The chic and snappy street-style looks from the London Collections: Men SS17 show circuit provide a parade of new-season inspiration. Scroll through for our favourite fashion-forward trends.

It’s that time of year again. Time, in fact, for a certain segment of the male population to whip out those wardrobe items that can only really be classified under “that’ll-be-good-for-wearing-to-a-fashion-show”. Yes, the SS17 menswear runway presentations kicked off on Thursday with London Collections: Men, bringing a variety of hibernating peacocks to the streets of our fair capital (where do they go the rest of the year?), to air their various designer goodies and be photographed in them for blogs and social media accounts and things like that. Luckily, among the strident, challenging, envelope-pushing looks being proposed among attendees of this season’s shows, there were also a fair few we wouldn’t mind wearing ourselves. Scroll down to discover our favourites of the weekend, and in doing so pick up a few lessons from London’s style elite.

In general, the easiest way for a man to pull off strong colour is to avoid it completely if you’re not sure. Which is sound advice, but utterly boring, we admit it. A better, and more nuanced approach to working some variation into the tones of your wardrobe is to combine various shades of low-contrast colours such as off-white, beige and grey. We call these “neutrals” for good reason – they all work well together and won't take your outfit veering into tricky territory, however many you pile on. Three is a happy number though – as evidenced by the above combination.

At the risk of repeating ourselves: the camp-collar shirt is undoubtedly in the ascendant this summer, and the above image goes a long way to explaining why. Worn open over a pristine white T-shirt, it reminds us of that period in the 1950s in which the idea of “casual wear” was invented, and “dressing down” was a relatively new option. As such it combines effortless summer cool with a touch of put-together smartness, emphasised here by the brown penny loafers. What makes it modern is the rich colours – we particularly like the deep olive of the chinos.

The London Collections tend to be full of people trying to “own” the quintessentially English concept of dapperness. Cue lots of double-breasted jackets, patterned pocket squares, walking sticks and old-timey things like that. This of course can go oh so wrong, but when done right, as in the image above, it’s rather wonderful. What works about this outfit is first of all the colour: rather than opting for a blazer in bright Pitti blue, this gentleman has opted for a subtler shade of petrol, harmonised nicely by the blue-grey trousers. The wide-collared shirt tucks snugly into the jacket's lapels and the tie is held firmly in place by virtue of the single fastened button at the front. What makes the look complete, however, is the accessories – in this case a sharp Panama hat, which is an item we're increasingly covering as summer heats up.

Yes it can be done, as demonstrated by this enviably tall attendee of LC:M. The reason this outfit works is because it is a pointed game of two halves: the buttoned-up, double-breasted jacket and coat up top is sharply undercut by a pair of simple white sneakers down below, in a stark juxtaposition that looks assured and deliberate. Of course, the cleanliness and simplicity of the sneakers is also important – we wouldn't recommend doing this with a pair of weathered Stan Smiths or studded Givenchy high tops.