As with most Hawaiian clothing, which is made from fabrics printed with a myriad of often loud colors, it can often be difficult to match your garment with another piece or accessory in your wardrobe. While there is not enough time in the day to cover how to color coordinate your entire wardrobe, we would like to touch on some of the more basic colors that go well together.

Save 10% on todays online order with coupon code: TROPICAL10

Colors:
• Green, red, blue, orange, and browns match up well with solid cream or khaki pants or shorts.
• White, cream, grey, and whites with contrasting colors match up with solid black, blue or navy pants or shorts.
• Black, dark reds and predominantly darker colors look best with dark, solid colored shorts, blue jeans or dark slacks or shorts.
• Purple, pink, tan, grey, green, and blue match up with solid black or navy pants or shorts.
• All colors look great with a nice pair of Levi’s

Matching a Hawaiian Shirt to Accessories:

• Odds are good that the shirt you selected has a fairly bright and dominant design that just screams for attention (or midlife crisis). Many if not most Hawaiian shirts have bold flowers and other geometric designs that really stand out. Remember, you’re trying to find something to match up with your Hawaiian shirt. If you think plaid shorts look good with a Hawaiian shirt we encourage you to think again. We would also suggest that you stick with solid colored pants and footwear such as flip flops or tennis shoes. If for some reason you have to wear a jacket over your shirt, choose a dark color such as black.

• If you’re going to be wearing any symbolic neckwear or jewelry around your neck we suggest that you stick with brown or black kukui nut leis and pass on flower leis, your shirt just doesn’t need the competition. If you are going to an event and they offer a lei greeting, wear the flower lei in conjunction with your kukui nut lei, if you wore one.

• Women’s Hawaiian shirts. The same rules above apply, except we recommend a solid color lei or a flower hair clip. Kukui nut leis are mostly worn by men, however we have a great selection of shell necklaces that go great with shirts and dresses for the ladies. Ladies also have the option of wearing their shirts fully or partially unbuttoned over a solid top i.e. wearing a patterned blue shirt over a solid white top. My wife pairs her Hawaiian shirts with a tank top and throws on a couple of shell necklaces and she is good to go.

Matching a Hawaiian Dress:

• Regardless of the dress style we can safely assume that it has a feminine as well as floral print. Most important here is your selection of footwear. A nice looking pair of your favorite flats would probably go with 95% of the designs and colors. But be careful with footwear accessories such a flower clips or big rhinestones etc. the idea is to wear items that complement each other and do not compete for attention with your dress.

• Handbags and jewelry are another consideration. Generally speaking solid colored handbag or one with subtle tropical accents will do. Choose a bag that contains at least one of the base colors used in the dress. Again it’s all about the items complimenting each other.

Family Matching Wear:

• Families just love to match and when they take that trip to Hawaii or go somewhere for vacation you are sure to get many pictures of your family in matching Hawaiian wear. Wave Shoppe suggests you think ahead and use that matching family wear for other photo opportunities such as throw a luau or take your annual Christmas card photo on the beach.

• Another idea is to get matching shirts and tell everyone to get pants or shorts in a neutral color. You almost can’t lose with khaki.

You may also want to reference Wave Shoppe's article, How to wear a Hawaiian shirt, for tips from our style experts on how to look sauvé in a Hawaiian shirt.