Trending Content - Fashion for Business Forum
Career Resources
WSO Free Modeling Series - Now Open Through
August 31, 2026
9 Free Financial Modeling Lessons
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
+Bonus: Get 27 financial modeling templates in swipe file
+Bonus: Get 27 financial modeling templates in swipe file
High Finance Applications
Guaranteed
Get at least one offer GUARANTEED
- 1:1 support
- 92% success rate
- 2,000+ mentor network
- Unlimited Live bootcamps
- AI for resume + LinkedIn
- Networking automation tools
- HireVue simulation tool
- Full course library
- Private Slack community
- 20hrs of mocks
- + much more...
Wearing brown shoes with a grey or navy suit is totally fine. But would caution wearing lighter brown / tan shoes with a darker suit as the contrast might be too strong and lighter shoes in general are less formal than darker shoes. Obviously never wear brown shoes with a black suit. On a related note, WSO seems to have this weird rule against wearing black suits in the office. Nothing wrong with a black suit and would recommend it for your first one since it is the hardest to fuck up and can wear pretty much any tie (not that this is common any more).
Black suits are for funerals and you'll absolutely stick out wearing one. Get a navy suit. It's the most versatile. Next best is charcoal grey.
They aren’t just for funerals and nowadays you’ll stick out just by wearing a suit. Seems like most just wear a formal shirt or a Patagonia vest. But you do you.
Black is just not a versatile color at all for a suit. For most people in most situations it just looks too severe and will have way too strong of a contrast between it and whatever tie / shirt you wear. Imagine wearing a black suit outside during a wedding, it just won't work -- you'll look like a waiter. If you wear it at work it looks too severe. Just stick with solid navy, charcoal gray, or medium gray. I'm having a hard time thinking of a situation where black would be the clear better option than navy. Maybe if you're at some cool club somewhere but even still.
The only men who wear black suits during the day are undertakers and limo drivers — and clueless summer interns who were raised by single mothers. The crappy clothes shows what happens when you grow up without strong male authority figures.
Who has said that. Everyone wears brown shoes with a suit
The Brits are all about no brown shoes etc. The city of London and canary Wharf is practically black shoes only. Business Insider did a funny piece on this a few years ago. They took photos of those areas and virtually no one in a suit had brown shoes.
This is the United States of America. We dumped our black tea and black shoes in the Boston Harbor.
I worked in both Canary Wharf and the City, I have never seen any dude in my dept with brown shoes. Rule is more strict there, I guess. I bought a pair of brown shoes but never used them.
Much more common in the south. I've seen a lot of people in Charlotte wear them. I do, but I will probably stop just to play it safe in New York. I know it's totally frowned upon in London, and they have a saying "No brown in town"
No brown shoes seems to be a UK thing. In the US, brown shoes are perfectly fine, generally with navy / dark blue suits as opposed to charcoal / gray ones. You can also wear brown shoes with chinos if your office is more casual. Darker browns are imo more conservative and versatile but medium browns are perfectly fine too.
Brown shoes are perfectly fine. Black can be a bit boring sometimes.
It's fine and this is more UK focused advice. Just as long as they're a very dark brown / burgundy. The whole "light brown shoes and medium blue suit" look just isn't good.
personally I love brown leather more than black and wear it more liberally than others. think in todays day and age its pretty fine.
Lol at the MS all on the same day after a post made months ago. Sad.
Et id qui quisquam quia praesentium alias sequi ducimus. Aut quisquam doloribus ad. Dolores sequi quis est similique.
Temporibus vel hic laboriosam ipsa. Quo sunt ab qui est dicta dicta quia. Illo in error vel cumque praesentium.
Unde neque blanditiis non sunt necessitatibus. Nam aliquid saepe beatae totam laboriosam. Eos ut sequi voluptate eius facere ut sequi. Et numquam et fugit.
Provident dolores praesentium sit suscipit repellendus aliquid. Possimus numquam voluptatem est sit rem. Sapiente consequuntur est voluptate aut est nobis. Blanditiis natus blanditiis est commodi.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...