Here are two ways to wear a tie to work – in two different industries, we reckon. On the left, we have someone who might work in a creative industry, or at a university. On the right, a lawyer or something equally serious and business-like.

Let’s start with the left. We love this look for the casual simplicity with a stripy twist. It’s fairly preppy, yes, but not costumey thanks to modern details and fits. The shirt is from Drake’s while the tie is from Thom Browne, two design houses that have dabbled in prep (in the latter’s case, often a bit subversively). If you’re going to go for two stripes, we recommend going for contrast both in colour and size (and, in this case, direction). The grey wool cardigan (also Drake’s) and watch from LaCalifornienne bring the whole thing neatly together.

Now, if you work in an office that has a strict dress code, it’s likely you wear a navy suit very often, in which case the white shirt and blue tie can get a bit snoozy. Why not take a bit of a risk with a pastel shirt and tie in tonally similar hues? In this case, we’ve chosen a pale pink dress shirt from Canali and paired it with a lavender silk tie by Lanvin. Going off piste like this might make you nervous, but we promise it’s a risk that will pay off handsomely in compliments.

Less is often more, except when it is simply less. Here we see that more is more – more prints, more textures, more style. A Missoni silk-jacquard tie in its signature zigzag motif wrought in acid green and shades of silvery grey works surprisingly well with a floral print shirt from TOM FORD. This look is all about proportions – big collar, big prints and big colours. Encase it all in a stunning and eye-catching powder blue suit from Bottega Veneta and you will see that playing it safe is for the dogs.

Peer through the recent street style pics from Pitti Uomo and you will notice quite a few chambray-shirt-and-tie combinations. We absolutely loved to see it. There’s something quite striking about a denim shirt beneath a blazer and held together with a bordeaux knit tie. It’s quite Ivy League-ish, which is funny because none of the brands featured here are American. For the shirt, we’ve chosen the Italian brand Rubinacci, while fellow Italians Loro Piana make the striped blazer and the tie is from our in-house brand, Mr P.

Here we have, let’s see, a white shirt and a black tie… At first glance, this is a very classic (some might say boring) combination. But look closer. The SAINT LAURENT tie is very slim (5cm, to be exact), as is the collar on the shirt from the same brand. If the maximalist option above was all about big proportions, this one is all about almost too small. If we were to zoom out, you’d see, however, that the jacket here is from Acne Studios and cut for a voluminous, oversized fit. The whole thing proves that even the most minimal of colour combinations can be a bit wild and out there if you dare to play around.