, white & blue check shirt, Blue Cornflower Boutonniere, & cream pants plus green gloves.
Dark Blue Cornflower Boutonniere Buttonhole Flower Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Dark Blue Cornflower Boutonniere Buttonhole Flower Fort Belvedere

Petrol Blue Men's Gloves with Button in Lamb Nappa Leather by Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Petrol Blue Men's Gloves with Button in Lamb Nappa Leather by Fort Belvedere

Cashmere Wool Grenadine Tie in Dark Blue, Burgundy, Light Grey Stripe - Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Cashmere Wool Grenadine Tie in Dark Blue, Burgundy, Light Grey Stripe – Fort Belvedere

Pale Green Rabbits on Mid Blue Silk Wool Pocket Square - Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Pale Green Rabbits on Mid Blue Silk Wool Pocket Square – Fort Belvedere

Earth colors will be in either saturated or neutral-based color tones. This means that they’ll be a bit more muted and flat. If you imagine an autumn tree’s color scheme, you’ll see very rich yellows and oranges. They’re sharp in color, but they don’t overpower the brown intent of the bark.

As far as what hues make up earth tone’s color palette, the most obvious ones are going to be shades of brown or tan and colors like umber or sienna. But, they can also be variations of blue, green, yellow, orange, red, pink, or purple. These colors will often be more rich and somber in the fall and winter seasons and carry a more pastel and lively tone in spring and summer.

Raphael wearing an Earth-toned outfit.
Raphael wearing an Earth-toned outfit.
Silk Pocket Square in Brown with Blue, Green, Red Large Paisley Pattern- Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Silk Pocket Square in Brown with Blue, Green, Red Large Paisley Pattern- Fort Belvedere

Orange Bronze Rust Suede Men's Dress Leather Gloves with Cashmere Lining Button by Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Orange Bronze Rust Suede Men's Dress Leather Gloves with Cashmere Lining Button by Fort Belvedere

The greatest strength of this color palette is that it’s incredibly versatile. It provides a number of ways in which you can bring flashes of color into your outfit and it can give a much more casual feel than the more industrial grays and blacks found in many men’s wardrobes.

9 Ways To Look Great In Earth Tones

1. Wear a Sport Coat or Leather Jacket in Brown or Tan

Since brown is the anchor of the earth tone color palette, it makes sense to have your larger garment be the foundation to anchor it all together. This color palette is inherently more casual, so it makes sense to include it in ensembles that are more casual by design.

Tweed was created as outdoor clothing meant to be worn in the British countryside and certainly as a form of camouflage during activities like hunting. This means most tweed sport coats have elements of brown, red, green, or blue built into them by proxy.

A sport coat in a brown shade opens a lot of possibilities in style.
A sport coat in a brown shade opens a lot of possibilities in style.
Grenadine Silk Tie in Brown - Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Grenadine Silk Tie in Brown – Fort Belvedere

Silk Pocket Square in Brown with Blue Paisley - Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Silk Pocket Square in Brown with Blue Paisley – Fort Belvedere

There are also fabrics like camel hair, which are naturally a brown color and further helped to reinforce this color scheme. Leather jackets are often dyed a variation of brown ranging from a deep umber to a bright rust color. This makes them an easily accessible layering piece and either a casual or even a business casual setting.

With this brown base, you can wear shirts that are variations of light, dark blue; shirts with yellow, green, pink, or orange bases, and pants that can either be tan, olive, or navy in complexion.

2. Wear a Brown or Olive Suit

Taking this a step further would be to have a full suit ensemble consisting of either brown or olive. Both of these colors were, at one point, commonplace during The Golden Age of Menswear, but have since become much more obscure in most modern men suiting today.

Now, wearing a brown suit and either a charcoal brown, a pinstriped, or a tobacco brown, or even an olive suit will carry a much more rustic nature. This will serve you well in creating lower contrast looks consisting of earth tones.

