What to wear on your first post-lockdown date; how to deal with eyewear fogging up; and a Halloween to remember. Contact us at asky@mrporter.com and we’ll do everything in our power to solve your style questions – or we’ll rope in one of the world’s foremost fashion brains to help. Welcome to Ask MR PORTER.

The extraordinary women behind Anderson & Sheppard, Mses Anda Rowland, Audie Charles and Emily Lowe, are among the most personally elegant and discerning people we can think of – not to mention incredibly generous with their advice. (Oh, and they make the best clothes a man can buy.) So, it is to them that we referred your question. And the key to first-date dressing, they counsel, is to “make sure that you feel confident and don’t wait until the last minute to throw something together. You might have second thoughts once you leave the house and feel less certain about your choices. Think ahead and choose tried and trusted clothes that fit well as you will feel more self-assured than when wearing a new outfit that has not been taken for a test-drive.”

Preparation, as in all things, is helpful here, they say. “Making a good first impression can take a little planning, so check beforehand that clothes are clean and pressed and that shoes are polished or brushed if they are suede. If you need a haircut, visit your barber the week before so that the new cut has time to settle in. To be really well prepared, visit the pub, bar or restaurant where you have chosen to meet and make the reservation in person. You can quickly recce the location if you have not been there before and you might be able to choose your table.”

Now, to brass tacks:

• “Dress for the time of day, the occasion and the location,” the Anderson & Sheppard team advise. “An outside walk before a pub lunch are popular options at the moment, and we would suggest our heavy cotton drill Travel Jacket, a rollneck sweater, a thick well-cut T-shirt, Henley shirt or polo shirt, jeans and suede boots with a good sole. A scarf is useful for extra warmth and for a little bit of colour and texture. Our Travel Jacket has 14 pockets and can carry face masks, hand sanitiser, keys, mobile phone, credit cards and a book to read if you arrive early.” 
• “An early evening drink on a terrace is a good choice if you are not yet sure about committing to lunch or dinner. We suggest an unstructured wool jersey jacket with a rollneck sweater to protect your neck from the autumn chill if you choose to order a second round. Wear these with brushed cotton or flannel flat-fronted trousers and add dark-brown suede simple lace-up shoes or loafers. Make sure that your socks are at least mid-calf as a flash of ankle skin is not always attractive when the sun is not shining. A classic navy, dark-green or chocolate-brown umbrella could also come in useful if you need to escort your date to a taxi or to the bus stop during a sudden downpour. Compact umbrellas have the same appeal as mobile phone belt-clips, so, although practical, they are best avoided.”
• “For a relaxed dinner, we like the unstructured jacket in a soft, textured cloth with slim-cut heavy cotton or flannel flat-fronted trousers and a crisp solid-coloured cotton-poplin shirt with button cuffs and a soft collar (check the restaurant or club’s dress code on wearing a tie). For an extra, versatile layer, you can add a crew neck sweater. This is a very attractive option, especially when your clothes are in muted or tonal colours as it adds another tactile texture.”

_Tips: _

• Wear an elegant watch with a leather strap and switch your phone to silent and put it away.

• Consider a long dark-coloured raincoat as it is very versatile and discrete and works for evening or for a walk in the park.

• Cologne: less is more.

• Pocket handkerchief: a jolly cotton handkerchief can be used to wipe the rain off your date’s cheeks, or to tie around your neck as a neckerchief if you get cold sitting outside.

To avoid:

Silk ties, short-sleeved shirts, logo T-shirts, heavy branding on anything including sneakers, fidget spinners, headphones around your neck, jogging bottoms, sock suspenders, visible chest hair.

A bane of our new normal, we agree. To help us get a handle on it, we asked our pal, maker and wearer of some of our favourite eyewear, Mr Garrett Leight, how he handles the fog.

**“**The new reality of having to wear a mask in public poses a challenge to eyewear lovers everywhere,” he says. “Personally, I’ve found myself wearing thinner frames – metals and wire frames as well as thin acetate styles. I wear a lot of hats and glasses, so adding this third head accessory of a mask has me feeling like less is more when it comes to your frames. Additionally, the masks that wrap around your ears create less real estate for comfort back there, so thin temples is key. As for lens colours, nothing changes for me here. Sometimes I’m in a mood where I don’t want people to see me and I love dark lenses with the mask. And sometimes I’m feeling friendly, and wear lighter lenses so I’m not so mysterious.

“Now, let’s talk about lenses fogging up – it stinks and it’s mostly unavoidable that you are going to have to be cleaning your frames a few times throughout the day. Fortunately, there are some solutions, literally. Zeiss makes a great anti-fog spray that will reduce fogging. It’s not 100 per cent bulletproof, but it definitely helps. If you are lucky to have a light prescription and can mostly see, I suggest taking your glasses off when you’re indoors with a mask. If you are not so lucky and need glasses at all times, then we are all familiar with the saying ‘fashion over function’. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices to look good.”

This obviously is not the year we are going to go the full Mr Harrison Ford for Halloween – or, wait, do you not know how hard Indiana Jones went on various 31sts of October? Take a Google. Instead, our colleague Ms Danai Dana put together a very helpful guide to scaring up a look for Halloween, as inspired by the spooky movies we return to this season – and, let’s be honest, all we have scheduled this year is a date with It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.