Know the Best Shoe and Belt Colors for Your Dress Suit

The traditional approach to selecting a designer belt to match your dress suit was this: don't wear one. This came from the sense that a belt interrupts the visual flow of a quality dress suit; hence the need for suspenders. Fortunately for the rest of us who prefer a quality fit without suspenders, the DeCalo Fashion expert is ready with simple guidelines to selecting the best color of designer belt and men's dress shoes to complement an elegant Italian suit.

First, the color of a designer belt should match the color of your dress shoes. Black dress shoes call for a black belt, brown shoes for a brown belt, and red wine colored shoes call for a dark brown or similarly colored belt.

The second rule has already been suggested: as much as possible, your designer belt should not interrupt the visual flow of the suit with a line around the waist that is too noticeable. This is subjective, but the guideline will help you limit the range of colors you wear, and keep you looking your best.

Following these suggestions, we prefer to match a black, dark gray, or navy suit with a black belt and shoes. Dark brown, especially red-wine or cordobon, shoes and belt are also a nice match. But we reserve our light tan shoes and belts for casual but dressy weekend attire.

When it comes to dress suits, each work environment has its own level of formality, and each man has his own sense of style. Use these guidelines as a starting point for matching the color of designer belts and dress shoes to your Italian suit, in accordance with your own tastes.