Depending on the shade of purple, you can wear any color of shoes with a purple dress or purple pants. In general, you wear light shoes with lavender or other light purples, such as orchid, but you wear dark shoes with dark purples, such as eggplant or burgundy.
You gain a tiny bit of wiggle room with medium purples, such as true violet. Read on to learn how to match stylish shoes to your favorite purple clothing.
Related to: What Color Shoes Go with Yellow Dress? Yellow Pants?│What Color Shoes Go with Red Dress? Red Pants?
Dressing to Impress
When you choose your clothes, you typically do so because you love the look, and you want to look great to others. This means following a few fashion rules. For example, each year, you need to wait until Easter to wear white shoes and this extends to any shade of white.
Each year, you need to wait until Labor Day to wear black dress shoes.
Other rules also apply to the question of what shoes to wear with a purple dress or pants. Wear sandals during spring and summer, but boots during fall and spring. Choose heels to go with a purple dress. Save the flats for purple pants.
Dark purple dresses or pants
Source: Amazon
With a dark purple dress or pants, you can pair shoes in black, a matching purple, or a sophisticated blend of colors. Typically, choose leather or pleather if you’re vegan. Suede works best in a boot, while crocodile can work well with sandals or boots.
Dark purple dresses frequently appear in a solid color design, perhaps as a shirtdress or sweater dress. Designers typically use these shades of purple in winter designs. These two factors make them work better with boots.
Black: works well in boots, sandals, heels, flats
Matching purple: works well in sandals, heels, or flats
Blend of colors: works well in sandals or heels as long as one of the colors in the shoe matches the dress
Medium purple dresses or pants
Source: Amazon
With a medium purple dress or pants, you can pair shoes in black, cream, white, a matching purple, or a sophisticated blend of colors. Follow the same materials rules as with a dark dress with respect to leather, suede, etc. Dresses or pants in a medium shade of purple provide you with one of the widest range of options.
Since the article of clothing neither tends toward dark nor light, it can match with either light or dark shoes, depending on the season. Designers frequently use purples in this color family for horizontal or vertically striped dresses. V-striped dresses also use this area of the purple color family.
Use a shoe with a blend of colors with a solid dress or pants. Save the blend of colors shoes for adding zip to a solid color dress. You will overwhelm everyone who sees you if you put shoes of multiple colors with a dress of multiple colors. It will just be too much.
Black: works well in boots, sandals, heels, flats
Cream or white: works well in heels or flats
Matching purple: works well in sandals, heels, or flats
Blend of colors: works well in sandals or heels as long as one of the colors in the shoe matches the dress
Light purple dresses or pants
Source: Amazon
With a light purple dress or pants, you can pair shoes in white, cream, a matching purple, or a sophisticated blend of colors. Some of these dresses or pants will also work with some shoes in shades of brown. Typically, choose leather or pleather if you’re vegan.
Suede works best in a boot, while crocodile can work well with sandals or boots. Lighter colors tend to go best with light shoes. These shades of purple tend to appear on spring dresses, so this doesn’t create a problem.
Lighter purple dresses frequently use a print, such as paisley, so you can choose shoes that match any of the major colors in the print and it will still work. If you do this though, be sure to carry a purse that exactly matches the shoes. You can have them dyed to match or purchase a set, something many high fashion designers do.
White or cream: works well in sandals, heels, flats
Tan or brown: works well in boots, heels, or flats
Matching purple: works well in sandals, heels, or flats
Blend of colors: works well in sandals or heels as long as one of the colors in the shoe matches the dress