It wasn’t long ago that a suit was considered the first proper item of clothing that a man should buy. For good reason, too: when you wear something for five days a week, it’s inevitably going to take centre stage in your wardrobe.

Things have changed, though, and while many of us still don a suit between the hours of nine and five, an increasing number of workplaces no longer demand that we wear one at all. Even the finance and legal sectors, those bastions of the traditional corporate dress code, have begun to soften their stance on in-office attire recently. Meanwhile, if you work in the creative or tech industries, you may not have worn a suit for years.

Such a major shift in consumer behaviour could have spelled doom for suitmakers. What it has done instead is to spark innovation. Realising the need for a new approach to tailoring – one that’s informed by what men want to wear, not what we have to wear – menswear designers have begun to play around with long-established sartorial codes, pushing back against convention to reimagine the suit as a vessel for personal style rather than a symbol of corporate conformity.

And the best thing about this newly expressive take on tailoring? It doesn’t diminish or replace any of what was great about it in the first place. There’s still nothing smarter a man can wear than a suit. However, now it can be sexy, suave, stylish and so many other things, too. All of which leaves you, the wearer, with a world of new opportunities to explore. We’ve broken down three of them for you below.

No tie? No problem. Looser-fitting and less structured suits, such as this one from Dries Van Noten, work just as well when worn over a T-shirt. We haven’t scrimped on the T-shirt, opting for a cotton-jersey number with a high neckline from New York luxury brand The Row, which we’ve accessorised with some subtle bling in the form of a silver necklace from Alice Made This. (Jewellery lends a sense of occasion and makes a great stand-in for a tie.)

This is fundamentally a less formal approach to wearing a suit than pairing it with a suit and tie, and we’ve reflected that in our choice of shoes, too, picking out a pair of rubber-trimmed canvas sneakers from Bottega Veneta. Nonetheless, it remains a relatively dressed-up look that’ll serve you in all but the most formal of occasions.

Combining the jacket of one suit with the trousers of another – a practice known in the biz as wearing suit separates – is nothing new, and we’re not here to claim that we’ve just invented it. What we will say, though, is that it’s absolutely worth revisiting, and if you haven’t tried it before, then now is the time to do so.

(In fact, we’re such big advocates here at MR PORTER that the majority of our suits are now sold separately, so you can mix and match to your heart’s content.)

While one approach is to pair contrasting pieces – think navy sports jacket worn with beige or tan trousers – you can also try combining two similar colours for a more subtle effect. That’s exactly done here with a double-breasted navy blazer from UMIT BENAN B+ and a pair of grey trousers from Gabriela Hearst.

Echoing a trend that we’ve seen playing out across the menswear scene, contemporary tailoring is leaning in favour of a more generous silhouette, especially in the leg. There are practical benefits to choosing wider trousers, such as this pair from Jil Sander, not least of which is how comfortable they are to wear compared to more restrictive styles. But while they might exist in a literal comfort zone, the metaphorical comfort zone can prove more elusive, especially for men of a certain age who grew up on a diet of slim-fit and skinny denim.

Our advice if you’re feeling unsure about it? Choose a pair with pleats. It’s a tailoring detail that neatly gathers excess fabric, helping to ensure that you don’t venture too far into clown-pant territory. Also, make sure to balance the top and bottom halves of your outfit, as we’ve done here with a sharply tailored twill blazer from Séfr.