Conventional wisdom holds that the first pair of dress pants you get (aka trousers for fancy people, and also people who don’t want Brits to think we’re talking about underwear) should be light gray. That’s on account of their ultimate versatility. From a color perspective, gray is neutral, so it’ll pair with every color you’d want to wear (except other light gray tops that are too close in brightness to the pants). From a contrast perspective, they complement most of the jackets you’ll be buying in the world of classic menswear: navy, dark browns, dark greens, even jackets in the tan range like gun clubs, etc.
So that advice isn’t wrong. I went down that path. I still have the first pair of light gray trousers I bought: a pair of lightweight flannels from now-defunct brand Howard Yount (pictured above).
But I’m here to tell you: It’s boring. Don’t start with light gray. Start with dark gray.
Here’s why.
1. As far as color goes, they’re still gray, meaning they complement any color jacket you’re likely to be buying. Trust me on this, as I own jackets in most of the colors that men wear—navy, brown, green, tan—and dark gray pairs equally well with all of them as does light gray. So let’s look at contrast.
2. When it comes to contrast, it’s true that one of the easiest ways to put together an outfit is to go for contrast in brightness. Typically that will mean a dark jacket with lighter trousers. Which is safe: going for contrast takes out the guesswork of whether two things are too close together in brightness. (To give an example of what a too-close-in-brightness situation would look like, imagine if you have a blue shirt in a medium brightness range like French blue worn under a tan gun club jacket. Even if the colors are a perfect complement on paper—warm and cool—when they’re too close together in brightness, it looks muddy.)
I’m here to put your mind at ease and say that dark gray trousers will never look bad with any jacket you want to pair them with, except ones in a different dark gray fabric (and to be honest, except for the occasional tweed jacket, dark gray sport coats aren’t all that common so it’s not even something you have to worry about).
And anyway, I’m not advocating for the most versatile; I’m advocating for the best-looking.
In every typical pairing you’ll make, I think dark gray trousers simply look better.
Darker fabrics cut a more flattering silhouette in general. This is common knowledge.
Worn with a dark jacket like navy, the resulting outfit feels more sophisticated. Clothes made for evenings out are made from dark fabrics—tuxedos in black or midnight navy—and a darker tonal outfit benefits from that association. It’s also a little closer to a suit, which is the ne plus ultra of great-looking tailored menswear, but since the trousers aren’t the same fabric as the jacket, you’re still less formal than a full-blown suit.
Worn with medium or light jackets, the contrast they create is appealing the same as it is when the colors are reversed. Some folks who are neurotic about these things call this the “Northern Lights” look—since the top is lighter than the bottom. But there is literally no reason this is bad except for what people think of as ‘normal.’ So it’s a non-issue.
So get dark gray trousers first. Then get a lighter pair after that.
Either a very dark charcoal gray, or a medium-dark gray are what I have in mind for this.
Me personally, my ideal baseline tailored outfit is below, which is copied from my ‘basic tailored menswear starter kit’ post. (I’ve just updated it with new links to current products).
If I were just starting out, this is what I’d buy to wear when I’m going fully tailored.
Seasonal dark gray trouser links
Winter: Charcoal flannels or twills
Spier charcoal flannel | Spier covert twill | Spier cavalry MTO | Cavour flannel | De Petrillo flannel | Natalino Covert | SuitSupply charcoal flannel flat-front | SuitSupply mid-gray pleated flannel | Rota gray trousers at No Man Walks Alone | Proper Cloth charcoal | Proper Cloth mid-gray | Stoffa mid-gray
Summer/year-round: High twist / ‘fresco’ wool
Spier & Mackay high twist | Suitsupply traveler trousers | Suitsupply mid-gray year-round trousers | Rota gray trousers | more to come as spring/summer releases trickle out
(Help support this site! If you buy stuff through my links, your clicks and purchases earn me a commission from many of the retailers I feature, and it helps me sustain this site—as well as my menswear habit ;-) Thanks!)
Shop my clothing from this post and every other post on the Shop My Closet page. If you’re just getting into tailored menswear and want a single helpful guide to building a trend-proof wardrobe, buy my eBook. It doesn’t cost that much and covers wardrobe essentials for any guy who wants to look cool, feel cool and make a good impression. Formatted for your phone or computer/iPad so it’s not annoying to read, and it’s full of pretty pictures, not just boring prose. Buy it here.
Great advice! In my opinion the outfits clearly look more interesting.
You know what’s up.
An interesting article that adds useful info. Personally, I still find light grey just as useful but I agree that dark grey is a hard to beat colour for trousers.
Dark grey trousers may limit the colors for shoes then, as to aim for elegance one should wear a darker-colored shoe than the trousers.
That’s a good point. I find myself going more mid-dark shoes. So my preference is mid-gray trousers (which for the purposes of this post I’m still considering “dark gray” simply because they’re not light!). In one of the photos above, I have snuff suede chukkas on with charcoal flannel trousers—not a great match, and if I had had dark brown suede boots, that’s what I would have worn instead.
Charcoal grey or anthrcite grey its not versatile us people think and its not the same as a medium grey. They are nice for evening . When we pair them wit darker blues (navy)we are more in formal teritory. On spring or summer time the colour look heavy even in winter during the day simple grey look better. Paired with lighter tops give our huge contrast that may cut of our silhouette for half not evrybody want this. Medium gray its far better option