Brown is the colour that makes a skirt look expensive even when it wasn't, and that's really the whole case for it. A good chocolate or tobacco shade has the kind of depth that black just doesn't, it reads as considered rather than default, and it sits easier against skin tones that navy can make look washed out. The trouble is that brown is also the colour most likely to look like a charity shop find if the fabric isn't right, so it rewards a bit of care that black never asks for.
Where it goes wrong is usually in the pairing. Brown next to black can look accidental rather than deliberate, like you got dressed in the dark, and it fights with anything too warm and orangey unless you're matching tones on purpose. Cream, stone, a soft white, even a dusty pink, all sit on it far better than you'd expect, and tan accessories only work if they're a shade or two off the skirt itself, otherwise the whole thing goes a bit one note. A cheap one gives itself away fast: the dye sits flat and slightly plasticky, the hem has already started to fray after one trip through the wash, and if it's meant to be suede or a suede look it usually sheds that illusion within a season and starts looking like felt. The better ones have a bit of weight to them, a proper lined waistband that doesn't roll, and stitching that's been finished rather than just overlocked and left. Hold it up to the light before you buy, if you can see the weave clearly through it, that's exactly what will happen under a bag strap on a crowded train, a worn patch right where it rubs. For colour, the mid to dark browns, the ones closer to coffee than caramel, are the easiest to keep wearing year after year, they don't date the way a very orangey tan does and they hide the kind of general wear that pale colours show up within weeks.
Check the lining if there is one, cheap polyester linings cling and ride up in a way that cotton or a proper acetate never does, and run a hand over any seam that will sit against tights, because a rough or raw edge there will have you fidgeting all day. If it's a wrap or a button front, check the closure sits flat when you walk, not just when you're standing still in front of a mirror.
Picked by Hannah Fielding. More in Skirts.
