Chinos. Hardly the life and soul of a man’s wardrobe, but integral nonetheless. But then, isn’t it precisely the former military staple’s inherent boringness that makes them so great anyway?

Sure, a pair of slashed-knee skinny jeans may give a little more edge to your image and let everyone know in no uncertain terms that you follow the trends, but they won’t be up to much languishing on your bedroom floor when you can’t find anything other than a band tee to pair them with.

Chinos, on the other hand, are the wardrobe’s reliable all-rounder. They are menswear’s multipurpose tool, the box-to-box midfielder of bottoms, the, well, you get the picture. Chinos are the one style of trouser that is as good a fit with a T-shirt and sneakers as a shirt, blazer and brogues. Which means, if you happen on the perfectly fitting pair, you should snap up several pairs in different colours.

lBeige

The OG. Were it not for beige chinos, most of us would still be trying to pass off blue jeans as a match for structured blazers. Not only that, but we wouldn’t have half the frankly glorious pictures of Steve McQueen to show us how style’s done, either. Nor dad style (which, if you haven’t noticed, is trending almost as hard as your old man laughs at his own jokes.)

lNavy