Charcoal Brown Business Suit with a more subtle shade of brown shoes.
Charcoal Brown Business Suit with a more subtle shade of brown shoes.
Shantung Striped Green, Purple and Cream Silk Tie - Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Shantung Striped Green, Purple and Cream Silk Tie – Fort Belvedere

Dark Green Silk Pocket Square with Orange Dots Motifs and Blue Paisley - Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Dark Green Silk Pocket Square with Orange Dots Motifs and Blue Paisley – Fort Belvedere

These can also be paired with blue, cream, and off-white colored shirts and can pair with green, purple, and orange accessories particularly well. The earth tones create that harmonious look where elements of the colors are found within the brown itself.

3. Wear Brown or Khaki Outerwear

Another element from The Golden Age of Menswear that’s slightly unusual today is to have overcoats consisting of earth tones. This can include some that are made from a tweed fabric, camel hair, or the khaki color often found in trench coats.

This Heinz Becker overcoat in tan color is complemented by further earth tones in the dark green gloves and burgundy scarf .
This Heinz Becker overcoat in tan color is complemented by further earth tones in the dark green gloves and burgundy scarf.
Dark Green Men's Gloves with Button in Lamb Nappa Leather by Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Dark Green Men's Gloves with Button in Lamb Nappa Leather by Fort Belvedere

Reversible Scarf in Burgundy Red and Blue Silk Wool Motifs and Paisley - Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Reversible Scarf in Burgundy Red and Blue Silk Wool Motifs and Paisley – Fort Belvedere

These would work well with the olive combinations we’ve mentioned before, and camel hair can also help to liven up a charcoal or a gray-colored suit when on the move. The only downside with owning outerwear in this color is that it can show dirt and wear from the elements much more readily and can cost a bit more to maintain. Just something to keep in mind.

4. Bring in Accessories with Earth Tones

A more affordable way to start incorporating earth tones into your outfits is to focus on the accessories that have a lot of earth tones within them. This can be done with outfits that might not seem like they have a lot of room for earth tones, to begin with. For example, adding a green tie to a navy or gray suit or an orange tie can make any outfit look a little less formal. Other elements that can create this effect are pairing elements of purple and green, yellow and blue, red, pink, and green.

Dark green silk pocket square paired with a bluish-green tweed vest, a houndstooth flannel suit in dark brown and off-white as well as a white shirt, and a brown and green striped shantung silk tie.
Dark green silk pocket square paired with a bluish-green tweed vest, a houndstooth flannel suit in dark brown and off-white as well as a white shirt, and a brown and green striped shantung silk tie.
Dark Green Silk Pocket Square with Orange Dots Motifs and Blue Paisley - Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Dark Green Silk Pocket Square with Orange Dots Motifs and Blue Paisley – Fort Belvedere

Shantung Striped Brown, Bottle Green and White Silk Tie - Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Shantung Striped Brown, Bottle Green and White Silk Tie – Fort Belvedere

Brown ties are also a very underrated accessory and can work incredibly well with gray, navy, and brown colored jackets.

5. Look Beyond White Dress Shirts

While white dress shirts are incredibly useful and deserve plenty of space within a classic wardrobe, relying on them too much can stagnate an outfit. Try using a lower contrast shirt to bring the ensemble together. For example, using a light blue or cream-colored shirt can lower the contrast of an outfit. This will help mesh together color schemes that would otherwise be too dark when using just a plain white shirt.

Light blue dress shirts
Consider other hues such as light blue on your dress shirts to lower the contrast on your outfit.

Brown jackets can be better served with shirts and colors like blue, cream, and green, as opposed to white. This will help catch the primary colors that create brown. This makes the white shirt less important in a wardrobe that incorporates these colors.

6. Introduce Brown and Tan Into Your Trousers

Instead of just wearing jeans casually and gray dress pants, look to include brown or tan chinos or dress pants. While most jeans are blue, depending on their distressing, they can help create earth tone-based outfits. There’s a greater variety that comes from wearing tan chinos and can cover a multitude of different formalities.

