What the likes of Mr Rick Owens, Mr Ralph Lauren and Gucci’s Mr Alessandro Michele can teach us about the way we dress.

Fashion designers make clothes, but they also wear them. Who knew! Generally, though, a fashion designer’s own personal style is seen as irrelevant. But if the men who make some of the best clothes in the world aren’t necessarily considered style icons in their own right, we’re confident there’s still a thing or two they can teach the rest of us about how to dress. So, from the panache of Gucci’s Mr Alessandro Michele’s to Mr Heron Preston’s nu-utilitarian look, here are seven fashion designers who dress well, and can teach us a thing or two in the sartorial stakes.

The designer behind Sies Marjan (named after both of Mr Lak’s parents) is known in the industry for his deft fabric work and erudite use of colour – and has an exceptional eye when it comes to combining shades and texture. Here, Mr Lak wears a silk suit from his own brand that bleeds from black into a dark pink, rippling and catching the light like water at a sunset. The clothes themselves are simple, but the fabric and unusual use of colour elevates the look to something special.

As co-founder of streetwear brand Been Trill (alongside Mr Virgil Abloh and 1017 ALYX 9SM’s Mr Matthew Williams), Mr Preston has established himself as one of the major forces driving menswear somewhere new. Pioneering utilitarian workwear with a streetwise edge and a nifty use of the colour orange (see the detail on his bag here), the designer and DJ wears a wide-leg trouser like no other.

Mr Erdem Moralıoğlu makes some of the world’s most beautiful dresses, has designed clothes for the Royal Ballet and has had his famously floral designs worn by everyone from Ms Emilia Clarke to the Duchess of Cambridge. The way he dresses himself is worlds away from his own designs, and is worthy of note for its shrewd simplicity. A clear sucker for spotless white sneakers, chinos, plain shirts and sweaters, Mr Moralıoğlu is a clean-cut gent who looks invariably polished. Bonus points for his signature specs, too.

People cry at Mr Pierpaolo Piccioli’s fashion shows. The designer behind Valentino reduced rows of people (and Ms Celine Dion) to tears at his couture show earlier this year, and is credited with making some of the most emotionally charged clothes in existence. His own style might not consist of many candy-coloured fantastical dresses, but he knows how to rock an evening tux – invariably louche, flowing, and with patent shoes and a cigarette – better than most.

Mr Ralph Lauren is the man responsible for much of the way the world sees American style today. Able to rock everything from double denim to bolo ties and striped suits with rollnecks (as well as the Ivy League illuminati look he’s got going on above), Mr Lauren is a veritable Ralph Lauren poster boy in his own right.

The king of all things dark, strange (and often incredibly expensive), Mr Rick Owens is a master of creating offbeat clothing that has earned him a cult following of fans – but nobody wears Rick Owens quite like Mr Owens himself. Pictured here with his wife and muse Ms Michèle Lamy, he wears layers of black outerwear, space age sneaker-boots and typically low-hanging trousers. Underneath all that sable drapery, he’s also built like an absolute Adonis, which helps.

Credited with bringing his unique, saccharine sense of vintage style to Gucci when he took over as creative director of the Italian fashion house in early 2015, Mr Alessandro Michele’s aesthetic shines through in his own style as much as it does on his runways (see: Mr Michele with Mr Jared Leto and Ms Lana del Rey, all dressed in Gucci at the Met Gala last year). Mixing glittering materials with nostalgically-minded colours is his thing. Oh, and don’t forget the yellow aviators.

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