How to Choose the Right Tie Color [Ultimate Guide]
When it comes to choosing the right tie color, there are a few things to consider. You can’t just wear any kind of tie, can you? At least that must be what you believe, or you wouldn’t be reading this article.
Ties are meant to complement an outfit and make it more exciting. They can also be used to show off your personality or match the occasion you're dressing for.
So, keeping this in mind, how do you choose the right tie color? Is there even such a thing?
How to Never Go Wrong When Choosing a Tie Color
Choose a tie that contrasts your dress shirt and jacket colors. The color of the tie should pair well with both but function as an accent. Ties are meant to complement an outfit while making it more exciting.
Picking a Color That Pairs Well with Your Shirt and Jacket
The easiest way to certainly choose the right necktie color is to pick a color that pairs well with your shirt and jacket colors.
Great! Now what? We know that’s easier said than done, so bear with us and let us explain.
Purposefully pairing your tie to other pieces of clothing will make your outfit more visually interesting. If you're not sure what colors look good together, there are some basic rules you can follow.
By the way, if you don’t have a suit yet and don’t know which color might be the ideal one, we’ve got an article here for you.
In any case, here are the three easiest ways to pair your necktie color to the rest of your clothes:
Opt For the Same Hue
Hue is another word for color family. In basic color theory, we split the color wheel into 12 different families that we call hues.
All colors fall into one of the 12 categories called hues.
For example, blue in its most saturated form is what we call the pure hue. Shades of blue, like dark/navy blue, are included in the same color family. The same goes for tints (light blues) and tones (muted blues). All variations of blue have the same hue: blue.
Now, if you have a tie that has the same hue as either your shirt or your jacket, you’re in luck! Then you can easily pair the two pieces together.
This is what we call monochromatic pairing. It’s the easiest way to match two elements together.
For instance, if you have a light blue dress shirt and/or a dark blue suit coat, wear a bright blue necktie! It’s as simple as that.
Just make sure that you at least wear a much darker or lighter variation of the same hue. This helps a lot with contrast. But more on this later in the article.
Choose a Complementary Color
If you’re more the in-your-face kind of person, then we suggest giving a strongly contrasting tie color a whirl. This is where complementary colors come into play.
Complementary colors are those that are made of the hue from the opposing side of the color wheel.
The complementary color of blue is orange.
If we’d go with the same example as before, we’d have to choose an orange tie instead of a blue one.
Orange pairs well with any color from the blue hue because of its complementary nature. We suggest you opt for a bright orange tie to make sure you contrast the light blue dress shirt and blue suit strongly.
Such an outfit is bound to draw attention.
Go For an Analogous Color
If you’d like to wear a necktie that stands out a bit but not quite as much as a complementary-colored one, then the following is for you.
Analogous colors are those that are either one color family to the left or right of the primary hue.
The analogous hues of blue are blue-purple and blue-green.
In our example, this would mean choosing a blue-green or a blue-purple tie. Both hues are absolutely stunning when paired with blue.
We’d suggest opting for a nice mint-colored (light blue-green) tie to go with a dark blue suit. Choose the shirt accordingly. You can use the same principles as we just covered to pick out the right shirt color.
Why Does Tie Color Even Matter?
We’ll say it again: ties are meant to complement an outfit and make it more exciting.
The color of the tie is one of the most important factors when it comes to tie choice. It can make or break the entire get-up. Seriously.
Imagine the most serious-looking businessman wearing a dark gray three-piece suit. His white collar shines brightly around his neck contrasting the intense anthracite tone of his jacket. And boldly laying on his authoritative chest…
… a yellow necktie with pink spots.
Doesn’t quite fit, does it?
Tie colors should be chosen carefully based not only on what you're wearing but also on how you want to look and what message you wish your attire to send.
We’ve dedicated a whole series of articles to the topic of color psychology. You can find them all here. But maybe you’re more interested in an article that covers the topic of the most unprofessional colors.
Whichever you read after this post will surely give you more insight into what colors have which psychological implications on others. Here’s the short version, though:
The Psychology Behind Necktie Colors
Choosing necktie color is about more than aesthetics, it's also about communicating your personality and feelings to those around you. In fact, it can be an effective tool for managing perceptions of yourself and others – which is why choosing a tie color should not be overlooked when preparing for a job interview, making a presentation, or going on a date!
The wrong tie can actually sabotage an otherwise great outfit by projecting unintended images that detract from desired impressions. (Wow, what a sentence!)