While wearing chinos, it’s much easier to create business casual outfits when wearing boots and dress shoes. They can also be worn in more casual situations where jeans might often be worn. More often than not, many of us gravitate toward worsted and flannel dress pants in various shades of gray.

brown trousers
Adding a brown or tan trouser can help create an Earth tone to your outfit.

While these are a great choice and serve as a wonderful neutral backdrop to most outfits, they can prove to be not so optimal when trying to create a more earth tone-based palette. Brown dress pants aren’t seen as frequently but can serve as a positive alternative to this, especially if you are one who enjoys a much lighter brown dress shoe. The contrast against the dark brown pants will look seamlessly together.

7. Look Into Wearing Hats or Caps

Another area that gets overlooked in most men’s wardrobes is hats. If you’re someone who has any interest in exploring them, an easy entry point is found in styles like the flat cap and the newsboy cap. Most of these will be made of tweed for the outdoorsman origin, and inherently will also include many earth tones.

Flat caps and newsboy caps are an easy entry and usually comes in Earth colors.
Flat caps and newsboy caps are an easy entry and usually comes in Earth colors.
Velvet Edelweiss Boutonniere Buttonhole Flower Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Edelweiss Boutonniere Buttonhole Flower Fort Belvedere

Shantung Striped Green, Purple and Cream Silk Tie - Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Shantung Striped Green, Purple and Cream Silk Tie – Fort Belvedere

Navy Blue Gray Suede Unlined Leather Mens Gloves with Button by Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Navy Blue Gray Suede Unlined Leather Mens Gloves with Button by Fort Belvedere

Madder Silk Pocket Square in Purple with Green Diamond Motif and Red Paisley- Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Madder Silk Pocket Square in Purple with Green Diamond Motif and Red Paisley- Fort Belvedere

They mix well with most business casual ensembles and mesh well with our overall theme here. 

8. Opt for Brown Dress Shoes

Black dress shoes work best for dark worsted suits and look off when trying to be paired with more of an earth tone-based outfit. This is due to the fact that there usually isn’t as much contrast between the black and the brown.

Shoes that are made with the highest quality doesn't just look nice, they will also last longer.
Mid-brown shoes often have more variety when paired with Earth-toned outfits.

Mid-brown dress shoes will have the largest amount of variety followed right behind by light brown dress shoes. You could also explore getting suede dress shoes in brown or blue if you frequently wear more casual ensembles.

9. Incorporate Earth-toned Sweaters and Vests

One underrated element where you can include more earth tones is in your sweaters. This can include something like a crew neck or v-neck sweater or even a turtleneck. This works well since they serve as a neutral base to help tone down any louder patterns and help ground your outfit.

A vest in a shade of brown helps tone down loud patterns for a more formal outfit.
A vest in a shade of brown helps tone down loud patterns for a more formal outfit.
Knit Tie in Solid Rust Orange Silk - Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Knit Tie in Solid Rust Orange Silk – Fort Belvedere

Brick Red Pocket Square Art Deco Egyptian Scarab pattern in green, orange, yellow, blue with green contrast edge by Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Brick Red Pocket Square Art Deco Egyptian Scarab pattern in green, orange, yellow, blue with green contrast edge by Fort Belvedere

A light brown or a buff vest can create a similar effect for more formal outfits.

Conclusion

It might be tempting to go for foundational colors in menswear like black, gray, and blue, and even stick to just one of those basic hues for an entire look! Make your looks more dynamic by introducing colors into your outfit, such as earth tones. They are a great way to start, without risking looking too bold, and when done right, the colors of nature can bring out a naturally stylish outfit overall.

How do you like to use Earth tones in your looks? Share your techniques in the comments!

