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Olive green is a classic color for a casual women’s pant. Whether it’s olive green chinos, skinny jeans or cargo pants, you’ve got a classic base for a cute casual outfit. 

And, look, you can always wear a black tee or a white button-down. But if you’re looking for a different color combination, here’s what you need to know about mixing it up and getting the best olive pants outfits with colors that go with olive green pants. 

A little color theory up front

Have you ever seen someone wearing olive green trousers and it just looks…wrong, somehow? Like the rest of the outfit doesn’t coordinate? 

I have totally been guilty of this. In 2008, I had an olive green military-inspired miniskirt that I used to wear with an olive green tank top. (Because….2008).

And you couldn’t tell me anything about this outfit. I thought I was crushing it. 

But I saw a picture of that outfit recently and cringed! 

The skirt had a deep, cool, almost blue-based olive green color, and the tank was warm-based, to the point of being almost orange. 

I don’t have access to the original picture, but the color combo was kind of like this: 

I had a tough time replicating the yellowish color on the tank because it had been sort of distressed. (Again, 2008!) But this is close:

Other than both being green, these two colors don’t have much in common. One is warm and one is cool. One is light and one is deep. Andddddd, one is clearer and one is muted. 

They’re not different enough to look good because of contrast, and they’re not linked closely enough to look harmonious. So even though they’re both olive green, the top wasn’t a good example of colors that go with olive green pants.

How to determine the undertone of your pants

You can use this method for pants that you already have! Or, you can determine what pair of olive green pants you should buy based on what’s already in your wardrobe. 

First: are the pants more warm, or more cool? 

If your olive color has more of a yellow, orange, or brown undertone, it’s probably more of a warm-toned color.

 

Like these olive joggers – they are distinctly brown toned even though the Amazon listing calls them “army green”. They’re styled here with a gold sandal that picks up that warmth. They’re probably going to look best with another warm-toned color. That could be warm neutral colors like cream or tan, or warm bright colors like mustard. 

You can see that these cargo pants have much less yellow in them. It’s a cooler, clearer dark green in this pair of pants. You can see that they styled them here with a cool, muted mauve in the sneaker that’s picking up those cooler green tones.

So, the color combo you look for here will be another faintly cool color. If you choose a neutral, you’re better off with grey than tan. And if you want a brighter color, look for something like navy or a blue-toned red.

It’s probably pretty obvious to you that mustard yellow wouldn’t look good with the second pair of pants. And even though we sometimes think of navy as a neutral, it isn’t the best choice for the first pair. 

Similarly: we think of a denim jacket as a neutral of sorts, but throwing one on over the first pants isn’t going to look great. The denim is likely too cool unless it’s a very light wash. For the cool-toned cargo pants, it’s likely to look more harmonious.

Wait, this sounds like color analysis! 

It kind of is! 

If you’re not familiar, color analysis is the process of getting matched with the color “season” that best matches your hair, skin and eye color. 

Any given person is warm or cool, has high contrast or low contrast between their colors, and has clear or muted coloring. 

So, like, I’m a soft summer. I have cool-toned coloring, there’s moderate contrast between my hair and skin, and my hair, eyes, and skin are muted, with a fair amount of grayish pink in them. And they suggest a whole set of colors for me as a result. 

Honestly, it’s pretty easy to go off the deep end really quick with color analysis. We don’t need to do that here. If you already know your color season, you can use it to pick the best olive colored pants for you, if you’re looking to buy a pair.

But if you don’t know your season, or if you already have a pair of olive green jeans and you’re trying to figure out an outfit, you don’t need to worry about seasonal analysis. 

Just getting your head around warm v. cool colors is a great way to plan a green pants outfit and pick the best colors that go with olive green pants for your specific pair. 

Color ideas for warm v. cool olive green pants outfits

This is maybe all a little abstract, so let’s look at some colors for the two pairs of pants above and try to color match warm v cool olive. 

(And please note that I chose all solid colors to make it easy for beginners, but a floral blouse or print in the right color tone is just as gorgeous. Stripes can be a fun alternative too.

So, here we have the two pairs of pants above, lined up next to their complimentary colors. 

Both of these pants are going to look good with a simple white t-shirt or black top, but we can see that each has a “better” brown, blue, and tan that is going to look better with it. 

The brown (on top) for the warmer pair of pants is almost orange or brick. It picks up the warmth and brown in the the pants and is going to look great with brown shoes. For the cooler brown, you can see it’s balanced with a lot of gray, and it doesn’t feel sunny or warm at all. It’s going to map a lot better onto the cool-toned olive cargos. It’s not a crayon brown, but there’s a version of brown that will work for cooler colored pants. 

And look at the blues — we think of blue as a cool color. But you can see how there’s a blue color that works for the warmer pair of pants. It’s just more of a teal. A true navy wouldn’t be awful with the warm, but it’s a more natural fit for the cool pants.

And you can see how the “neutral” for each color is quite different — the warm and cool tans have extremely different base colors.

Similarly –both of these are going to look okay with black on top. If you want to get super technical, the bottom pants carry the black off better because they’re the clearer of the two colors — the warm pants are more muted and they’ll have a little more contrast. But either is going to do okay.

If you look at the reds, the warmer red is distinctly more orange, while the cooler red has some blue in it. (Both colors are a little muted, because olive itself is a bit of a muted color. But again — don’t worry about that if you find it overwhelming.)

And if you’re looking for a monochromatic moment, the warmer olive green has a lot of yellow in it. Wouldn’t that look cute as a crop or tank with the warmer pants? And the cool green is almost a hunter green. You can see how swapping the warmer green to wear with the cooler wouldn’t look quite right.

If you’re looking for another color or you want some inspiration with a ton of images, Created Colorful has a post with tons of pictures of cool v. warm shades of different colors. This post was super helpful to me when I was starting my color analysis journey, and it might help you out with your pants!

Classic colors that go with olive green pants

Wait, does that mean I can’t wear black or white? I thought those were colors that go with olive green pants 100% of the time!

​You totally can! A black shirt or white tee can be a great choice for olive green depending on how you want to style it.

 A white blouse with dressy olive trousers and a white or brown shoe is a beautiful classic look.

And versatile olive green pants get some edge with a black tee and moto jacket.

These outfits will work every time regardless of the undertone of your pants or your skin tone. You shouldn’t feel like they’re forbidden! But if you made your way to this post, I bet you’re looking for some other options. 

I want to buy olive pairs of pants. Should I buy cool or warm?

It depends on you! If you want to go full tilt into color analysis, you can try to figure out what color is going to suit your personal skin tones best. 

But for most people, the best option is going to be to look at your closet and try to decide: are the colors I wear mostly warm, or mostly cool? 

Or, if you feel like your closet is all over the place: pull out the go-to tops that you would probably wear with the pants once you bought them. Are they more warm, or more cool?  Having a sense of how you plan to use these pants will help you decide between the different shades of olive. 

Adding the undertone of a color and matching your best colors is an annoying extra step in the shopping process at first. But in the long run, it helps you buy clothes that go with everything else. Buying the right olive pants will ensure they go with all the different tops in your wardrove.