A red and silver combination outfit is easier to wear than it sounds: start with one red piece and one silver piece. I walk through a red knit with a silver skirt, a silver puffer over red, a red dress with silver shoes, and silver trousers with a red jacket.
Red and Silver Combination Outfits: 4 Looks to Try This Fall
In L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy's magic shoes are silver. MGM turned them ruby red for the 1939 film to make the most of Technicolor, and red has owned the story ever since. I like to think this pairing puts the two versions back together.
Red and silver sounds like a party combination, but it does not have to be. Silver behaves like a neutral, the way gray does, just with more light in it. A silver shoe under a red sweater looks like a normal Tuesday with a little extra.
A quick test: wear your red sweater with silver earrings tomorrow. If you reach for them again the next day, you are ready for a silver shoe.
Start With One Piece of Each
For red, Toteme's tasseled cashmere scarf is the gentlest start, and Alaïa's Le Bouledogue mini bag is the boldest, a small red leather shape with a lot of presence. For silver, By Pariah's Flux cuff is recycled sterling silver, and Aeyde's Onda pumps are crinkled metallic leather with a small bow. Pick one of each and wear them with denim.
Red Knit, Silver Skirt
Auralee's wool half-zip is a clean, bright red with a half-zip neck, which keeps the outfit from feeling dressy. Ilkyaz Ozel's Ani mini skirt is embellished with crystals, so it catches the light when you move. Manolo Blahnik's Hangisi 90 pumps in glittered silver satin are the evening option, and Bottega Veneta's sterling silver hoops are the plain ones you will keep wearing long after this.
A Silver Puffer Over Red
Moncler's Gaou puffer is quilted metallic silver with a hood, which sounds like a lot until you put it over red from head to toe. Courrèges' jersey rollneck and Chloé's high-rise skinny jeans are both red, so the jacket has a plain base to sit on. Bottega Veneta's Orbit sneakers in silver mesh keep the whole thing practical.
How to wear it: zip the puffer halfway so a strip of red shows at the neck.
The Red Dress, Silver Shoes
Rebecca Vallance's Precious dress is red crepe, off the shoulder, with a belt at the waist. It is the dressiest piece here, so the silver should stay small. Roger Vivier's Belle Vivier ballet flats are embellished metallic silver, Balenciaga's Le City clutch is crinkled silver leather, and Jennifer Fisher's Puffy Heart ring is silver plate.
What I would skip: more silver jewelry on top of all that. The ring is enough.
Silver Trousers, a Red Jacket
Giuliva Heritage's Elsa trousers are pleated silver lamé with a wide leg, and they look more like tailoring than costume once a jacket goes on top. Alaïa's red denim jacket is that jacket, and it is very bright. Isabel Marant's Cara necklace adds silver and crystals at the collarbone, and her Senny sneakers in red perforated suede bring it all back to daytime.
Silver Is the Neutral
Silver is the half of this pairing I would buy first, because it works with everything you already own, from black to navy to camel. Red is easier to borrow from a lipstick or a sweater. When red and silver go wrong, it is usually because both are shiny at once. Pair a matte red, like wool or suede, with the shine, and it looks like an outfit rather than a holiday decoration. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together Red and Turquoise Outfits to Try This Fall and Navy and Red Outfits to Try This Fall.
