The trend for extra-long sleeves is going mainstream.

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before. A horse walks into a bar. The barman takes one look at him and asks, “Why the long sleeves?”

… Geddit?

No?

Did we mention that this horse was a clothes horse? As in, a man given to wearing the latest in seasonal fashion?

OK, we’ll admit this joke needs a bit of work. Still, it’s a fun – if not particularly funny – way of bringing to your attention a trend that has been doing the rounds at the more experimental end of the menswear world for a while now, and is finally threatening to break into the mainstream. What is it, we hear you ask? Long sleeves, of course. Were you even listening to the joke?

Go on, then, give me the spiel.

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It is just how it sounds: elongated sleeves that extend over the wrist, over the hand and in some cases even further, dangling floorwards like the arms of an unfastened straitjacket.

Sounds great! I’ve always wanted to look like an escaped mental patient.

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Do we detect the slightest hint of sarcasm? If so, you’ll be relieved to hear that the knee-length sleeves seen at Vetements this season are but the most extreme example of a much wider trend. There are plenty of other, less dramatic versions for you to consider.

Vetements, you say? Why am I not surprised to hear that name in the context of an outlandish new trend?

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Ah, so you have been listening. This largely anonymous design collective has taken the fashion world by storm over the past couple of years, garnering truckloads of buzz for its dramatically oversized sweatshirts and hoodies. Without a doubt, this is the one name to drop when talking about this particular trend.

OK, any other names?

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Plenty. Mr Raf Simons has been at the vanguard of men’s style for years, and it’s no surprise to find him participating in this particular arms race. Highlights from his most recent collection include billowing white shirts with long, Edward Scissorhands-style cuffs, printed with Mr Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographic portraits of his muse and lover, Ms Patti Smith.

That sounds, uh, interesting. Keep ’em coming.

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Burberry’s February 17 collection, which was shown on the runway (and made immediately available to buy) just last week, featured plenty of long-sleeved knitwear. A far larger, more commercially driven brand than either Vetements or Raf Simons, Burberry’s embrace of this particular trend is the first sign that it might be headed for the mainstream. Of course, there are also the old hands of cutting-edge that have been doing long sleeves for a while – note how the sleeves on Mr Rick Owens’ jackets and knitwear always tend to extend beyond the knuckle, or how Mr Haider Ackermann’s surprising take on the dinner jacket this spring is designed to be worn with the cuffs rolled up to reveal a coral-red lining.

OK, so it’s received support from big designer names. Still, something’s bothering me.

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Go on.

Aren’t long sleeves just… hugely impractical?

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We thought you might say that. And in many ways, yes, they are. They get trapped in doors, they get in the way when you’re trying to send a WhatsApp, and they’re worse than useless when it comes to eating soup. But there’s a pretty simple solution to most of these problems, which is just to roll them up.

But surely that defeats the whole point, aesthetically?

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Not entirely. It gives your sleeves a pleasingly concertina-ed effect, a bit like an accordion.

Say I want a subtler way of buying into this trend. What should I do?

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Here’s an insider tip: try John Smedley. The sleeves on its crew-neck sweaters are on the long side, almost as if they were designed to be worn slightly bunched up at the bottom. The upshot of this is that, uness you’ve got gorilla arms, you should easily be able to pull them down to the knuckle. (And that, dear reader, is the only time you’ll see John Smedley and Vetements mentioned in the same article.)

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