When it comes to picking the complementary colour of your belt, it is always safe to pick a belt colour that matches your shoes. A brown belt will go with brown shoes and a black belt will go with a pair of black shoes.
Belt Color Rules With Shoes
A common misunderstanding of customers is that they must find the exact shoe colour match when shopping for a brown belt hence many customers tend to place the belt next to the shoe when looking for a colour match. We would love to have a wardrobe that has a matching belt for every shade of shoes we own...but in reality there is always a constraint on space, budget, and belt shades! Exact colour matching belts and shoes is a luxury that only high spending sartorial aficionados can afford. But even if you can afford it, it is not necessary; remember the belt is worn on the waist and is at least more than 1 meter apart from your shoes. The human eye is unlikely to detect the variances of two shades at 1 meter apart! For that reason, instead of finding an exact match, settle for the closest match and to do so make sure you keep the belt at a distance from your shoes and if the variances in shade are not screamingly different, your search has moved to a hotter spot.
This tip is relevant to brown belts: to find your closest match of a brown belt, first understand that “base” shade of brown of your shoes; browns are created from red-orange, yellow, blue, and green tints. Picking a belt with the same colour tint will likely ensure a close match. Buying all your brown shoes with the same base tint allows you to have varying shades of brown shoes without incurring the necessity of owning too many belts to match with them!
Belt Color Rules With Menswear
For menswear, brown and black are the most popular and versatile colors for formal and casual leather belts; while a 34 mm width brown belt may be worn for formal and even with casual outfits, black belts don’t pair well with jeans and khakis.
Belt Color Rules For Womenswear
With womenswear, matching belt colours with shoes’ colours and textures is a simple and effortless approach to create a coordinated look and help make your outfit look and feel expensive. It is not necessary that shoes and belts for womenswear must match. In womenswear, belts can be an accent or centrepiece accessory (in simple speak “complementing a look” or “creating a focal point” for the outfit) and therefore are worn to reflect the style and personality of the wearer.
Belt Color Rules For Casual Wear
When wearing leather and non-leather belts for casual wear, colours can really run the gamut to every kind of pattern and hue. Here we can relax the belt-shoe rule a little. For example, the au-courant trend of white sneakers does not call for white belts; instead, choose a colour belt that best suits the colour tone and mood of your outfit or even your watch strap.
Buckle Plating Rules
Matching the colour of the metal watch strap with the buckle colour plating is a less observed rule in styling but it can be a visual faux-pas to the sharp-dresser with a sharp-eye. The rules are simple, pick a silver-plated buckle to match with your silver-plated watch strap and a gold buckle for a gold watch strap. Brass buckles are an exception but are nonetheless best worn with watches with leather straps.
