What Blazer Colors Go With A Black Shirt? (Pics)

While black shirts can be worn with a variety of different blazer colors, it’s no secret that certain colors look better than others. Pick the wrong one and you risk underdressing or overdressing for the occasion. 

So, here are some great blazer colors you can wear with a black shirt:

• Black
• Grey
• Navy
• Brown
• Blue
• Red
• White

While that list will serve you well, you’ll need more. 

First, we’ll go through the two factors you need to consider when choosing the right one for your specific black shirt. Then, we’ll run through that list of color combinations in more detail. 

Let’s get to it. 

How To Color Coordinate Black Shirts With Blazers

Consider them both before putting your outfit together. 

1. Consider The Dress Code

A black shirt and blazer outfit would really only be suitable to wear in smart-casual settings. Avoid it in truly formal, business-professional, and business-casual settings. 

But there will definitely be “smart-casual” settings that are smarter, as well as those that are more casual. 

The dressier the smart-casual setting, the more likely it is that a dark and neutral blazer color would be the best option when wearing a black shirt. 

The dark neutrals you have to choose from would be: 

• Black
• Charcoal Grey
• Navy Blue
• Dark Brown

These colors will coordinate effortlessly with the black shirt while producing a low-contrast combination that’s subtle and understated. 

In general, they’d be better suited to the more “formal” of smart-casual settings where there’s a risk of underdressing. 

They’ll produce an effortlessly sleek and sophisticated end result. 

In more casual settings, you’ve got more options. 

You could for a light and neutral blazer color such as: 

• Light Grey
• Light Brown
• White

As you’d imagine, you’d be left with a high-contrast combination between the very dark shirt and the not-so-dark blazer. 

High-contrast shirt and blazer combos are more striking and eye-catching. 

In these casual settings, you could even go for a non-neutral blazer color such as red or green. 

It’s true that they’d also combine effortlessly with the black shirt, but it’s always best to stick to a dark and muted shade of these more vivid colors to keep things looking elegant. 

For example, consider a maroon, burgundy, or sage green blazer. 

2. Consider The Color Of Your Pants

When wearing a black shirt, the color of your pants would also be important to consider when choosing a blazer color. 

Consider how much contrast you want between your top half and bottom half. 

Let me explain. 

When wearing a black shirt and dark-colored pants (eg. charcoal, black, or navy), you may want to add contrast to your outfit by choosing a relatively light-colored blazer. 

For example, a black shirt, a pair of charcoal grey pants, and a light grey blazer. 

Alternatively, you may want to stick to a dark aesthetic overall and go for a dark-colored blazer to boot. 

For example, a black shirt, a pair of black pants, and a navy blazer. 

The main point here is that you should think of your outfit as a whole instead of focusing on just one or two of the items. 

Think about how these items interact and coordinate with each other. 

Think about how the contrast between light and dark items, as well as neutral and non-neutral items, can really influence how the outfit comes across as a whole. 

7 Black Shirt And Blazer Combinations  

Here are those black shirt and blazer combinations described in more detail. The pictures should help you choose the right one for you. 

Notice how the dark and neutral blazer colors just look dressier than the light neutrals and non-neutrals. 

Black Shirt With A Black Blazer

A black shirt can easily be worn with a black blazer to produce a highly effective monochromatic pairing. It often looks effortlessly sleek and elegant. 

The beauty of this combination is that it’s impossible to go wrong. 

A black shirt will always look great with a black blazer and you won’t have to put any thought into whether it coordinates or not. 

It always will. 

It’s perfect for dressy evening social settings. The dark aesthetic has an appealing air of mystique. 

But given how dark your top half is going to be, it’s worth putting some extra thought into the color of your pants. 

Ultimately, you’ll want to keep things relatively dark with your pants to avoid ending up with too much contrast. 

For example, wearing a black shirt, black blazer, and beige pants is likely to look awkward. There’s just too much contrast between the top half and the bottom half. 

Instead, consider a dark pants color such as charcoal grey, navy, or even just black (if you’d prefer to go fully monochromatic). 

Alternatively, consider pants in a shade of medium grey or even brown. 

You’ll have some contrast, but not so much that it looks jarring. 

Black Shirt With A Grey Blazer

A black shirt can be worn with grey blazers in a variety of different smart-casual settings. Dark grey blazers would be a better option in dressier smart-casual settings, as they would lead to less contrast with the black shirt.

It’s incredible just how different a “black shirt and grey blazer” combination can look depending on what shade of grey you go for.

Ultimately, a light grey blazer worn with a black shirt can look very effective, but the contrast is pretty bold and in-your-face. 

If you’d prefer a more subtle and understated look, go for a dark grey blazer instead. 

While the next tip isn’t specific to grey blazers, it’s always worth bearing in mind: 

Match formal-looking blazers with formal-looking shirts and casual-looking blazers with casual-looking shirts. 

