Trends are misunderstood. Stop most men in the street and they’ll tell you they don’t follow fashion trends, but look inside their wardrobes and hanging alongside the timeless classics you’ll see ripped jeans, seventies knitwear, Cuban collar shirts… and those are just the trends he still likes.

Sure, there’s a lot of 50/50 fashion out there (pyjamas for wearing outdoors, anyone?), but in-between all the catwalk looks trotted out for shock factor, there’s a heap of new stuff that’s not painfully boring and is thoroughly wearable. Ergo, it’s perfect for taking you from plodding pedestrian to menswear maestro.

This spring/summer, you don’t have to concern yourself with the messy business of sorting the cool from the crap – we’ve gone and done that for you. What’s left is all killer, no filler.

Vertical Stripes

Like grimacing through rain-soaked barbecues and festivals, Breton stripes are a summer institution. But since they’ve also been hijacked by everyone from school-run mums to cocky club promoters, you could hardly call them groundbreaking.

The solution: turn them 90 degrees. The vertical stripe is officially menswear’s new go-to pattern. Seen on everything from bombers to field jackets at the global fashion weeks, there’s no denying that it was one seriously stripey season. In real life, you’re aiming for Armie Hammer’s effortless Call My By Your Name wardrobe – but take it too far and you’re one half of Bananas In Pyjamas.

The key to staying well clear of animated fruit is the size of your stripes. The best examples on show for SS18 were straight, narrow and deployed across T-shirts, short-sleeved shirts and cuffed joggers. When creating your own looks, one vertically striped piece at a time is often enough – the double vertical stripe is an advanced style move that only the most confident of men can pull off.