September gets a rough deal. We tend to see it as the beginning of the end: the last chance to wear that silly shirt you bought in May, or a closing window of outdoor opportunity. But in truth, September is one of the greatest months for menswear because its arrival heralds autumn, which in turn brings the best clothes and styling opportunities. Layering, texture, big coats, oh my! As the great F Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, “life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” Just be sure to consult our guide to the season’s new essentials, first.

Pockets. Purpose. Presence. Three things the humble utility jacket has in abundance. Once the preserve of workmen and field hands, it is now the preferred jacket for editors, stylists and actors between takes. The utility jacket is no longer a niche choice, it is now a wardrobe staple. Practicality is not its only calling card, it is stylish, versatile and on the right side of rugged. Scroll a runway recap or the feed of a well-dressed friend and the message is consistent: utility silhouettes in hardwearing fabrics, cut with intent and worn with ease are in.

Let it be writ in the history books: throughout the 2020s, the most stylish men wore wide-leg trousers. Swinging away from the skinny trend that conspired to cut off our collective blood supply from the late 2000s to the mid 2010s (thank you Hedi Slimane), trouser silhouettes have been getting progressively wider over the past decade. They’ve now reached a point where they are the dominant silhouette of the moment. Running the gamut from simple straight-leg fits to ones that are loose and all-out baggy, the best trousers nowadays have plenty in common with the Oxford bags that university students wore in the early 20th century. The menswear runways, too, are filled with brands offering their own takes: Dries Van Noten and Grace Wales Bonner are two designers who have helped pioneer the trend, creating richly draped trousers that feel elegant, luxurious and breezy – as comfortable and easy to pull on as a pair of sweatpants, but eminently more sophisticated.

In 2020, millions of workers moved their jobs from cubicles to bedrooms, creating a work-from-home economy coordinated through Slack, Zoom and Google Docs. Five years on, that experiment looks to be winding down. In April, Google informed some remote staff that they would have to return to work or face termination. Meta and Apple now require at least three days in the office, while JPMorgan, Amazon and The Washington Post are phasing out remote work altogether. For workers, the shift raises a familiar but tricky question: how to dress for the office. It’s not just that some have grown accustomed to pyjamas and sweatpants – although those are comfy – but office dress codes are inherently confusing. When Goldman Sachs sent a memo to some 36,000 employees announcing they no longer needed to wear a coat and tie, the firm didn’t say what should take its place. Management merely advised staff to “dress in a manner that accords with the company’s and clients’ expectations” and to “exercise good judgment.” In other words: you figure it out. This is why questions about how to dress for work are rarely settled. Hard-written rules have been slowly replaced by softly coded norms, which has caused endless confusion. No formula works for everyone since so much can vary depending on the industry, company, region and even job position. Still, if you’re left with no other direction, there are some guidelines on how to return to your workplace in style.

September gets a rough deal. We tend to see it as the beginning of the end: the last chance to wear that silly shirt you bought in May, or a closing window of outdoor opportunity. But in truth, September is one of the greatest months for menswear because its arrival heralds autumn, which in turn brings the best clothes and styling opportunities. Layering, texture, big coats, oh my! As the great F Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, “life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” Just be sure to consult our guide to the season’s new essentials, first.

Pockets. Purpose. Presence. Three things the humble utility jacket has in abundance. Once the preserve of workmen and field hands, it is now the preferred jacket for editors, stylists and actors between takes. The utility jacket is no longer a niche choice, it is now a wardrobe staple. Practicality is not its only calling card, it is stylish, versatile and on the right side of rugged. Scroll a runway recap or the feed of a well-dressed friend and the message is consistent: utility silhouettes in hardwearing fabrics, cut with intent and worn with ease are in.