What shades of blue trousers are best when wearing light-brown or "cognac" shoes? — Drew Iacovazzi, West Hartford, Conn. With lighter-brown shoes, any pants that fall in the broad deep-navy-to ...

By Vanessa Friedman Sometime in the last two years, it became fashionable for men to wear brown shoes with blue or black pants. I thought there was a rule against this. How did the new trend start ...

Unless you wear jeans and a T-shirt every day ... Forget about scrutinizing how your shoes look with those pants, or whether dark blue jeans should really be paired with a dark top.