Add some insta-cool to your wardrobe with the elite brands that are pushing men’s style forward.

What’s the difference between newness and innovation? It might seem like a pedantic question, but it’s one that’s increasingly pertinent in the contemporary style world as brands proliferate, collections come more often and style enthusiasts (if they can drag their eyes away from Instagram) look for clothes that don’t just offer more of the same, but improved functionality, economy and versatility. Sadly, in the bleary, overwhelming deluge of information that is the style media in the digital age, it’s often easier to notice those jumping on the bandwagon than those who are sticking their necks out. To remedy this, MR PORTER thought it was time to shine a light on an elite selection of brands that are not only producing new collections twice a year, but are trying to make clothes that have never been seen before. Get used to these harbingers of the future. Because they are here to stay.

Mr Hussein Chalayan is one of the most tirelessly innovative fashion designers of the past 20 years. A Central Saint Martins’ alumnus and one of London’s most successful style exports, he has spent the past 20 years engaging in some astounding sartorial experiments. He’s finished garments by burying them underground to oxidise (in his 1993 graduate collection). He’s designed a runway collection that transforms into furniture (autumn/winter 2000). He’s even dabbled in animatronics (in a spectacular women’s show for spring 2007). The results of his efforts have always been pretty astounding. When quizzed about all this, however, he’s rather modest. “A lot of the design philosophies, cutting techniques and texture mixes we created were perhaps taken over by the way we used to present the collections,” he says. “But we also had a parallel life, where we built a high level of clients who appreciate what goes into the clothes.”

This makes a lot of sense when you look at the current menswear collection (which was relaunched last year following “a lot of requests”). Inspired by Ms Agatha Christie’s 1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express, the Chalayan winter collection is sharp and minimal, the cuts honed to perfection. It’s the kind of clothing that appeals to the insider: clean and simple on the surface, but packed with unusual details

Key to the Chalayan collection is the concept of hybrids – garments such as this season’s double-face blouson, which can be reversed, or small touches such as the pockets on the wool jacket, above, which flexibly combine the forms of a slit and flap pocket. This gives garments not just a futuristic aesthetic but extra usability. “I’m drawn to hybrid forms because this approach gives a sense of life to the garment, helping it adapt to changing environments and situations,”  says Mr Chalayan. “Versatility with subtlety is very important for me.”

OAMC is the brainchild of Messrs Luke Meier and Arnaud Faeh. Mr Meier formerly served as head designer at Supreme, while Mr Faeh came from Carhartt, a workwear brand worn by people who actually do work outdoors. You’d be forgiven for thinking, therefore, that this joint effort, launched in 2013, constitutes the next big thing in streetwear. “It depends on how you define streetwear,” says Mr Meier, the brand’s creative director. “My question in response would be: besides suits and formalwear, what’s not streetwear any more?”

OAMC definitely has an air of freshness, with its tough military details and interesting technical twists, such as grosgrain trims, taped graphic elements and nifty hidden pockets. But it’s also grown up. “I wanted to make something for myself that I couldn’t find,” says Mr Meier, of the brand’s genesis. “A high-level product designed by someone from the same cultural background as me simply wasn’t around.”

The way OAMC does a blazer (such as the one above) explains a lot. Here, the classic formal shape becomes a utility piece, with handy zip pockets, front panelling, a neat, short cut and an internal belt that keeps the whole thing in pristine shape as you wear it. The brand is equally strong in more simple pieces, such as the graphic shirts adorned with trompe l’oeuil taped pockets, which manage, somehow, to bridge the gap between the skate tee and the classic button-down.

Since its inception in the early 1980s, Italian brand Stone Island has beavered away tirelessly to discover new production techniques, fabrics, finishes and colour processes to pack into its insanely detailed workwear and uniform-inspired clothes. “We invest a lot in the processing and ennobling of fibres and textiles,” says the brand’s chairman and creative director Mr Carlo Rivetti. “Thanks to new technologies, the evolution has been amazing, without limit.” An out-and-out enthusiast as well as a shrewd businessman, Mr Rivetti takes pleasure in reeling off examples of the brand’s past inventions: jackets in nylon monofilament, derived from water-filtering technology; thermo-sensitive fabrics; featherweight polyester coated in stainless steel; Kevlar® and polyester felt… you get the picture. It’s rather mind-blowing. How do they do it? “The answer is PASSION,” says Mr Rivetti (note the capital letters). “Me, my creative team and all the people who are involved in the product, we love and we need new things, new solutions, new challenges.”

If it weren’t clear enough from such statements that Stone Island is not slowing down in the innovation stakes, the collections offer an equally strong testimony. For winter 2015, Mr Rivetti explains, the brand “hybridised and mixed natural and manmade materials”, a fine example of which is the jacket above, in what Stone Island calls “mussola gommata”. This is an exclusive fabric, composed of a light cotton muslin laminated with matt polyurethane film, which is double- dyed to produce a somewhat enthralling depth of colour. It’s wind- and water-resistant but, better than that – as all Stone Island fans will appreciate – it’s very much at the cutting edge.

J.W. Anderson’s namesake, Mr Jonathan Anderson also serves as head designer for Spanish luxury leather brand Loewe. He is the style world’s current critical darling, much praised for the way he subverts ideas of taste and gender to create products that feel genuinely, even disarmingly new. At his runway presentations in London, his show notes are often packed with words such as “semiotics” or,  for winter 2015, “pataphysics”. Whether you get all this vocabulary or not (there’s a sense of humour at play here, too), such intellectual flourishes neatly point to his interest in exploring not just what men’s clothing can look like, but what it can mean. He’s a designer who is happy to propose that we should dispose with traditional masculinity and wear frilled knickerbockers (winter 2013) or stomp around in grandpa-worthy cable-knit vests (spring 2015). He’s also rather astute at spotting the references that look gawky now, but will be everywhere in the coming seasons.

In his winter collection, this translates to a reassessment of some of the less desirable stylings of the 1970s. A funnel-necked ski jumper becomes an edgy style choice, thanks to the visual non sequitur of its oversized plastic zipper. The camel coat, a formerly safe option, is given a more adventurous twist with ice-lolly-esque stripes. Even some of the more innocuous pieces have a sly weirdness that makes you stop for a second, such as a striped jumper in chenille – a fabric last seen on your grandmother’s sofa. A welcome return? It’s up to you to decide, but look to Mr Anderson if you’re the type who likes to expect the unexpected.