How to Pick Patterned & Striped Socks to Wear With a Suit


Are you sick of wearing mono-colored dress socks with your suit and want to make them look more colorful and fun? You can upgrade your dress socks with patterns and stripes, but they’ll still look good with your trousers. Are you interested in whether you can wear patterned and striped dress socks with a suit?

You can wear patterned and striped dress socks with a suit. The base color of the dress socks should be the same color as your suit pants and may have solid or multicolored patterns or stripes on them. The colors on the sock should complement each other (e.g., red and green, blue and orange).

Let’s take a look at some of the best examples of patterned and striped socks.

Can you wear patterned socks with a suit?

You can wear patterned socks with a suit, but you must stick to specific rules if you still want to look elegant. The socks should be in the color of the trousers you are wearing, and the patterns should not be in several different colors and too flashy.

Thoughtful and elegant patterns can complement your look beautifully. The best patterns that go well with dress socks are diamond patterns and polka dots. When you wear patterned dress socks with dress shoes, the socks will show up nicely because dress shoes are low and therefore expose the sock.

Some men wear dress shoes, and it looks like they don’t wear any dress socks. Read this article if you want to find out if you can wear dress shoes without socks. And I also recommend you to read 7 reasons why you always MUST wear dress socks with dress shoes.

You can adapt your socks to the season by choosing the right color for the warm and cold months. Colors are divided into warm and cold, so it’s a good idea to wear cold-colored (blue, green, purple) socks in winter and autumn and warm-colored (red, yellow, orange) socks in spring and summer. The combination of warm and cold colors will go well with your clothes and match the outside temperatures at certain times of the year.

Warm and cool colors
Warm and cool colors.

Diamond patterned dress socks

The diamond pattern is a classic pattern made just for dress socks. It brightens a classic look but remains stylish thanks to its sophisticated design—a few things to look out for when choosing diamond pattern dress socks.

  • The primary color of the socks should match the color of the trousers you wear (black trousers – black or dark grey socks). The color of your dress socks shouldn’t be influenced by the color of the shirt, tie, or shoes.
  • The color of the patterns should not be too bold and should complement each other (green and red).
  • The socks should have a maximum of two different patterns in two different complementary colors.
  • Patterns should be large enough and visible when worn with dress shoes.
Diamon patterned dress socks
Diamon patterned dress socks.

When wearing patterned socks, ensure you are not wearing patterned trousers. This can lead to mismatching and a bad look.

Avoid mixing patterned socks with patterned pants
Avoid mixing patterned socks with patterned pants.

I don’t recommend wearing socks with unusual patterns like dinosaurs, unicorns, or something similar, because you still need to look stylish in the dress. However, you can still wear such socks with sneakers and jeans for a more casual look.

Funky patterned socks
Funky patterned socks.

Dress socks with dots

The polka dots are a beautiful pattern that brightens up a plain dress sock. You can choose between large and slightly smaller dots in one or more colors. Avoid socks with more than two different colors, as with the diamond pattern.

The material is a significant factor in a flawless look. Wearing socks that are faded and worn out will spoil your look. And if you wear socks that are no longer elastic enough, they will not stay on your foot and start falling onto your shoes. The best materials for dress socks are cotton and merino wool. Read this post to find out how to choose a good quality material that will last longer.

There is another very popular form of a pattern, which is stripes. Stripes are my favorite pattern on socks, read on to find out why.

How do you style striped socks?

You can style the stripes on the socks by choosing up to two complementary colors (e.g., blue and orange). Wear low shoes to show off the socks and complement your look when wearing striped socks.

Stripes are my favorite pattern on dress socks because they are the most visible yet stylish. I prefer wearing dress socks with a striped pattern rather than some funky patterns like bananas, ice cream, and dinosaurs.

Allow striped dress socks to be the star of your look, so rather than lace-up shoes, wear loafers, which expose more of the leg and, therefore, more of the sock.

Striped dress socks
Striped dress socks.

The primary color of the socks should match the trousers you wear to look stylish. While the stripes can be more vivid colors, the different colors should complement each other. Below is a picture of a color circle in which opposite colors complement each other. Use it whenever you decide to combine clothes in different colors.

Sometimes it’s hard to choose the right color of socks to wear with pants and shoes. This article will help you choose the right color of dress shoes for any pants and any shoes.

Complimentary color for dress socks
Complimentary color for dress socks.

Choose the color of the stripes according to the season. I mentioned above that the patterns should be in warm or cool colors, depending on what time of year you wear them. The same goes for striped socks, which should have blue, purple, or green stripes in winter. In summer, the stripes should be brighter colors, e.g., yellow, orange, and red.

Gregor

My name is Gregor and I'm a sports and fashion enthusiast. Like you, I want my clothes to be good quality and comfortable. I hope my articles will help you choose the right underwear for you.

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