The best way to precisely control the style of drop-down menu elements is to use custom components. 1. Create a container div with a drop-down trigger and option list, and fully control its appearance through CSS; 2. The option style of the native select element is limited and only valid in some browsers; 3. You can apply specific styles to the target item through the attribute selector, but the cross-browser compatibility is poor. Therefore, when highly customized designs are required, it is recommended to prioritize customization solutions for a more consistent user experience.
When you're trying to style an element inside a dropdown menu, you might run into some limitations due to how browsers and frameworks handle these elements. But there are ways to get more control over the look and feel of dropdown items.

Use Custom Dropdown Components
Most modern websites avoid using the native <select></select>
element for dropdowns because it's hard to style consistently across browsers. Instead, they use custom dropdown components built with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Here's how you can approach this:

- <li> Create a wrapper
<div> that acts as the dropdown container.<li> Use a button or span to display the selected value.</li>
<li> Show a list ( <code><ul></ul>
) of options when the user clicks the trigger.
<li> Style each <li>
element however you want — fonts, colors, padding, etc.
This gives you full control over every part of the dropdown, including individual elements in the list.
Apply Styles to Native <option></option>
Elements (with Limitations)
If you still want to use the native <select></select>
and <option></option>
structure, styling options is possible but limited.

For example:
select option { background-color: #f0f0f0; color: #333; }
However, not all styles will work — especially in Chrome. Padding, font size, and color may be ignored or only partially applied. So if you need pixel-perfect design, go with a custom dropdown instead.
Target Specific Items Based on Value or Attribute
Sometimes you want to style only certain items in a dropdown differently — like highlighting a premium option or disabling specific choices.
You can do something like this in CSS:
option[value="premium"] { color: red; font-weight: bold; }
This works well in Firefox, but again, browser support varies. For better reliability, especially in larger apps, consider using data attributes or classes in your custom dropdown setup.
So yeah, if you really want to style dropdown elements precisely, custom components are your best bet. Native elements can work for simple cases, but they come with limits.
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