Red can fit well into any gentleman’s wardrobe. Wearing red can signal power, confidence, passion, and/or aggressiveness. With this typically bold color, you need to build the rest of your outfit around it. We’ll discuss how to style a red shirt to maximize its appeal.
The clothing items below work well with red shirts. To give you a better idea of how to style a red shirt, we’ll dig into how you can style each option.
- Grey pants
- Jeans / Navy pants
- Stone pants or shorts
- Underneath a jacket
Grey pants
Pairing red shirts with grey chinos works particularly well, as the muted grey tone does well to contrast and highlight the bolder red tones. And even though this combo seems basic, it’s not a very common look. This combo allows you to stand out just enough against the typical red shirt and khaki combo-wearers. Additionally, it helps that most shades of grey work with most shades of red.
For more casual situations, a solid red polo or t-shirt goes well with medium to lighter grey chinos (check out this post for some good options in grey and other colors). You can style the t-shirt with some plain white sneakers. The dressier look of the polo goes with either white sneakers or some medium brown chukka boots or loafers.
Darker grey slacks work best with red patterned dress shirts for your dressier looks, as solid red dress shirts can be a little visually overwhelming in a more formal situation.
While most business attire is dominated by shades of blue, red stripes, red checks, or red-dominated tattersall prints are easy ways to give these situations a pop of color. The darker grey slacks will subdue the red tones, keeping the look dressier and/or business appropriate. And you should stick with your brown dress shoes or loafers with red and grey combos.
Jeans / Navy pants
We’ll go ahead and group these two together, since jeans and navy pants have very similar color tones. I don’t have any studies to back this up, but pairing a red shirt with jeans or dark blue pants seems like the most common combination. And for good reason, since this darker neutral tone complements red while adding its own subtle presence of color.
You should stick to darker tones of blue (the exception being some medium or lighter denim with red t-shirts), as bright or pastel blues mixed with red can create a loud look. I’m not saying it never works, but it’s a risk that can go wrong.
An obvious choice, red t-shirts go great with jeans and white or grey sneakers. You can pair almost any shade of red with dark denim, while medium to lighter denim complements brighter or faded red very well. Another classic combo is any red shade of flannel, paired with denim and some chukka or workwear-inspired boots.
With more dressed-up casual looks, a red polo and navy chinos or slacks is a solid combo. A saturated red or burgundy OCBD or red patterned button-down goes very well with jeans or navy chinos too. A pair of brown chukka or chelsea boots, or even some loafers, will finish this look off beautifully.
On the dressier side, many of the same principles apply from dressy looks in the grey pants section. You’ll want to stick with mostly darker navy slacks and patterned red shirts. Medium to darker brown dress shoes work well in this situation.
Stone pants or shorts
Red shirts and light stone or white chinos or shorts can make a great warm weather combo, which works best for casual looks. Think a red t-shirt or casual polo and stone shorts, white jeans, or light tan chinos. Red patterned short-sleeve button downs are great for this combo too, especially for warm weather looks.
With the lighter colored bottoms, you can stick with the typical footwear – white sneakers or brown loafers/desert boots – or you can experiment a little with different color and style shoes. Grey or blue sneakers, tan boat shoes, and grey or dark brown suede driving loafers are just a few ideas that can add a unique flair to this color combination.
Underneath a jacket
In the colder months, it can be hard to add color to your outfits (check out this article if you’re looking for more inspiration). A red shirt peaking out from your jackets or outerwear can give a punch to your outfits during these dreary months.
Red t-shirts or patterned button downs under a navy, grey, or even black jacket work well. Trucker jackets, shirt jackets, chore coats, field jackets, and bomber jackets are ideal for casual situations in cool (but not frigid) temperatures. For more formal looks, a subtle red patterned button down will add a nice bit of color underneath a sport coat, pea coat, or overcoat.
As this post has shown, you can style a red shirt in quite a few different ways. Red is not a terribly difficult color to integrate into your lineup, especially if you have a warmer skin tone. But if you don’t execute correctly, it can look overly loud or clownish. Make sure to accompany any bolder red shirts with more subdued colors and patterns. And as always, try some different outfits and see what looks best.