Exceedingly popular as casual wear, tan trousers or khaki chinos are very stylish when worn well. If you learn how to properly pair them with the right shoe color, they can look fantastic.
In this guide, you will learn how to match your shoes with tan trousers as we cover the basics as well as the details:
- Light Grey Trouser Coordination Overview
- Matching Light Grey Trousers With Different Shoe Colors
- Printable Shoe & Trouser Coordination Download
Scroll down to read it all or use the links above to jump ahead. If you want to learn about different shoe or trouser color coordinations, head to menu below.
Matching Shoes With Tan Trousers Overview
Somewhere between beige and brown trousers live tan trousers. This highly versatile pant is what we often think of when we hear the word “khakis (the proper term for the color),” “chinos,” or even sometimes “Dockers.”
Khakis or chinos are renowned for being paired with polo shirts. However, they can be combined with much more imaginative attire and rendered particularly stylish.
The shoes you wear with these can be the deciding factor between cool and boring, so read on for a full guide.
NOTE: There are exceptions to every rule.
Use your good judgement, and feel free to leave us a comment if you have questions!
Read on for full explanations and reasoning of the above coordination suggestions. Or, click here to go see our Ultimate Shoe & Trouser Color Coordination Matrix showcasing how to match any color shoes with any color trousers.
How To Coordinate Tan Trousers With Different Shoes
Best Shoe Matches
Beige
As a casual look, this pairing can’t be beat. Think beige suede desert boots with an almost copper-colored trouser, perhaps with a grey shirt.
Burgundy
If you want to dress a pair of khakis up a bit, throw on some burgundy shoes. The tan will pick up on the brown in the shoes, and you can easily toss a blue sport coat on in this scenario.
Dark Brown
This is the go-to pairing for khaki pants. Dress them up with dress shoes or dress them down with casual shoes, either way this is a totally safe option for most business and social occasions.
Green
Because khakis are by nature a “medium” shade of brown, they go well enough with any shade of green without you necessarily look like shrubbery as dark brown trousers would. Put on any shade of green shoe here. Light green is great for spring and summer, dark green is good for fall and winter.
Light Brown
Another safe option, khakis and light brown shoes are an easy pairing to make in the springtime with nearly any tops and accessories. Shoes in a shade of light brown called “British tan” work particularly well.
Navy
Tan trousers are the perfect vessels for navy shoes. This combination would look good with a khaki suit as much as it would with casual tan pants. Let the formality dictate which type of shoe you wear, but rest assured that navy blue will shine here.
Purple
Like navy blue shoes, purple shoes pair very well with tan trousers. Definitely a statement shoe in this context, it’s best to let the shoes do the talking here. Either keep the other outfit components neutral, or make them purple-friendly so they play nice with the dominant shoes.
Red
A smart, colorful, summertime combination, this conjures ideas of New England, where I’m originally from. Khakis with red boat shoes and a stylish polo (read: the polar opposite of the polos we talked about above) makes me think of the WASP-y summers I was too blue collar to experience in the first place.
Either way, the combo is sweet. Try it with drivers for a different vibe.
White
A tan suit in cotton with a pair of white bucks is classic American style. You can’t go wrong at all here.
Acceptable Shoe Matches
Grey
This combo works best only with light grey shoes. Dark grey shoes, rare anyway, are a bit too stark for tan.
No-Go Shoe Matches
Black
We have strong feelings about black and tan being mixed. Actually, we have one strong feeling: no.
Orange
This combination doesn’t do it for us, but British tan – the orange-y tan we mentioned above- can work because it’s tempered with some brown.
Free Printable Download For Reference At Home
Feel free to download a one-page printout of these guides for your convenience so that you can use it at home!
What Next?
Now that you have read about the how to match khaki trousers with shoes, check out some related guides below:
- Shoe & Trouser Coordination Homepage
- Top 10 Best Men’s Dress Shoes
- How To Coordinate Tan Shoes & Trousers
- Most Comfortable Dress Shoes For Men
- Bespoke Unit Shoe Homepage
"Excellent guide, thanks! Khaki trousers are the basis of my daily casual style so this really helped add some variety to the footwear."Rating: 5.0 ★★★★★
Shoe Content
I read your Blog and found a nice and very informative article. I will share this blog with my friends.
Hopefully, you continue to write like this article.
Thanks
Thanks for the comment. Hope you enjoy the site.
Best,
CP
This article is great! Now what color belt should be worn with these different color shoes?
Thank you so much!
Dear Sean,
Thanks for your comment.
The typical rule of thumb is to match your shoe and belt color if possible. If not try to always match brown with brown, then black can be “paired” with more exotic colors.
All the best – Paul
This is very informative! I actually found it really helpful, so helpful that I even printed it and have it hanging on the back of our closet door to refer to when needed. I have been going crazy trying to find a outfit for my husband to wear to my sister’s wedding. She’s wanting to stay away from the black dark colors for the mens attire whom are in the wedding. Just wanted to say thank you and it’s much appreciated! You should do a whole outfit chart for “event men’s outfit matching”. Just an idea hehe ???? wink wink nudge… Haha thanks again!!
Hi Gretchen,
Many thanks for the comment and great to hear you’ve printed it out! Is the the main printable at the end of the guide? We’re delighted to learn that people are making good use of it! Also, we’re actually working on a guide for outfit matching for both patterns and colours that we’ll be making available as a free giveaway.
All the best,
CP
Hola, veo disparidad de criterio con el color Tan. En el apartado de pantalón les parece que combinar con el zapato negro no es conveniente, sin embargo, en el caso del zapato negro dicen que es una combinación aceptable. ¿Cuál de las dos es la correcta? Luego preguntarles si con el pantalón azul marino tampoco ven acertada su combinación con zapatilla negra. Gracias por su web y sus consejos.
Hi Lorenzo,
Apologies, my Spanish is bad and I won’t embarrass myself by replying in your language!
Yes, thanks for pointing out that in our black shoe guide, we noted that you can wear black shoes with tan trousers. There was probably some confusion with black shoes and beige trousers, which is much lighter but similar to khaki.
Personally, I think black shoes can be worn with beige or khaki trousers if they’re on the lighter side. It provides contrast and creates a professional appearance. Meanwhile, darker khaki tends to have warmer brown and orange hues, which will clash.
Hope this helps,
CP