A Guide to Choosing Your Outfit Based on Your Dog’s Coat Colour

Choosing what colour to wear in the show ring is about much more than the old rule of thumb: “light clothes for a dark dog and dark clothes for a light dog.”

The most important thing, of course, is that your dog stands out clearly against your outfit. The judge should be able to easily see the dog’s silhouette, topline, angulation and movement, even when the dog is positioned in front of you. But colour can also be used to enhance your dog’s own coat colour and create a more harmonious overall picture of you and your dog.

To achieve this, we need to look beyond whether the dog is simply light or dark.

Is the coat warm or cool? Does it lean towards copper, gold, mahogany, chocolate, silver or blue-grey? Is the colour bright or muted?

The same blue suit can look fantastic with a warm red dog but create a completely different impression with a silver-grey dog.

The goal is not to match your dog.

The goal is to complement your dog’s colour while creating enough contrast for your dog to stand out clearly.

Black dogs

Black is in many ways an easy coat colour to work with, as it pairs beautifully with a wide range of colours. At the same time, there is one obvious pitfall: a black dog against black clothing.

When your dog stands in front of your legs, parts of its silhouette can simply disappear visually.

Colours that work particularly well

Royal blue
A fantastic combination with black. The intense blue creates clear contrast without competing with the dog.

Cerise and cool pink tones
Black acts as a neutral backdrop and allows stronger pink shades to really come into their own.

Emerald green and clear green tones
Creates elegant colour contrast while allowing the black coat to retain its depth and shine.

Purple
Medium to deeper shades of purple work particularly well.

Red
A classic combination with clear contrast. Bright and slightly cooler reds often work better than orange-based reds.

Light blue
Creates a softer contrast than royal blue while still making the dog’s silhouette very clear.

White and off-white
Creates maximum contrast. With a solid black dog, the result can be particularly striking.

Be a little careful with

Black, charcoal and very dark navy. This doesn’t mean you can never wear these colours with a black dog, but consider where your dog is positioned in relation to your clothing when being shown. If you have a small dog and wear a skirt or dress, leaving your bare or nude-toned legs visible behind the dog, you can also wear these darker colours without compromising how clearly your dog stands out.

 

Light blue Onyx will be available in stock at the end of August.

Greige Lumina is perfect for those showing a black dog who prefer trousers.

Red dogs

This is where colour theory becomes particularly interesting.

“Red” in dogs can mean anything from light copper and orange-red to intense red and deep mahogany.

Red is fundamentally a warm colour, which means cooler colours often create a particularly beautiful contrast.

Colours that work particularly well

Dark green and forest green
One of the most beautiful combinations with red dogs. Green sits opposite red on the colour wheel and therefore creates natural contrast. Deeper green shades achieve this in an elegant way without making the combination feel too bold.

Petrol and turquoise tones
Fantastic with copper-red and warm red dogs. The blue-green tones balance the warmth of the coat and can make the red appear even richer.

Navy
A safe and elegant option, particularly for copper and orange-red coats.

Royal blue
The cool blue makes the warmth of the coat stand out more clearly.

Deep purple
Can be particularly beautiful with dark red and mahogany-coloured dogs.

Be a little careful with

Orange, rust, terracotta and certain warm brown shades. They can sit so close to the dog’s own colouring that the contrast is lost.

Bright red can also compete with an intensely red coat rather than enhance it.

Dark green really makes dogs across the red and reddish-brown colour spectrum pop! Pictured here is the dark green Sapphire, featuring gold threads in the organza details.

Reddish-brown and mahogany dogs

Here we are talking about dogs whose colour falls somewhere between red and brown – for example chestnut, mahogany and deep auburn.

These colours are often both deep and warm, which means they pair particularly well with rich jewel tones.

Especially beautiful choices include:

Petrol • emerald green • dark green • navy • royal blue • deep purple

With a really deep mahogany coat, your clothing does not necessarily need to be very light. The difference in hue itself can create enough separation between dog and handler.

Brown dogs

Simply saying that a dog is “brown” actually tells us very little from a colour perspective.

Brown can be warm chocolate, reddish-brown, liver, dark coffee or a cooler brown with taupe undertones.

This makes the undertone particularly important.

Warm chocolate-brown dogs

Pair beautifully with:

Petrol • turquoise • royal blue • emerald green • dark green

Blue and blue-green colours balance the warmth of the brown coat.

Certain pink tones can also look particularly beautiful with chocolate brown.

Cooler liver-brown dogs

Try:

Royal blue • light blue • cool pink • cerise • purple • cooler green tones

Be a little careful with

Brown, camel, beige and taupe.

Tone-on-tone can be incredibly elegant in other settings, but in the show ring there is a risk that parts of the dog’s silhouette will disappear against your clothing.

