Everything you need to know about the shade of the season.

Imagine if colours were decades. Purple, largely thanks to Prince, would be the 1980s; the present might be millennial pink; and brown, of course, would be the 1970s. It’s perhaps because of these retro connotations that brown is sometimes frowned upon as a sartorial option. It’s present in most wardrobes, sure, but rare is the man who’d make brown their signature colour (more on that later). This season, though, designers have been making the case for the multifaceted, down to earth colour’s place in a contemporary wardrobe: brown is having a deserved moment.

Parisian brand Lanvin, for instance, employed a muted colour palette of sepia hues for its AW18 collection, while Versace used golden browns on outerwear. Fendi, however, went to town. As if to claim the colour as the brand’s own, the Fendi logo appeared in different hues of brown across fleeces, collars, sweaters, woollen trousers, belt bags, hats and coats. It pays to consider brown as an alternative to black; where a full black outfit can often tend towards the funereal, Fendi demonstrated that full brown is sartorial versatility in muted technicolour, and brown coats in a variety of fabrics, paired easily with brown shirts, hats and boots embossed with the Fendi logo.

Brown might also be the ultimate colour for transitional weather. There’s something snugly autumnal about it. This warmth lends a brown suit a flexible advantage over its black, grey and navy counterparts – pair it with light, pastel colours (it goes especially well with powder blue, for instance), and it becomes a summer suit, but choose darker shades and it’s ready for a shift in seasons. Maison Margiela’s version of a brown suit paired a leather jacket with cropped, fitted trousers; a refreshing take on the style, and a reminder of the charms of brown leather (like black leather, but without the overexposed Matrix references that have been doing the rounds on the runway recently). Acne Studios’ brown sweaters and pinstripe trousers gave more evidence of brown’s ability to bring new life to wardrobe staples, the pinstripes looked somehow new. Think of a brown suede jacket as your way to tap into the Western trend, without the need to go full Mr Jon Voight in Midnight Cowboy. Unless you want to, of course.

Indeed, the runway can often leave us feeling a little cold in terms of how to actually wear it, so we’re also looking to the classic icons below, who proved that brown should certainly be seen in town.

Mr Leonard Cohen wears light brown (bordering on beige) resplendently here, and is an exemplary demonstration of how well the colour works for cosy autumn dressing. The neutral, light shades here give scope to play with textures, so that the thick rollneck and coat look streamlined rather than bulky or busy.

Mr Richard Gere’s American Gigolo wouldn’t be complete without the colour, and here the actor offers a lesson in how to style a brown suit jacket. By pairing different colours in the same shade, Mr Gere has created a look that’s relaxed and seems almost thrown together without slipping into the informal. Whether you chose to lean into the 1970s effect with a shirt that’s open to the navel, however, is up to you.

Mr Gregory Peck’s look here might best be described as low-key detective. It speaks to the power of a full brown outfit that you don’t initially notice how much of it he’s wearing. Where another one-colour combo of glasses, tie, and suit jacket might be overwhelming, and even eccentric, with brown it’s subtle and stylish, never severe.

The men featured in this story are not associated with and do not endorse MR PORTER or the products shown