Spring to it: a modern man’s guide to dressing

Dressing in the period between coats and shorts needn't mean a uniform of scuffed jeans and navy jumpers. Read on for the four key trends to note in Spring menswear:

1. Invest In: The side-stripe trouser

Why is it that although trousers make up 50 per cent of our entire outfits for the bulk of the year, they get barely any fashion airtime? Aside from murmurs about the return of a wider leg shape: nothing.

Enter the side-stripe trouser, the love child of the track pant and the tuxedo slack, which is cropping up everywhere this spring. Zara has styles with simple piping or thick contrast stripes, while Acne Studios is offering fancy track trousers or a beige slim-fit style with a contrast stitch running down the outside leg. Haider Ackermann, meanwhile, has made the side-stripe a staple of his Berluti reboot; they were on the runway for this season and for next. Note: if you do fancy opting for a jumbo trouser, you’re also in luck. Cos has gone mega billowy while Raey’s outsize jeans are a total winner.

2. The unavoidable trend: The tropical shirt

Everywhere. And very Leonardo DiCap in Romeo + Juliet, ie an excellent thing. Leo sports his with nada underneath but if that feels a bit much/mutton, it’s definitely acceptable to sling on a white crew-neck T-shirt, a look seen at Parisian label AMI. At Balenciaga, a palm tree and sports-car print shirt was done up to the neck with Terminator-style sunglasses for an austere Dad-look, while at Louis Vuitton tropical numbers were given a sort of sci-fi surf re-jig, with models wearing short-sleeved print shirts with scuba trousers or shorts, wet-look hair and a cloggy sandal. Clearly, the easiest approach here is to dress the whole loud thing down with slightly too short, slim, navy cotton trousers (Uniqlo), old jeans or a pair of thigh-grazing denim cut-offs.

3. Think about: The boring suit

The fashion status of the two-piece suit has probably never been so precarious, associated as it is with hopeless politicians and outmoded work uniforms. But having reached peak tracksuit — and even though I am typing this in one — designers have been toying with new ideas of tailoring. Let’s skip forward a season and talk about Raf Simons autumn/winter 2018 show. Some of the best looks involved lean suiting — three buttons, big pockets — worn with nothing underneath. The nothing underneath bit is perhaps not a takeaway tip, but still. Suits. Good ones. Thanks Raf. Elsewhere, there is a more relaxed way of thinking about tailoring: Lemaire does a fine line in neat blazers with a fluid pair of tonal trousers, which is worth studying, while Cos has a suitably tight edit of suits: its light-grey blazer with large pockets and matching trousers is a pleasing starting point.

4. The accessory of the hour: The belt bag

Yes, the piece of fashion kit often referred to as a “bum bag” or the equally gruesome “fanny pack” has been given a rebrand. Enter the belt bag. Zara’s is sporty and looks like the kind of thing your local handyman carries his nuts and bolts in. On the runway, Lanvin’s was neat and Aertexy, Prada’s were zippy and comic strippy, while Vuitton’s were worn cross-body style. But the king of the belt bag is surely Gucci, which has no less than 12 options, including logoed versions in hot pink and a leather style festooned with crystals — the latter will set you back a cool £1,210. Ouch. Whatever you think of this bag comeback, and possibly you’ll think you need to be a millennial to pull one off, if you look at said accessory merely from a practical viewpoint it’s actually rather purposeful. It frees up your hands for coffee, phone etc etc, plus it’s not a backpack bashing everyone in the head on the Tube. Modern.

Simon Chilvers is men’s style director at MATCHESFASHION.COM