We're not advocating red suits for job interviews here!   You can check out the charts, but if it says your best color is fuchsia, then consider it for casual social clothes, or a color in your tie to bring attention to your face, but avoid wearing a fuchsia dress shirt to your next board meeting. 

Use a color combo that doesn't compliment your eye, hair and skin tone, and people ask if you're feeling okay -- which, if it's a good-looking nurse, is also a way of making color work for you. If you look washed out in yellow, wear a yellow shirt the day before you call in sick to go to the beach. Everyone will talking about how bad you looked the day before!

Colors may not be that critical for men. Most guys look great in Navy or gray suits, white or blue shirts, and an appropriate power tie. Maybe that’s why we were smart enough to bless them as the official colors of corporate business.

Besides using this information to pick the "right" tie color, this is great knowledge for when the time comes to pick your next car color, or paint your living room. Now if you could just get your favorite singles bar to re-decorate in colors that make you look great!!

And if you really like a style you think might not look the best on you, don’t worry - wear it anyway. These are just guidelines. I’ve seen very heavy blond guys in yellow floral shirts that looked great!

Just to complicate things there are a few other factors:

To describe a color with reasonable accuracy, three basic properties have been designated to identify the dimensions, or qualities, of color:

1) hue, the name of a color;

2) value, the degree of lightness or darkness in a color, can be expressed by shades, tints, and tones;

3) and intensity (saturation or chroma), the degree of purity or strength of a color (hue) or how bright or muted the colors are. For example, an intense red is one that is a very strong, pure red color.   When a lighter or darker color is added to a color, the intensity will be less bright.

Light hair and skin would pair well with powder blue, while dark features are complemented by navy blue. Royal blue would work for somewhere in between.

A visual presentation of some color terms:

 HUE 

The pure color (for example RED)
 TONE 
Hue + small amount of gray or opposite color (will mute or tone down the color
 TINT 
Hue + White (will lighten the color)
 COMPLEMENT TINT  
Tint + small amount of gray or opposite color (will mute or tone down the color)
 SHADE 
Hue + Black (will darken the color)
 

ANDY’S ADVICE:  If you’re trying to look slim, save the bright colors for accents. With a gray or navy suit a red or yellow tie will draw favorable attention to your face.

Dark and dull colors recede thus making you look thinner, and smaller.

Light and bright colors project, which tend to bulk you up and make you look larger. 

Dark colors are more formal than light.  Bright colors in large amounts become tiresome to the eye.

Want to emphasize your shoulders and de-emphasize your hips?  Wear a lighter colored sports jacket with dark trousers. (You can also apply this principle to a polo shirt and trousers).

Men with muted or softer coloring look better in "dusty or hazy" colors that have a touch of gray or are faded. For example, light hair and skin would pair well with powder blue.

Men with darker complexions and hair look better in bright, crisp, clear, rich colors that pop out. Navy blue would be an example.

Cool colors: (green, blue, violet) are associated with water, sky and foliage. They are calming, unassuming and they appear to recede. This is handy knowledge if you want to appear less heavy or are in the witness protection program.

Aside from being classic suit colors that command authority, navy, and charcoal gray (also black for social or New York City occasions) appear to distance you from observers and tend to make you look less heavy.

Warm, bright colors: (red, orange, yellow) are associated with fire and the sun. They psychologically suggest emotion, energy and warmth while optically appearing larger. They will appear to bring you closer and bulk you up.  Now you can skip the gym and still bulk up!

To determine if you face, hair and eye colors are warm or cool, stand in front of a mirror in bright daylight and hold up something blue alternately with something red or red/yellow.

If you look better next to the blue item, you're cool. If you look better next to the red/yellow, you're warm.

This guide is divided into several components, each focusing on some different aspect of how guys choose and wear clothes.

Pick something suitable from these:

-- Andy Gilchrist