Fashion is a simple game sometimes. Silhouettes tend to get bigger or smaller in cycles. Sneakers and shoes right now? Low-profile and slim. Trousers are wide and tailoring is boxy. Over the past few years, shirts have taken a turn towards the loose and louche, with designers riffing on classic long-sleeve poplins and formal styles, worn untucked and carefree… or at least that’s the intention.

“We’re a British brand, and certainly proud of it,” says Michael Hill, the co-owner and creative director of Drake’s. “But we have always drawn inspiration from our travels. The way the Japanese combine new ideas with a love of vintage, and their respect for craft and provenance, or the Italian approach to relaxed tailoring. Making the rules and then breaking them a little bit. That sense of discovery is what keeps us going.”

Technical gear – clothes that can scale mountains and withstand the worst of nature – hold a special significance in Japan. Spend any time in neighbourhoods such as Kōenji, famous for their vintage shopping, and you’ll be inundated with stores peddling rare American military parkas, 1990s fleeces and colourful deadstock jackets in water-resistant fabrics.

In the trailer for the new Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere, Springsteen – or Jeremy Allen White, who plays him – is shown buying a new car. “I do know who you are,” says the salesman. “Well, that makes one of us,” quips Allen White. It’s a clever way to breadcrumb the story, which focuses on an introspective Springsteen making 1982’s Nebraska, the album between The River in 1980 and 1984’s megahit Born In The USA. But it could also refer to the star’s style.

Fashion is a simple game sometimes. Silhouettes tend to get bigger or smaller in cycles. Sneakers and shoes right now? Low-profile and slim. Trousers are wide and tailoring is boxy. Over the past few years, shirts have taken a turn towards the loose and louche, with designers riffing on classic long-sleeve poplins and formal styles, worn untucked and carefree… or at least that’s the intention.

“We’re a British brand, and certainly proud of it,” says Michael Hill, the co-owner and creative director of Drake’s. “But we have always drawn inspiration from our travels. The way the Japanese combine new ideas with a love of vintage, and their respect for craft and provenance, or the Italian approach to relaxed tailoring. Making the rules and then breaking them a little bit. That sense of discovery is what keeps us going.”