What Color Pants Go With An Olive Green Shirt? (Pics)

Olive green is muted enough to coordinate well with a variety of colors, but color-matching olive shirts with pants can sometimes be difficult. 

Here are some great pants colors you can wear with an olive green shirt: 

• Black
• Grey
• Khaki
• White
• Blue
• Burgundy

That’s the short answer, but as always, there’s a whole lot more to it.

First, we’ll go through some great tips for color-coordinating olive shirts with pants. After that, you’ll see the pics of the combinations listed above.

Let’s get to it. 

How To Color Coordinate Olive Shirts With Pants

Consider all of these factors before putting your outfit together. 

1.  Consider The Dress Code

Olive green shirts would really only ever be appropriate in casual or smart-casual settings. They shouldn’t be worn in more formal settings than that. 

But “smart-casual” can mean a variety of different things, with certain smart-casual events definitely being “smarter” than others. 

The bottom line here is that if you’re looking to dress up an olive green shirt, it’s likely that a neutral-colored pair of pants would look better. 

Dark neutrals would be the dressiest option – black, dark grey, and navy. 

Light neutrals would be a little less dressy, but not by much. Light grey and khaki would be good options here. 

White pants would be the exception – they’d always look very casual due to how much contrast you’d get between the olive green shirt and the pants. 

Pants in more vibrant colors such as medium shades of blue, or dark shades of red like burgundy and maroon – would always look more casual than neutral colors. 

2.  Consider Your Other Items 

Olive is a dark shade of green. If you’ve gone for similarly dark items up top (eg. a dark gbrey blazer), you may want to pair it with light items down below for a nice sense of balance and contrast. 

For example, an olive shirt, dark grey blazer, and light grey pants. 

Or, an olive shirt, black blazer, and beige pants. 

If you’d prefer to go for a darker aesthetic from top to bottom, that’s also fine. 

But achieving a nice sense of harmony between light and dark is always a great option. 

3. The Color Wheel 

The color wheel displays how colors relate to each other. 

It can be split into two halves – “warm” colors and “cool” colors. 

As you can see, green falls firmly within the spectrum of “cool” colors, along with other shades of green, as well as blues and purples. 

Notice how neutral colors (black, white, and grey) don’t appear anywhere on the color wheel. They’d combine and coordinate easily with any of the colors on the wheel. 

When combining olive green with other non-neutral colors, it’s worth taking the color wheel into account. 

Pairing “cool” colors like olive green with other “cool” colors often produces a great result. 

For example, an olive green shirt with navy or admiral blue pair of pants. 

Pairing cool colors with warm-colored pairs of pants (eg. burgundy) is a little more eye-catching due to the contrast. 

So, when pairing olive green pants with warm-colored pants, try to choose dark and muted shades of those warm colors to keep the outfit subtle and not too in-your-face. 

Burgundy and maroon are great options. 

6 Pants Colors You Can Wear With An Olive Shirt

Try these combinations out for yourself. Notice how the more neutral pairs of pants tend to look dressier than the non-neutral ones. 

Olive Green Shirt With Black Pants

Olive green shirts look great worn with black pants. Given how dark and neutral black is, it’s a great way to make an olive shirt look dressier. 

Black is easy to coordinate with practically any color you can think of and olive green is no exception. 

The dark tones of olive work especially well with those of black. 

If you were truly looking to dress up, an olive green dress shirt worn with black dress pants would work very well. 

If, on the other hand, you were dressing down, you’ve got a lot more options. 

You could go for black chinos or jeans, for instance. You could pair either of these with an olive green OCBD or linen shirt. If you were going even more casual, you could consider an olive green Henley or polo shirt. 

It really doesn’t matter. 

Ultimately, olive green will always pair well with black no matter what styles of shirt and pants you go for in the end. 

Olive Green Shirt With White Pants

Olive green shirts can be worn with white pants to produce an eye-catching and high-contrast combination. 

The outfit works especially well for casual daytime events. 

Remember, while white is a neutral color, this combination won’t ever look as dressy as those where you’re wearing a darker and neutral-colored pair of pants. 

But when dressing down, it’s a great option. 

The dark tones of olive green contrast nicely with the light and airy tone of the white pants. 

Casual styles of footwear work well here. Consider loafers, boat shoes, or espadrilles. 

Olive Green Shirt With Grey Pants

Olive green shirts can easily be worn with a wide range of grey pants. This includes both light grey and dark grey pants. 

Grey is a gloriously neutral color, just like black and white. 

While grey pants do have a distinctly professional aesthetic to them, when wearing an olive green shirt, they would still only be appropriate in casual/smart-casual settings. 

It’s worth mentioning seasonality here. 

Olive green, in general, works best during the winter and fall months. This isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, but it’s true. 

If you did want to take seasonality into account, wearing an olive green shirt with a grey pair of pants would work especially well. 

It’s a muted combination that syncs well with cold and cloudy weather. 

Olive Green Shirt With Khaki Pants

Olive green shirts can be worn with khaki pants in smart-casual settings. The warm undertones of khaki add balance to the cool undertones of olive green. 

“Khaki” is a pale shade of brown. It’s extremely common to find pants in khaki, especially chinos. 

In fact, khakis are a staple of business-casual attire. Having said this, an olive green shirt would never be appropriate for business-casual events. 

Referring back to the color wheel, when mixing olive green with “warm” colors, it’s important to keep things understated. 

It’s best to choose muted warm colors that won’t draw too much attention away from the olive green shirt. 

In many ways, you want the olive green shirt to be the one “pop” of color in your outfit. The other items should really take the backseat and blend into the background. 

So, if you do want a warm-colored pair of pants to combine with an olive green shirt, khaki would be a great option. 

It’s so muted that it’s almost considered neutral. However, it does have noticeable and subtle warm undertones that add a subtle sense of balance to the cool undertones of olive green. 

Olive Green Shirt With Blue Pants

Pairing olive green shirts with blue pants is easy given how they’re both “cool” colors. Pants in darker shades of blue will always look dressier than lighter and brighter shades. 

Navy blue pants with an olive green shirt is an especially dressy combination. 

Overall, pairing cool colors with other cool colors is easier than pairing cool colors with warm colors given how the result is likely to produce less contrast. 

While the “cool” on “cool” combination does work especially well during the winter and fall, don’t let this restrict you. 

An olive green shirt with a blue pair of pants would work well year-round. If you did want to take seasonality into account, however, consider reserving it for the colder months of the year. 

Olive Green Shirt With Burgundy Pants 

An olive green shirt can be worn with burgundy or maroon pants if you were looking for a bold and vibrant combination. 

Here, you’re combining a “cool” color (olive green) with a noticeably “warm” color (burgundy or maroon). 

Crimson would also be an option. 

As mentioned earlier, when combining a cool-colored shirt with a warm-colored pair of pants, it’s best to choose a dark and muted shade of the warm color. 

This is to keep the outfit understated overall without piling on bold colors that are likely to conflict. 

Ultimately, burgundy and maroon pants would always look more casual than a more neutral alternative when wearing an olive green shirt. 

But if you were looking to make more of a statement or stand out from the crowd a little, it would be a great way to do it. 

Conclusion 

The muted tones of olive green are easy to coordinate with other colors, but you should take the setting you’re dressing for into account when making your decision. 

Neutral-colored pants would be the easiest option. If you were looking to dress down a little, consider a muted shade of a bolder color – navy and burgundy are great options.