Can I wear dark brown shoes with a dark gray suit?

[kozachka]

I'll be completely honest with where I am coming from with this question -I am trying to justify :loveeyes: purchase of a pair of brown shoes (picture attached below) on 50% off sale, no less, to replace my fall shoes. I work in a conservative environment (management consulting) with mostly guys and wear suits 4-5 days a week, only one of which is brown. In addition to black suits I have two dark charcoal gray suits, one skirt suit from Brooks Brothers, one pant suit from Ann Taylor Loft, and one light gray.

Can I wear dark brown shoes with a dark gray suit? I am in Europe right now if it makes any difference. A colleague of mine, a very concervative guy, keeps making slightly negative comments whenever I wear dark brown shoes with a gray suit. I told him to :30: , of course, and that gray-brown combo is completely acceptable but he did put a seed of doubt in the back of my mind.

Don't take me wrong, I do like the look of black shoes with a gray suits but it gets boring :rolleye0014: to wear the same color shoes every day. And given the price of these shoes I don't think I'd buy them if I could only wear them with my only brown suit, which I might cycle out soon as I've had it for a long time.

[jvs195]

I think you could pull it off depending on what you wear with the suit. I love the look of grey and taupe. If you had a nice taupey blouse (or another warm color-orange?) you could definitely wear the brown shoes.

[kmak]

Yes. Grey, black, brown are neutrals and can be worn with each other and colors. I'm still a little uncomfortable with dark brown and black together, but otherwise I think that these colors look great together. Also, supposedly Navy is a neutral too. I just can't accept that one though.

On a side soap box (this should probably go in the other forum), I hate it when men you work with try to tell you what to wear. And vice versa, I don't dress men. Even my DH. I'm an engineer, and I really hate it when someone who wears a button down and kakhi's EV-RY-DAY, thinks you should prior approval before wearing something that even close to modern.

[bubbaray]

Personally, I don't wear brown with grey.

Then again, if it got negative comments from a male colleague, I might do it on purpose.... he he he. I'm evil.

[MontrealMum]

I think it depends on what else you wear with it, but I don't see why you couldn't. As a pp said, they are neutrals. I, too, have problems with navy, but that's left over from my Catholic school days. I don't do the matchy matchy thing, and it's really been on it's way out for a long time. I certainly wouldn't let a man influence how I dress - unless it was your supervisor/boss and you were getting a warning for dressing inappropriately, but that's another subject entirely.

ETA: I think it also depends on what color grey you mean. I have a charcoal grey suit that I might wear chocolote brown shoes with - if it fit - though I usually wear a color instead. If it's light grey, I might rethink that.

[kozachka]

Thank you for all your replies, ladies. I also consulted with DH. He said brown shoes do not go with gray suit, which is a cool color, but once he saw pictures of the shoes in question he said they look appropriate for the office and I should buy them. So I went ahead and placed the order. Now I am keeping my fingers crossed the order would get processed.

And I know what you mean about the guy who made comments about shoes. He is more senior that I in the office although I am older than he is by a few months. We are friends. I've never worked for him but I might one day. He wrote dress-code standards for our office so I would generally take his advice seriously but not in this case. I think it's a matter of old school vs. new school. Plus he occasionally wears brown shoes with gray suit himself! You bet I pointed it out to him.

I also can't bring myself to wear brown shoes with a black suit although I could see myself wearing black shoes with a brown suit. To me black is the ultimate neutral :).

[Wife_and_mommy]

Glad you ordered the shoes. I like them. :)

Ftr, I don't/wouldn't wear brown shoes w/ a gray suit.

[ilfaith]

First of all, I love the combination of charcoal grey and chocolate brown. I have a pair of grey flannel pants (the only grey I own as it tends to wash me out) that I usually wear with a heathered brown sweater and dark brown boots. (Alas, living in Florida, I don't have many occasions to wear this ourfit...oh how I do miss my sweaters.)

Grey is not necessarily a cool color. There are cool greys (those with blue undertones) and warm greys (those with yellow undertones). I think brown shoes can be worn with either, although you may have to eyeball them together to see how you like the combination of your particulat shades.

As a previous poster mentioned, neutrals can be mixed together or worn with one or more other colors. The only combination of neutrals I can't do is black and navy, which I think makes you look as though you dressed in the dark. (I had a poorly lit bedroom and more than once put on dark navy tights with a black skirt...only to discover my error once I stepped out into daylight.)

And unless you happen to work with Tim Gunn or Clinton Kelly...don't take fashion advice from your male colleagues.