Outfit Rundown

Kyle wearing a turtleneck paired with dark blue denim and brown dress shoes.
Kyle wearing a turtleneck paired with dark blue denim and brown dress shoes.
Shadow Stripe Ribbed Socks Dark Brown and Beige Fil d'Ecosse Cotton - Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Shadow Stripe Ribbed Socks Dark Brown and Beige Fil d'Ecosse Cotton – Fort Belvedere

Today, I’m wearing a green vest and a tan wool turtleneck paired with dark blue denim, and brown dress shoes. And then, I’m tying it all off with a pair of brown shadow-striped Fort Belvedere socks. For accessories, like the socks you see today, check out the Fort Belvedere shop.

Reader Comments

  1. Maybe I have not been using the term “earth tone” correctly, but I would never have included blue or purple among earth tones, and I certainly would never count anything that is of a saturated color (1:37) as an earth tone. It seems to me that Kyle was nearer the mark when he said that earth tones are colors that are brown or brownish, as those are the colors of earth.

    7:26 The caps shown in the video are NOT newsboy caps. They are flat caps. A newsboy cap has a crown of full cut made of six wedges stitched together with a button in the center.

    1. While I wouldn’t have considered some of these colors “earth tones” at first either, Miles, the research done by our scriptwriter has persuaded me to consider the definition more broadly (keeping in mind, of course, that a stricter understanding would indeed be limited to brown hues).

      As for the point about caps, you’re quite correct! The transcript here on the website has been updated. Thanks for keeping us honest!

  2. Looking at the pictures, I believe Raphael looks best in earth tones…made for his complexion. Well done this article!

  3. Earth tones, broadly speaking, would be those which derive their inspiration from the natural environment. That would include browns, tans, greens, olives and rusts (yes, a bit redundant, as some of those are blends of the others). What I suggest as an addition to this discussion is a differentiation between warm and cool tones. Browns with a grayer base would be classified as “cool”, such as what I call “heather brown”. Holland and Sherry had the perfect example in a glen plaid, several years ago, in their Chequers collection. Taupe, as opposed to classic suntan/khaki, would be cooler…think classic “army pink”. The tones that have a higher yellow content are the warmer versions, like golden olives and browns.

    Those with clearer skin tones look better in the cool tones (I fall into that category, thus, missing out on some of the most beautiful production of jacketing producers). Warmer colored people (ruddy or creamy complexioned, red or golden haired folks) look their very best in those timeless warmly hued tweeds. An example would be (from an American perspective) a classic deep green blazer. One that leans to the “blue”side would look best on those of us more coolly hued. One with more brownish, olive based tone would better complement warmer features. The differences are subtle. The results are magnificent, or somewhat less so when wrong!

    FWIW, the photo of the tan houndstooth jacket with the pale blue denims is a bit washed out, and doesn’t do the lovely jacket justice.

  4. Great column. Earthtones in many ways are much more interesting than the traditional gray black blue. It’s also true for those of us with dark skin or brown eyes or brown hair or brown beard earth tones are just much warmer and flattering to us. The challenge is when one ages and goes gray and suddenly one discovers that the dark classic colors look good. Then the question becomes how to have both earth tones and the traditional colors in one’s wardrobe. Thanks again

  5. Previous military experience predisposes me to earth tones. I love ’em and eagerly look forward to Fall each year. I’m good with browns from dark to very light tans and “stone”, olive to deep forest greens, burnt oranges and yellows. Except for a pink flamingo pocket square for summer wear, pink is definitely not in my ensemble rotation. Of course you can acceptably throw just about any color combination at jeans, however, I cannot tolerate mixing more than a limited amount of muted blues or perhaps very dark reds with my earth tones.

  6. Yes thanks for the good article. I have a suit in exactly the same shade of charcoal brown that Raphael wears in this. And a tan overcoat. Most underrated colours. If the majority never makes it as popular as grey, it will be their loss!

  7. I just read a review, in the WSJ, of a book everyone might like. “Dress Codes” by Richard Thompson Ford. Mr Ford is a law professor at Stanford. He is well published.

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