Whether you’re a streetwear devotee, or you spend more time with a tailor than your other half, there are a few classic items of clothing that unite even the most contrasting clothing tribes. You’d be hard pushed to find a man that doesn’t own a pair of jeans, for example. And there is little reason why anyone would overlook a simple white T-shirt. Another such essential is the denim jacket, a trusty, hardwearing option whatever your style preferences. And with spring on the way, this lightweight warm-weather outerwear might well be at the forefront of your mind when it comes to investing in some new clothes.

But not all denim jackets are made the same, of course. This is to be expected when you consider they were first designed about 140 years ago (by Mr Levi Strauss, in case you didn’t know). But which jacket you choose today very much depends on your current style (and financial) situation. Below, we’ve picked out three examples of the essential denim jacket and three ways to wear it.

If you close your eyes and picture a denim jacket, then your mind may conjure something that looks a little like this. When Plato was coming up with his Theory Of Forms and Socrates asked him “What is a denim jacket?”, he probably described something like this. Now, this almost definitely didn’t happen, but you catch our drift. This is a solid, simple, classic version of the denim jacket, and can be paired equally simply with a white T-shirt and black jeans. Job done.

If you have a little bit more money to spend and your style philosophy is not dominated by all that is traditional and all that is classic, you may wish to invest in this distressed example of the denim jacket in black. It also has a zip rather than the usual buttoned-up approach. This will seem nothing less than witchcraft to the purists but signals a welcome change for those wanting a little bit more edge to their essentials. Expect nothing less from LA-based brand RtA.

When tasked with creating its own version of the denim jacket, Gucci was not about to do things by half. Nor was it just going to stick to the blueprint laid out by Mr Strauss. So, if you’re going to go for a pay-day splurge on a denim jacket that suits your extravagant approach to dressing, look no further than this corduroy-trimmed, 1980s-tinged number by the Italian maximalist. We’re huge fans of the dice, bottle and Gucci little piggy design work, but keep the rest of your outfit reined in so the jacket can shout as loud as it likes.