You’ve mastered monochromes. Layering is a cinch. You know your two-inch turn-up from a tailored sport jacket. Your shoes get a polishing weekly and your skin crawls at the sight of a fully buttoned-up suit jacket.

But just because you’ve passed Menswear 101 doesn’t mean that you’re not still making errors. You need to fix up to look sharp.

1. The Art Is In The Almost

By now you should have a grasp of the basic rules of metals and leathers: match them. But applied too simplistically and you look like you learned to dress from a manual.

Accessories are meant to add something to your ensemble when worn together, rather than becoming the central focus. So, rather than maniacally trawling the high street clutching a colour chart, consider this: too ‘matchy matchy’ is almost as bad as ‘no matchy at all’.

Leathers or metals that are in the same family work best together, so go one shade darker or lighter.

Get It Right

Mango Man 2015

2. Tie-Ten Up

The first rule of ties: of the thousands of possible options, a four-in-hand is always right. The second rule: pull it tight.

Even the man who’s inadvisedly opted for a Windsor knot looks better than his top-button bearing neighbour. To avoid it, keep every element taut throughout, then ensure it sits flush with your collar band. If that means the knot comes up too small, reset and deploy an extra loop.

On which note, with ties, length matters. The tip of the tie should stop slightly beyond your belt line, to balance your legs and torso. Too long = Chandler from Friends. Too short = everyone in Grange Hill, ever.

Get It Right

Windsor SS15

3. A Close Shave

A beard isn’t two-fingers to your razor. And without daily care, your stubble veers from David Beckham to a guy who runs his own internet forum.

And where you trim can downplay any less than ideal contours. “Those with rounder, less angular faces can square off the corners of their stubble or beard slightly around the neck area, to give the illusion of a squared jaw,” says Adam Brady of Ruffians Barbers. Just stay your hand if you start seeing George Michael in the mirror.