Best Color to Wear to Work (First Day of Work)

Dressing up for your new job changes how your coworkers perceive you. Choosing an outfit with the right colors can change how your boss and colleagues see you professionally.

What you wear will have an impact on influencing how people see you at work.

Studies suggest, choosing to wear an outfit of the right color can help you become more focused and gives you an unfair advantage over your peers in helping you advance in your career.

Dressing right is one of the best ways to make a good impression at a new job.

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Professional Color To Wear

Professional colors are conservative colors that give a neutral vibe when worn by an individual.

Colors such as black, blue, and brown are generally considered to be professional color worn in a professional business setting.

You should wear an outfit of professional color if you are meeting someone for the first time, during a business meeting, or during your job interview.

When dressing professionally to work or in business settings, you should avoid outfit with complicated patterns, outfit with words, artistic clash of colors, cartoon characters, or outfit that looks too cute or fashionable.

Unless you are working in a creative industry, colors such as orange, yellow, purple, or red will be too loud for the general office work environment.

Professional Colors to Wear to Work (Color Compatibility Chart)

Black, white, brown, olive green, and navy blue are professional colors you can wear to work. A combination of not more than 2 colors or a single color suit is usually acceptable for most professional and business settings.

Below we’ve created a color chart for you to determine your professional outfit.

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Best colors to wear to the office

Studies have shown, colors can greatly affect our moods and the way other people respond to us. With the correct use of colors, we can choose to wear outfits with colors that can help us in creating a great first impression at work.

Blue/ Navy Blue for Professionalism

Most shades of blue are a great choice to wear, depending on your position in the office. If you are in the managerial post, choose darker shades of blue, otherwise, most shades of blue are commonly acceptable.

In our daily life, blue is often associated with the color of the sky, lakes, and oceans.

Blue has a calming effect as the color blue is often seen as a sign of freedom, stability and reliability.

In a working environment, blue is a color that represents trust and wisdom, blue is arguably the best professional color to wear to work.

Blue can help you to calm your nerves on your first day of work. Or if you are in a drama-filled workplace, blue is a great color of choice to calm the tension at your workplace.

Brown for Reliability

Brown is an earthly color that represents stability, warmth, and reliability.

Unlike black which communicates seriousness and is worn at most formal events, brown is a great color to wear if you are looking to wear something less formal. Brown is a great color for a smart casual outfit.

Brown is often seen as masculine and is a great option for individuals who want to wear an outfit that can give you credibility.

An outfit that is brown in color is suitable for both men and women at work.

Green/ Olive for Calmness

Dark green color can be a good choice to wear to your office.

Green is a color that represents safety, freshness, and harmony.

During our daily life, green is associated with a “Go” signal for the traffic light, and a “correct” indication when we get an answer for a quiz right.

These are all great characteristics to associate in the workplace.

Scientifically, the green color is the least straining to the eyes thus, our nervous system can relax when seeing the color green.

The green color helps to calm us down.

Black for Seriousness

Black is a great choice if you want to show that you mean business.

Black color at work symbolizes power, leadership, and authority. It is color for high-level executive and managerial roles.

Black can also give the feeling of mystery or seriousness.

Black represents professionalism and communicates a sense of responsibility, thus it is suitable for formal events and meetings, wearing a black suit with some hint of blue or green can do wonders.

But, if you are in casual wear, avoid wearing all black to work as it can seem as if you are hiding something.

White for Peacefulness

White is often the color of choice for professionals that is working in the healthcare industry.

White color is often associated with cleanliness, peacefulness, purity, organized and perfection.

A white color top with a dark-colored bottom is a great choice when choosing what to wear for work.

But avoid wearing an outfit that is totally white, as it may signify timidity which is not good for building a professional relationship in the workplace.

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What Colors Not To Wear To Work

When knowing what colors to wear to work, there are a few colors you should never wear to work as it can harm your career progression, and impact your chances of being promoted in the company.

Here are the worst colors to wear to work.

Avoid Wearing Bright Colors to Work

Wearing bright yellow, orange, and hot pink are the worst colors to wear to work. Although wearing clothing of bright colors can communicate that you are fun. Wearing clothing which is bright colors is a bad choice for professional settings such as interviews and work environments.

Wearing bright yellow and orange can come across as overly confident and unprofessional.

Yellow for Caution

Yellow color is often associated with warmth, happiness, and energy.

But yellow is one of the worst colors to wear to work, as it can also trigger anxiety, hostility, and irritation in the workplace.

Culturally, yellow is used as a cautionary signal on the traffic lights.

Yellow is the brightest color in the spectrum of the human eye, where it can be too bright and cause over-stimulation of the eyes.

Orange for Creativity

Orange color is associated with job, warmth, enthusiasm, and creativity.

However, wearing an outfit that is orange to work can create a feeling of frustration and draw strong emotions.

Orange is especially a bad color to wear if you are in any formal meetings or to most work environments.

People who wear orange are often seen as an attention seeker which does not help in conveying the message of professionalism or seriousness at your work.

Red for Danger

Red symbolizes love, romance, and passion.

But red may not be suitable for most work environments.

Culturally, we use the color red to associate with danger or stop.

• When we see a red traffic light, we stop our cars.
• When we see red in our performance scorecard, it means we fail in some of the criteria.
• When we see red in our project timeline, it means we have a certain task that is overdue.

Wearing red can be great if you want to be seen as strong-willed, passionate, outspoken, and with a touch of aggression.

Red is a great color if you want to scare off a rival, or need to be preserved as more aggressive.

Otherwise, do not wear red to the office or to any professional meetings.

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What Color To Wear On The First Day Of Work

Be colorful but conservative. Being your first day of work, you may not need to dress in neutral colors, as you did during your interview.

On your first day of work, you can choose to wear an outfit with colors that you feel comfortable that give you confidence.

A combination of black, white, blue, brown, and green are great colors to wear on your first day of work.

Choose a combination of 2 colors at most, never go too overboard on the colors, or you might look unprofessional.

Work Clothes Color Combinations

A light color top such as white, light blue, or light pink with a dark bottom such as black, navy blue, brown, or olive green is a great combination to wear in most office environments.

Below is a work clothes color compatibility chart for both men and women. Use this simple guide to you on deciding what to what for work in your new job.

Common office wear color combinations for woman

• Top: White, light blue, light pink, shades of blue, brown, green, black.
• Bottom: White, light blue, light pink, shades of blue, brown, green, black.
• Business Formal Suit: Grey, brown, darker shades of green, darker shades of blue, black

Common office wear color combinations for men

• Top: White, light pink, light blue.
• Bottom: Grey, olive green, brown, navy blue, black.
• Business Formal Suit: Black, navy blue, brown

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