Pairing bright shoes with jeans or neutrals (like black, white, and beige) is the easiest way to add a pop of color to your outfit. They carry bright shoes well without overwhelming your look. This method should work with pretty much any bright color, and it goes for all denim—dresses, skirts, and even jumpsuits. Our Blackbird flats in coral reef also look fresh with white, while gray offers a softer alternative to classic black. And if you’re looking for a little extra color, you can add in colorful accessories that either match or complement your shoes.

You can never go wrong with head-to-toe monochrome. The bold mustard hue of these washable Blackbird flats looks fantastic when paired with a simple outfit, like this golden-yellow jumpsuit. The shoes instantly become a standout feature, while the overall look remains chic and somewhat understated. A word of advice: Avoid wearing an extremely bright color, like bold yellows or neons, with an equally bright outfit. Instead, try a shade or two lighter or darker in the same color, as we’ve shown here. Yellow shoes also look great with any shade of blue (especially navy), black and white, or green. 

Sometimes it’s fun to go all-in on color, and it’s not as hard to pull off as you might think. All you have to do is style your shoes with a print that has that same color in it.  You can accomplish this in two ways: starting with the print, choosing any color in the print, and wearing shoes in that color, or starting with the shoes and then finding a print that has that color in it—just like we did here. We began with our Songbird slides in copper and then found this colorful toucan jumpsuit. The print does the work for you of tying your look together!

Choosing complementary colors involves a little bit of color theory, but we’re going to keep it as simple as possible. Basically, when looking at a color wheel, complementary colors appear directly across from each other. When paired together, complementary colors create a great outfit combo. In our case, we’ve paired our washable Blackbird flats in tropical with this golden-yellow jumpsuit.  Alternatively, colors that are warm in tone (like pink) blend well with other warm hues, such as orange. This tropical pink color would also look great with light- and medium-wash shades of denim, white, gray, and even minty greens.  

Here, we’re going to take our styling tip about pairing similar colors to the next level by introducing patterns of a similar color. Think of this as a variation of monochrome, where the pattern or print is predominantly the same or similar to your shoe color. Basically, if your outfit has a main color in it, your shoes can be any shade of that color—just like we’ve done here with our Robin sandals in persimmon and these printed wide-leg pants.