Jan 07, 2020

How to Accessorize Men's Dress Trousers

Many men typically don’t associate men’s dress trousers with accessory-ready items. But you’d be surprised. Not only can you consider the belt a great accessory, but there’s plenty more you can do to enhance the look of your dress trousers. That comes with an important caveat—it’s just as easy to overdo it and distract from the quality of your dress pants. That’s why we’ve created a guide on how to accessorize men’s dress trousers the right way—and how to avoid the wrong ways.

Accessorizing Men’s Dress Trousers: Mistakes to Avoid

Before we tell you what you can do, it’s usually a good idea to address the most common mistakes when accessorizing. That way, you aren’t piling the tips you see here on top of mistakes that give your accessories an “off” appearance. Here’s what to avoid:

Mismatching your belt with your shoes. One of the easiest rules of thumb in all of men’s fashion is matching your shoe color to your belt color. That means that you’ll know what color belt to wear. Make sure that you avoid matching brown belts with black pants, for example. You can, however, wear black belts to go with black pants as well as grey or charcoal dress pants.
Distracting belt buckles. An overly large or distracting belt buckle can be difficult to define. In some parts of the country, a large belt buckle may fit in. In other parts, you would stand out too much by wearing a buckle that goes well outside the confines of your belt loops. In general, it’s good to keep your belt buckle to a size that doesn’t venture too far from your belt loops. Try to keep the design classic and avoid belt buckles with messages and designs.
Wallet chains. While wallet chains may be handy and go well with a casual pair of jeans, they’ll only look out of place when you’re wearing dress trousers.

How to Properly Accessorize Your Men’s Dress Trousers

Let’s say you own a pair of Super 100’s Gabardine Pleated Dress Trousers. How should you “accessorize” these trousers to fit with the look of a formal suit?

The first step is to properly match your shoes and belt. Wear a belt of the appropriate size so that there isn’t too much extra belt left after the buckle. If the pants go with brown shoes, try to stick to the brown belt.

In addition, you need to ensure that the belt’s vertical size lines up neatly with the belt loops. For that reason, you may even measure your belt loops to ensure that it doesn’t “carry” too low on the waist of your dress pants.

Shop Berle Dress Trousers

Make sure to keep in mind that when accessories dress trousers, less is more. The quality of the pants should really speak for themselves. That’s why it’s so important to make sure that you nail the choice of your trousers from the start. Browse our Tailored Dress Trousers from Berle for high-quality, well-designed selections.