Monochromatic Styles & Example Color Pairings In Men's Fashion

A visual guide to different combinations

Once you know which colors look best on you, we can come up with limitless wardrobe options. Endless diversity of color combinations. Even within the same color scheme. Mix-and-match tints, shades, fabric types, and cloth textures. 

For example, black. We could have a black wool cable-knit sweater with black cotton chinos and black leather shoes/belt. Each piece of clothing has a different texture and appearance, despite being the same color. This breaks up any potential monotony, and feels different. If you had a cotton t-shirt with cotton chinos and canvas shoes, that may not look as interesting.

Here's a color-pairing example I already posted on Twitter.

For the black example here, we create visual interest by adding charcoal gray pants with a metal-link watch band and red-lens aviators. The shoes, belt, and shirt are all black, but we have a break in the middle so it doesn’t all look the same.

Simplified visuals for black/gray pairings:

Even a slight modification to your wardrobe can make a big difference. The far-right example here is a vague block of indistinguishable pieces.

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We’ll start with an infographic of 12 monochromatic style options: