Considering their day job is to keep guys’ wardrobes up to date with stylish must-have pieces, it’s peculiar how many menswear designers default to a jeans-and-sweats uniform that seems more suited to reinvigorating the garage than the zeitgeist.

Of course, you could argue that when you’re helming a worldwide label, the creativity exerted on your wardrobe is better spent reinventing everyone else’s. But as the men below prove, you can boss your own swag without lessening what you send down the runway.

Charlie Casely-Hayford

It’s arguably an unfair advantage in the style stakes when a) your dad is one of British menswear’s most decorated names; b) you run one of menswear’s most innovative fashion labels with him; oh, and c) he blessed you with the kind of genetics that also landed you a modelling contract.

Still, kudos to Charlie Casely-Hayford for turning his dealt hand into a style that embodies what his eponymous brand does best: sportswear reimagined by some liquored-up Savile Row exile. Think cropped slim-fit suits worn with military boots, roomy colour-blocked outerwear and, sure, just good old sweats and sneakers.

Regularly featuring in our annual world’s best-dressed men list and moonlighting as a stylist who has dressed the likes of Sam Smith, Nas and The XX, he’s a lesson in the benefits of knowing your body and its best fit, then understanding the power of less.

Virgil Abloh

You don’t get seated next to Kanye at fashion week without making some serious heat. And Virgil Abloh’s label Off-White is hot enough to scald. The American designer’s high-end streetwear is collecting famous fans like football stickers, courtesy of pieces that are both distinctive and wearable.

Abloh’s own look is like a living mood board of where streetwear’s at now – think box-logo hoodies and T-shirts, and the latest must-cop kicks. Ideally finished with his own signature outerwear.