Any man with a passing interest in fashion who’s been following the style press over the past 18 months could be forgiven for feeling quite confused right now. Apparently the suit is dead. “Hybrid dressing” is in. Gym clothes have been redesigned ‘to look good even outside the gym’. Marks & Spencer has launched a line of “semi-suits”. Work slippers are ‘a growing trend in workplace comfort’. On the one hand, ‘today’s consumers are trading their sneakers and hoodies in for loafers and Oxford shirts’. On the other, here’s ‘11 sneakers that are totally office-appropriate’. And now the suit is back. (But the tie is definitely over). And whither the “Zoom shirt”?

Perhaps surprisingly for someone whose business is dressing men, Oliver Spencer doesn’t necessarily see any of this as a bad thing. ‘My experience is, it’s all of the above!’ he says. ‘One of the interesting things to come out of the pandemic is that men, or certainly the customers I’ve spoken to, feel confident wearing a variety of styles. Maybe spending the best part of two years not having to dress up for anything or anyone got people more comfortable with themselves?’

Oliver Spencer is best-known for his eponymous label, which is somehow old enough to be celebrating its 20th birthday this year – its unimpeachable line of unstructured tailoring, woollen bomber jackets and chunky knits, all in soft fabrics and mood-boosting colours, being the very definition of that most overused fashion word, timeless. Perhaps that’s because Spencer has been selling clothes to men almost his entire life – and knows what they like. First from a market stall he set up after giving up on studenthood, and then with the formalwear brand he established, Favourbrook.

Designed in London and handmade in the UK and Europe, Favourbrook makes “memorable clothing for memorable occasions”. That could mean Royal Ascot or a country wedding. Or it could mean a floral shirt or a velvet jacket for wearing to the shops because you’re the kind of guy who makes every occasion a memorable one. (And more power to you for that.)

Favourbrook provided some of the jazzier waistcoats for Four Weddings and a Funeral, now caters to both men and women, and in 2018 complemented its bijou boutique on London’s Piccadilly Arcade with a grand double-fronted flagship store on Pall Mall, which covers everything from morning dress to evening waistcoats. As well as, apparently, more than 1,000 bow ties. In one sense, Favourbrook is ideally placed to cater for today’s “anything goes” dress code. In another, its clientele has always known what they’re about.

‘We have customers who know what they like and really invest in that,’ Spencer says. ‘While the jacket structures might be more formal [than the Oliver Spencer line], I still get to experiment with amazing fabrics. People often have the wrong impression about formalwear, thinking it’s stuffy, when you can have a riot with it. We approach what we do at Favourbrook with a sense of fun.’

On the lunchtime Brummell visited recently, that included a man being kitted out in full groomswear at the back of the shop while his partner nodded approvingly, customers thumbing grey cashmere two-piece suits and, in pride of place by those big windows, rails of Newport corduroy jackets in cream, navy and mustard.

‘We’ve seen a massive upsurge in people wanting to dress up,’ says Julian Brown, head of menswear, flicking through a rail of silk jackets woven in Sudbury, Suffolk. ‘If the fabric is very ornate then it’s dressy enough to wear as black tie, or on its own. We can’t make enough of them.’

With party season upon us, tradition dictates Favourbrook is about to enter one of its busiest periods. Will 2022 be any different?

‘Well, it has been a challenging year for so many reasons,’ Spencer says. ‘So people are either going to batten down the hatches or say, “Sod it” and have a blow-out. Being British, my money’s on the latter. A great party with friends does wonders.’

Which, however the media decides we should be dressing this week, is surely one thing we can all agree on.

Favourbrook, 16-17 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5LU; favourbrook.com