Let’s take the grey blazer as an example. 

If you’re going for a formal-looking, shiny, wrinkle-resistant, worsted wool dark grey blazer, go for a black dress shirt. 

If you’re going for a casual-looking, rough, rugged, and wrinkle-prone linen, tweed, herringbone, or serge grey blazer, consider a more casual black shirt style. 

While a black dress shirt would still work, you’ve got plenty more options that would most likely blend with the blazer in a more effective way. 

Black OCBDs, chambray shirts, linen shirts, and so on. 

Black Shirt With A Navy Blazer

Navy blazers look great when worn with black shirts. The combination is ideal for dressy evening social settings given the dark and sleek aesthetic produced. 

Navy, similar to charcoal and black, is a dark and neutral color. 

While technically a dark shade of blue, it’s generally considered neutral in the world of menswear given how muted it is. 

A navy blazer makes for a great alternative to black or charcoal. It’s dark and dressy, but also adds a touch of color in a way that the other two options don’t. 

You’re left with a little more contrast between the black shirt and the blazer, but in a way that’s subtle and not too flamboyant. 

Once again, consider the color of your pants. 

Much like with wearing a black shirt and black blazer, try to keep the color of your pants relatively dark and relatively neutral to avoid excessive amounts of contrast between your top half and bottom half. 

Black Shirt With A Brown Blazer

A brown blazer can be worn with a black shirt in smart-casual settings. Consider a light brown blazer if you’d prefer a more striking contrast between the shirt and the blazer. 

While there’s plenty of long-standing controversy surrounding this color combination, it’s pretty safe to say that brown items do coordinate well with black ones. 

It’s not something to ever shy away from. 

The great thing about pairing brown items with black ones is that they’re both neutral (or near-neutral) enough to wear with any other color you can think of. 

For example, you could wear a black shirt, a dark brown blazer, and a pair of burgundy chinos. It would work. 

Bear in mind that a brown blazer will generally look more casual than a black, charcoal, or navy blazer when wearing a black shirt. 

But the “warm” undertones of a brown blazer do add a great sense of contrast to the dark and neutral black shirt. 

A commonly worn and highly effective combination is a (light/medium) brown blazer, black shirt, and black pair of pants. 

The black shirt blends seamlessly into the black pants, with the brown blazer draping over and adding contrast. 

Black Shirt With A Blue Blazer

A blue blazer can be worn with a black shirt in a range of smart-casual settings. The lighter the shade of the blue blazer, the more casual the combination will look overall. 

Earlier, we talked about how a navy blazer can be worn with a black shirt very effectively. 

Here, we’re talking about blazers in lighter shades of blue – admiral, steel, teal, cyan, and so on. 

Notice how different the combination starts to look. 

Given how neutral the black shirt is, you can rest assured blazers in any of these shades of blue will work. 

But you’ll quickly notice how a light blue blazer will look more casual than the medium shades. 

This is down to the fact that light colors, in general, tend to look more casual than dark ones. It’s also down to a light blue blazer producing a whole lot more contrast with the black shirt than darker shades of blue would. 

When wearing a light blue blazer with a black shirt, you’ve generally got more options when it comes to the color of your pants than you would with a dark blue blazer (eg. navy). 

You could go for very light-colored pants (eg. beige, cream) and it wouldn’t look as jarring. 

Sure, you’d still get a lot of contrast between your top half and bottom half, but it won’t look as extreme as it would if you were wearing a navy or midnight blue blazer, for example. 

Black Shirt With A Red Blazer

A red blazer can be worn with a black shirt in smart-casual settings, with blazers in dark shades of red such as burgundy, maroon, or crimson generally working best. 

Dark shades of red tend to sync better with black shirts than lighter, brighter, and bolder shades of red such as scarlet. 

While a light red blazer would coordinate well with a black shirt, the end result would be too in-your-face and some may say – tacky.

Dark red blazers are much more versatile and easy to pull off in dressy settings. It’ll look stylish and sophisticated as opposed to awkward and out of place. 

When wearing a black shirt with a red blazer, try to keep the color of your pants neutral. Let the red blazer be the “pop” of color in your outfit and keep the shirt and pants color neutral. 

Dark and neutral pants colors such as black, charcoal, and navy will generally be your best options here.

Black Shirt With A White Blazer

A black shirt can be worn with white blazers in casual and smart-casual settings. The combination is very high-contrast and bold, making it a good option when making more of a statement. 

This level of contrast is always bound to turn heads. If you’d prefer a more subtle combination, go for one of the previous options instead. 

But when you’re looking for something more eye-catching, this could work well when the setting is casual enough to allow for it. 

However, try to keep things subtle with the color of your pants. Given the level of contrast produced between the shirt and the blazer, you usually won’t want to add another color to the mix.

A great option would be to simply go for a black pair of pants. The black shirt blends seamlessly into the black pants, with the white blazer draping on top as a single pop of contrast.