For the average guy, even one interested in clothes, what’s happening at Fashion Week can feel almost alien. When you see outlandish concepts paraded down the runway, it can be hard to imagine how any of it might translate to your wardrobe. But the trick is to look at individual elements rather than viewing each look presented by designers as a whole. This is where trends are born, and the recent SS27 shows offered plenty worth incorporating into your outfits.

To save you from trawling through thousands of runway images from Fashion Month’s shows, we’ve handpicked the biggest trends we noticed across the board, focusing on ones everyone can embrace.

So, from rethinking your approach to layering to the return of structured tailoring, here’s what you need to know.

Structured Tailoring

It feels like we’ve spent several years talking about tailoring loosening up and softening at the edges, but the winds are changing. Soft shoulders, loose legs and oversized lapels have become the default, but SS27 shows some solid evidence that a return to sharper, more defined silhouettes could be on the cards.

Take Gucci, for example. Tailoring was more precise and structured, with strong, defined shoulders and cleaner lines bringing some shape back to the equation. Tom Ford took a similarly disciplined approach, using sharp lapels, leaner cuts and close-fitting jackets to bring some structure back to the table.

This isn’t a rallying cry to dig out the blood-flow-constricting suits from your 2008 indie phase. Instead, think of it as a recalibration. Cleaner lines, less excess fabric and jackets that acknowledge your shoulders.

High-Low Dressing

High-low dressing is nothing new, but lately you might have noticed the most forward-thinking guys on your feed have been taking it to the extreme. We’re talking cowboy boots with trackie bottoms, trail shoes with tailored trousers. It’s all about creating aesthetic contrast and sartorial friction, blurring boundaries between formal, casual, technical and utilitarian.

The SS27 shows offered further proof that this type of outfit curation is only gaining momentum. Ferragamo provided one of the clearest examples, pairing utilitarian vests and military-inspired details with crisp shirting, ties and tailored trousers. Gucci played a similar game, pairing casual sportswear with traditionally smarter pieces, while Marni’s menswear bounced between tailoring, workwear and colourful, unconventional knitwear.

Zooming out, it’s an invitation to stop thinking about your wardrobe in rigid categories. Wear the technical jacket with tailored trousers, throw a fishing vest over an Oxford shirt. Hell, you could even team loafers with your jogging bottoms.

The trick is to make the contrast look deliberate, not like you got launched into a charity shop by a trebuchet.

Artful Colour Clashing

Quiet luxury killed colour. After years of beige, navy, grey and 50 shades of oatmeal, bolder hues are creeping back into the menswear conversation.

Marni, as always, was particularly convincing on this front, mixing earthy tones with flashes of brighter colour, often combining shades that wouldn’t ordinarily share an outfit. Celine took a similarly eclectic approach, using vivid reds, purples, greens and blues in unexpected combinations, while Dries Van Noten mixed soft pastels with earthy shades, flashes of violet and rich, saturated colour.

We’re not saying you should dress like a packet of Fruit Pastilles every day. It’s more about becoming a little less precious about colour coordination. Try pairing two shades you’d normally keep apart, or deliberately introducing one discordant colour into an otherwise restrained outfit. For example, brown and cobalt or olive and purple.

Sometimes the colours that shouldn’t work together are the ones that do, if you’re brave enough to find out.

More Leather

Leather. Not exactly breaking news in menswear. After all, humans have been making clothes from it for thousands of years, which, regardless of your ethical stance, is a very long time indeed. That said, the SS27 shows featured plenty of leather, and it wasn’t all jackets.

Marni showed leather in more tailored forms, including structured blazers, while Ferragamo incorporated polished and weathered leather pieces into its sleek menswear offering. At Tom Ford, black leather appeared everywhere, from outerwear to more provocative evening looks. The overarching theme was the material cropping up in silhouettes that had little to do with the standard biker jacket template.

What does that mean for your wardrobe? We think it’s a reminder to think about leather more broadly, beyond Perfectos and bombers and toward overshirts, blazers, trousers and softer, less aggressively rock ‘n’ roll outerwear.

There’s a misconception that you have to be a rock star to pull it off, but anyone can, with the right garment.

Greyscale Drama

All-black dressing is normally sold as the safe option. Wear several shades, perhaps with a pop of white thrown in somewhere, and you instantly look like you know what you’re doing. But some of the strongest SS27 looks demonstrated how much more interesting tonal dressing becomes when silhouette and texture enter the equation.

Tom Ford and Gucci leaned heavily into black, using sharp tailoring, leather and varying degrees of sheen to create outfits that felt dramatic despite a lack of colour. Elsewhere, similarly restrained palettes allowed exaggerated proportions, unusual fabrics and strong silhouettes to do the talking.

That’s the key to making monochrome looks work without becoming lifeless. If colour isn’t providing contrast, something else has to. Mix textures, vary proportions, and pair matte fabrics with something smoother or shinier to give an outfit an edge.

One colour doesn’t have to mean one note.

Offbeat Layering

Layering might seem relatively straightforward, but it comes with an unspoken rulebook that you might not even realise you’re following. Thin things underneath thick things, longer over shorter, don’t overcrowd the neckline, etc, etc. The SS27 runways weren’t particularly interested in adhering to any of that.

At Sacai, traditional blazers were reworked with extra layers, lapels and exposed shirting, blurring the lines between individual garments. Junya Watanabe took things even further, fusing tailoring, sportswear and workwear into pieces that looked as though several different outfits had been spliced together. Elsewhere, shirts hung below jackets, contrasting fabrics were stacked together and conventional proportions were turned on their heads.

It’s closely related to the high-low trend, but the difference lies in how the outfit is constructed. This is less about mixing formal and casual clothing and more about reconsidering what can and should go where.

You don’t need four layers or a stylist on retainer to make it work. Start small. Wear an overshirt underneath something shorter. Let a shirt hem hang beneath a cropped jacket. Layer knitwear so it shows what’s underneath.

The goal is to introduce a little visual tension. Enough to make an outfit interesting without making it look as though you’re doing Halloween as Joey Tribbiani wearing all of Chandler’s clothes.