For example, wearing a yellow tie to the office doesn't exactly scream "professionalism!".
That said, you can never go wrong with classic tie colors like red, blue, and green.
Tie color is important. Choose a tie that fits your personality but also the occasion. | Socks: Bordeaux
There are various tie color charts that classify tie colors into categories like business tie colors, those suitable for weddings, fun tie colors, and so on. But we say that’s a load of you know what.
It’s important that you wear what suits you and your personality the best. Just make sure it pairs at least to some degree with your other clothing pieces.
What if You Don’t Like the Color?
Wonderful, so your tie matches your clothes and the color combo sends the right signals. What if you don’t like the color you’re wearing?
This is where the whole thing starts to get difficult. Because there is no right answer for which tie color is “best-looking”. Good or bad is quite a subjective matter.
Different people have different tastes and preferences – especially when it comes to tie colors.
So yes, preference is a deciding factor as well. You shouldn’t have to wear what you don’t want to.
And if you don’t want to wear the tie color in question then pick another one.
What is the Ideal Tie Color?
Choosing a tie color often ends up being a matter of personal preference or what will be most appropriate for the occasion. The necktie color must also pair well with either the dress shirt or the jacket of the suit you’re wearing – but preferably both.
Obviously, you can also choose necktie colors according to the current season, your hair color, or the tone of your skin (and so on). We could go more into detail in this post here, but we’ve already covered those topics at length in other articles. You can find them here:
There are many aspects to consider if you want to know which tie color is “ideal”. And yes, we’ve done the analysis (as always).
Let’s just get one thing straight: there’s no perfect short answer to the question: “What is the ideal tie color?”.
But here’s the non-perfect short answer:
The ideal tie color is black.
Black Neckties
Black ties are elegant, classy and work with almost any dress shirt and suit combination. Why?
Because black.
Black is the most common clothing color out there. It’s also a staple in fashion and is rarely out of place in any outfit.
Yes, there are situations where it might not be a great idea to wear a black tie (for example, at a kid’s birthday party), but those occasions are rare and aren’t even typically times where you should be wearing ties anyway.
Other than that, black ties are ideal for the office, formal events, funerals, and yes, even weddings. They’re a great choice for virtually any occasion.
The “color” black goes well with almost any other color and contrasts most of them, too. It’s also because of that fact that black is ideal for ties.
A black necktie typically contrasts your shirt color strongly and helps bring that often much-needed focus to an outfit.
It draws just the right amount of attention away from your face while helping accentuate dark facial features such as hair and eyes. This can strengthen the “masculine look” of a suit and tie get-up.
So, honestly, if we’d have to limit our selection of neckties to just one, it would most certainly be a black one.
Patterned Ties
Oh patterns – how to make use of them? It’s always the same question, isn’t it?
If you’d like to wear a patterned tie, then we seriously recommend you build your outfit starting with the tie.
Most patterned ties have two or maybe three colors. Take each of those colors and pair all other pieces of your clothing to them using the instructions at the beginning of this article.
Yes, it’s not as easy as it might sound but you’ll get it right. If you have any questions or if something doesn’t seem to add up, then read up on our 10 Golden Rules for Color in Fashion.
In that article, you’ll learn the most important aspects of color pairing in fashion. If you understand the golden rules and you know how to apply them, you’re going to get every outfit’s color composition right for the rest of your life.
The Easy Suit and Tie Combo
If all fails and you're not sure what tie color goes best with which suit or dress shirt combination, then just keep it simple! Just go with what everyone knows and loves.
You'll fit right in wearing classic combos like:
Navy suit, white shirt, and a red tie
Bold blue suit, pink shirt, and pink tie
Black suit, white shirt, and black tie
Remember that you don’t have to only match your ties to your dress shirts or suits. You can try to pair them to other elements of your clothing as well, if that helps.
Why not match tie color to pocket square color? For example, if you're wearing a tie with pink as its main color, wear a pocket square that is pink as well.
The same goes for suspenders, shoes, and even socks (obviously). We love pairing our clothing to our socks.
We’ve matched the tie and the pocket square to the color of the socks in this outfit. | Socks: Prime Cubes
Whatever floats your boat, make sure you follow our guidelines to color matching at the beginning of this article and you’ll be sure to choose the right tie color for the outfit.
Always keep in mind that there are no unbreakable rules when it comes to tie color. So maybe you should just have fun experimenting until you find the ones that are right for you and what you like wearing.
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