Can you wear a white shirt with blue pants?

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What Matches With Navy Pants?

When it comes to sporting navy pants, it's actually not immediately obvious what colors and styles of shirts work with navy. So doing some research beforehand into what color shirts go with navy blue pants is a wise move on your part.

Mixing and trying to match up can get a bit confusing and you don't want something that simply doesn't work out. That said, navy blue pants can actually be pretty versatile with a range of shirts, so it is just about knowing what colors work and what don't. What provides good contrast, and what are the colors to typically try and avoid?

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White Shirt and Navy Pants

Although the navy blue above is a bit more on the light side, you can see that pairing dark-colored navy blue pants can work well with a lighter-colored shirt. If you're looking for an option where you really can't go wrong, no matter your shade of navy. Then opting for a crisp white shirt will look good no matter what. It's the ideal combination to bring about an elegant monochrome style outfit.

Top this off with a pair of your favorite loafers to match your belt, ideally in a dark or light-colored brown, and you've got a great look. Personally, I would tend to avoid black in most instances as sometimes combining black and navy can end up not meshing overly well.

Black Shirt and Navy Pants

Again, the opposite end of the spectrum, where you go all black. This is an option that can work particularly well if your navy blue pants are lighter in tone and can give you a pretty darn sleek look. Especially when you pair it up with lighter-based accessories such as the lighter-colored tie above or some light-based tan shoes as well, this can really complete an outfit. That said it is not as safe as an option as the white shirt. So if you're feeling a bit more adventurous, go ahead and choose the black option.

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Light Blue Shirt

Other than a white shirt with navy blue pants, getting a really light blue shirt works great with navy. They are of the same color orientation, so using the lighter version of navy is a great way to create light and dark contrast but work really well together as well.

What's particularly good about a light blue shirt is that you can dress it up if it needs to be formal, but then you quickly roll up the sleeves, lose the tie and unbutton the shirt to create a more casual look as well. Plus, you can make use of black shoes in a much more approachable and contrast-conscious way as well than most other colors.

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Gray Shirts

Again, another safe color to opt for, especially a lighter gray, will give similar looks to the light blue shirt as well. Plus, it's quite conservative, so you can dress it up or down depending on the situation, and you know that gray is a very versatile color to work with, and they look great together.

Hopefully, you can also gather from the above gray shirt that it's a good idea to experiment with layers of wearing different tops underneath your shirts to create a more sophisticated yet casual look. It's also a good idea to experiment with the textures of your shirts that you're combining with your pants, a rougher texture like the shirt worn above offers a more rustic feel.

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Shirt Styles

Be sure not to just think about the shirt color but also the style as well; navy pants can work particularly well with larger fleece style shirts, as seen above. He is sporting an even darker black, almost very dark navy shirt with navy pants as well. This works great due to the different textures that you can add to the outfit.

Pair this up with some heavy boots as well, and it gives you a more rugged feel to the whole outfit rather than one that is clean and chic. Just changing the style can give a whole different feel to the outfit and tone of what you're going for.

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Mustard Shirts

For those who are feeling a bit more adventurous, a mustard shirt is a color that works really well with navy as they somewhat match one another with opposite ends of the color wheel and create a really nice tonality between the two colors. Certainly works if you want the more casual and laid back approach rather than a more formal setting, but it can work very well there as well.

Mustard instead of outright bright yellow or orange works better in my opinion, as it is more toned-down version of the two and with it being darker in nature, it works well with navy being a more toned-down version of blue too.

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Red Shirts

Another pretty bold look and not one for a typically formal occasion, but instead for a more casual one, is working with shirts that are striped and often in colours that are adventurous. This red shirt style option with navy blue pants can be a great look for when you're more on the casual side of things. With it being striped instead of all red as well this helps to break it up the block effect that can happen.

Potentially unbutton the shirt to create a more layered feel and this generally wants to be lighter if you are working with reds and burgundy as well as navy to keep everything more neutral.

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Check Shirts

Check shirts again are quite bold in nature and aren't great for every occasion, but they can definitely suit the more business casual look or, the more smart casual aspect some try to go for. I'd aim to try and get a check shirt that offers slight aspects of navy to match with your pants and this creates a nice overall flow to your outfit.

Likewise, look for flannel shirts that can offer the slight aspect that works well as well. Think of shouldering colors to navy as well such as green to create a more mellow yet interesting look to your shirt.

Again, you can play these in the safer options instead of going checked, you go striped and then think of the color options you have. Going for a white checked shirt as opposed to a multi-colored one as per the above can combine a more adventurous but safer route to go down.

The Bottom Line

Hopefully, the above has given you some ideas on what color shirts to wear with navy blue pants, some more on the safer side and some more on the adventurous style. Not only that, hopefully, it's given you some prompt depending on the event that you're going to, to also think about patterns and actually style of shirts as well.

Be sure not to just stop at your shirt though, think about the whole outfit from the style and color shoes you're going to wear. In most cases above, and as we have touched upon some brown loafers or even some chukka boots will work a treat above.

If you have any other ideas on what shirts work well with navy blue pants as well though, we'd love to hear them and if you can share any experiences down in the comments section below that would be great. Future readers and I would really benefit, as we are always learning. Let us know what option you decided to opt for in the end as well.

This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.

© 2022 Hugo Totty

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