Gant, £125, gant.co.uk; Joseph, £285, joseph-fashion.com; Toast, £185, toa.stOf course today you don’t have to resort to the men’s department for wide-leg trousers or chinos.
These items can be found at Cos, Boden, Toast and Gant. For everyday, preppy classics, try Gap: the American brand is back with a store on Oxford Street and available online (check out the high-rise linen pleated wide-leg pants, now £35.97).
And more good news: perennial wardrobe basics look better with age. I have a pair of MHL (by Margaret Howell) cotton drill trousers, bought at a sample sale many years ago and still going strong.There’s a wonderful, gender-fluid exhibition on at the V&A – Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear – and while I adore Billy Porter’s bejewelled tuxedo gown and the androgynous Gucci glamour, it’s the simple outfits I love most.
The late 1980s Joe Casely-Hayford day-to-evening shirt and trousers, David Bowie’s elegant, charcoal grey Thierry Mugler suit (together with his Katharine Hamnett kitten heels) and the Grace Wales Bonner palest pink mohair two-piece.
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