 

Purple Sapphire will make the brown dog pop.

White dogs

Here, contrast becomes especially important.

A white dog in front of very light trousers or a pale skirt can almost disappear visually.

At the same time, white is neutral, which gives you an enormous colour palette to work with.

Colours that work particularly well

Navy – elegant and defined without creating the strongest possible contrast.

Royal blue – clean, clear and very striking.

Emerald green and dark green – create a sophisticated contrast.

Petrol – softer than navy while still providing plenty of contrast.

Purple – both medium and deeper purple shades work beautifully.

Cerise, raspberry and deeper pinks – very striking against white.

Red and burgundy – classic contrasting colours.

What about black?

Black naturally works very well with a white dog in terms of contrast. However, the combination creates a very strong, graphic effect.

A coloured suit can sometimes create a softer and more harmonious overall picture without sacrificing the important contrast.

Be a little careful with

White, ivory, cream, very light grey and extremely pale pastels.

Royal blue Elegance looks beautiful against a white dog.

 

Fawn dogs

Fawn is a particularly interesting colour because there is so much variation.

It can range from very pale beige and sandy shades to warm golden beige and deeper reddish fawn.

Most fawn coats contain warm yellow, beige or red undertones.

This is why cooler colours are often particularly effective.

Colours that work particularly well

Petrol and teal
One of my favourite choices for fawn. The blue-green creates contrast against the warmth without looking harsh.

Navy
Classic, elegant and easy to combine.

Royal blue
Particularly beautiful with warmer and deeper fawn coats.

Dark green
Very beautiful with golden fawn.

Plum and purple
Creates an interesting contrast against yellow and golden undertones.

Burgundy
Can look fantastic with lighter fawn coats, provided there is enough difference in lightness.

Be a little careful with

Camel, beige, sand, mustard and warm yellow. These can be so close to the dog’s own coat colour that the dog’s outline becomes less defined.

Royal blue Elegance looks beautiful with dogs in fawn shades.

 

This burgundy Onyx also enhances a fawn coat beautifully. It will be available in the webshop at the end of August.

 

Yellow and golden dogs

The Golden Retriever is a perfect example of why “light dog = dark clothes” is far too simplistic.

A golden coat can range from almost cream to light gold and deep, rich golden shades.

Yellow and gold are warm colours, which makes blue and blue-green particularly useful choices.

Colours that work particularly well

Navy or black • royal blue • petrol • teal • emerald green • dark green

Purple and can also look fantastic because purple and yellow are complementary colours.

With a very pale golden dog, deeper and more saturated colours are often a great choice.

With a dark golden dog, however, your outfit does not need to be extremely dark. A medium-dark blue or green can provide enough contrast through the difference in hue itself.

Be a little careful with

Mustard, gold, camel, beige and yellow-green shades that sit too close to the dog’s own coat colour.

Navy Lumina looks beautiful against the golden coat of a Golden Retriever.

 

Grey dogs

Grey is perhaps one of the most interesting colour groups because grey coats can be either warm or cool.

A silver-grey Poodle, a blue-grey dog and a warmer salt-and-pepper dog will not necessarily look their best with the same colours.

Cool silver and blue-grey dogs

Look particularly beautiful with:

Burgundy • cerise • raspberry • plum • purple • emerald green

The warmer red and pink tones create especially beautiful contrast against cool silver.

Royal blue can also look elegant, but make sure there is enough difference in lightness between your dog and your clothing.

Warmer grey dogs

Try:

Petrol • navy • deep blue • burgundy • forest green

Dark charcoal-grey dogs

Here you can move towards slightly lighter or brighter colours:

Light blue • pink • cerise • bright blue • clear green tones

Very pale silver

Do the opposite and choose more saturated or deeper colours:

Navy • petrol • emerald green • burgundy • purple

 

Burgundy Sapphire creates beautiful contrast with grey-toned dogs.

Contrast does not always mean light versus dark

This is perhaps the most important thing to remember.

Contrast can be created in several different ways.

A golden dog and a royal blue suit can be relatively similar in terms of lightness, yet still be clearly separated because warm yellow and cool blue are so different from each other.

The same principle is what makes petrol so effective with many red and fawn-coloured dogs.

So, when choosing your outfit, think about three things:

1. Your dog’s actual coat colour
Don’t stop at “brown”. Is your dog chocolate brown, liver brown, reddish-brown, warm or cool?

2. Contrast
Will your dog’s silhouette, legs and topline remain clearly visible against your clothing?

3. Harmony
Your outfit should complement your dog – not compete with it.

A truly successful show outfit does not have to be the colour that makes the handler stand out the most.

It should help the entire team look its best, while keeping the dog exactly where it belongs – at the centre of attention.