The best-dressed modern man knows to look for the weight of cloth, the thoughtful detail, the practicality – and a touch of creative flair that keeps things interesting. This crop of thirteen achingly cool labels, across a range of price points, capture that balance perfectly: each one with quality, purpose, and understated confidence stitched in.
Suits You: 13 Menswear Brands That Are Cool, Chic & Practical
Meet the brands making achingly cool and considered modern menswear, all ready for shopping online.
In an age of overconsumption, many of us are learning to buy more consciously – to choose pieces that last, rather than those that just reflexively respond to a passing trend. Across the sartorial landscape, that means investing in designs that transcend trend, are well made, and carry an understatement that means that we’ll be reaching for them season after season.
The best-dressed modern man knows to look for the weight of cloth, the thoughtful detail, the practicality – and a touch of creative flair that keeps things interesting. This crop of thirteen achingly cool labels, across a range of price points, capture that balance perfectly: each one with quality, purpose, and understated confidence stitched in.
The best-dressed modern man knows to look for the weight of cloth, the thoughtful detail, the practicality – and a touch of creative flair that keeps things interesting. This crop of thirteen achingly cool labels, across a range of price points, capture that balance perfectly: each one with quality, purpose, and understated confidence stitched in.
Wax London
A study in effortless British cool. Wax London marries workwear heritage with urban ease, producing cord overshirts and tactile outerwear that feel as relevant in Soho as they do in the Cotswolds. Sustainability is central, as is a carefully edited list of stockists, including Harvey Nichols, End Clothing and Liberty.
Sirplus
Born from surplus fabrics and guided by impeccable tailoring, Sirplus – the brainchild of Henry Hales – turns sustainability and economy into signature grandad shirts and workwear. With expansion, it has outgrown solely using fabrics destined for landfill, also adding top quality technical and organic fabric into the creation of its excellent pieces. The brand’s Nehru jackets, relaxed tailoring and organic cotton staples are forever pieces that bring an understated cool to any man’s wardrobe.
Burrows & Hare
Oxford- and Marlow-based Burrows & Hare stocks both its own label and a carefully edited selection of other indie makers – think sturdy knits, selvedge denim, well-cut overshirts, and cool trainers. The result is a one-stop shop if you’re hoping to build a wardrobe on integrity, cool creativity and restraint.
Cos
The Swedish label that redefined high-street minimalism, Cos has long mastered the architecture of simplicity – crisp shirts, sculptural coats, muted palettes. Democratic design at its most disciplined, worn by men who prefer understatement to spectacle.
Paul Smith
Still the doyen of British menswear, Sir Paul’s empire endures by marrying craftsmanship with wit. Tailoring remains impeccable; linings conceal playful prints; and every collection offers a reminder that elegance and eccentricity can, in fact, coexist and in immaculate style.
Margaret Howell
The purest expression of quiet luxury, Margaret Howell’s clothes eschew trend in favour of timelessness: soft tailoring, natural fabrics, an honesty of design that speaks of utility and beauty in equal measure. It is intelligent simplicity, perfectly cut.
Sunspel
Established in 1860, Sunspel long ago perfected the art of the essential: the world’s softest cotton T-shirts, the most refined underwear (theirs have been called ‘the holy grail of boxer shorts’), the cardigan so good you’ll wear it over everything. Every piece is confident, enduring and exudes effortless luxury without ostentation.
Uniqlo
Accessible excellence from the Japanese high street brand that, despite its mass production, seems to cling valiantly both to quality and cool. Uniqlo’s LifeWear philosophy ensures that even the most affordable items –crewnecks, selvedge denim, down jackets – carry a precision that we’ve come to associate with the brand. Proof that good design needn’t come at a premium.
Percival
East London creativity with gentlemanly flair, Percival is, in its own words, all about subverting the classics. As such, expect an injection of humour and modernity to the traditional British wardrobe: embroidered overshirts, artful knits, and collaborations that signal cultural awareness without affectation.
A.P.C.
A.P.C. (Atelier de Production et de Création) has built an empire on the perfect jean and the perfectly judged tone. The brand’s insouciant Parisian cool is as dependable as it is desirable.
ISTO.
Lisbon-based ISTO. exemplifies the new transparency in fashion. Every garment lists its production costs; every piece, from oxford shirts to chore jackets, feels considered. This is ethical menswear shorn of virtue-signalling – beautifully made and understatedly radical.
Uskees
Functional, durable, democratic, Uskees takes the honest grammar of workwear and updates it with organic fabrics and unforced utility. It’s clothing designed for the rough and tumble of daily life – and brilliantly priced too.
FrizmWorks
South Korea’s FrizmWorks delivers a studied reinterpretation of vintage Americana through an East Asian lens. Its field jackets, wool overshirts and washed denims carry the sort of lived-in look that makes the wearer look instantly relaxed and composed.
By
Nancy Alsop
·
Published November 2025
Nancy is a magpie for the best in design and culture.
