MR PORTER answers your most pressing style questions.

We live in unsettling times. Yes, yes, there’s Brexit and Trump and all that, but we’re dealing with the Big Questions here at MR P. Such as, is it possible to win parental affection via the medium of good tailoring? Can you still get away with streetwear as you get older? And how should a banker dress these days to avoid the usual disparaging rhyming slang descriptor?

Keep your Big Questions coming in via the usual channels – we’ll select three to answer every Friday.

**What style of suit do I buy to get my parents to love me?

From @Heyo_Im_Lucas, via Twitter**

Congratulations, @Heyo_Im_Lucas. You win the prize for most amusing question of the week. MR PORTER loves you, even if your parents don’t.

At first, we thought you were being deliberately obtuse. Hell, you may as well ask what is the meaning of life, or what colour is Tuesday? But just as readers of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy know that the answer to The Ultimate Question Of Life, The Universe And Everything is 42, so there is also a precise answer to your question. Moreover, not only can our enormous supercomputer Deep Thought tell you the style, it can tell you the specific suit. And it is this Paul Smith one.

Allow us to explain Deep Thought’s workings. First, it can’t be anything too fashion-forward or outré. Suits aren’t cheap, and your parents will want you to get maximum value from this investment. A classic navy, single-lapel, two-button style such as this can be worn to all sorts of events for years to come. Second, parents will appreciate the practicality. This is a hard-wearing non-crease travel suit. Third, they will want it to be from a reputable brand they recognise – and everyone has heard of Paul Smith. Finally, it needs to be at a price parents will feel is reasonable: not too cheap, but not too expensive either. Stick all of these variables into the supercomputer, press the button and there you have it: a handsome suit plus parental approval, if not genuine affection.

I’m 29 this year. As I grow older, how can I continue to wear streetwear labels with a mature sense of style without looking fashionably pubescent?

From aravinsandran, via Instagram

The secret to a streetwear brand’s longevity is its ability to maintain its relevance as a brand and therefore continually refresh its fan base. So brands such as Vans or Stüssy, for example, appeal to the 16-year-old now just as they appealed and still appeal to his dad, who was into skate and surf culture growing up and still appreciates those reference points, just in a more elevated way. And a lot of the higher-end streetwear labels (such as Vetements) are priced at a level that is aimed more at that late-twenties to thirties consumer you’re becoming.

As you get older, graduate to the more elevated and understated pieces from your favoured labels. Keep the logos and branding subtle, the colour palette muted. The bolder the design, the harder it is to get away with.

Also, maybe don’t go for full-look streetwear. These days you can combine high and low, streetwear and smarter pieces in one outfit.

But anyway, relax. You’re turning 29, not 49. You’ve still got several years of gradual wardrobe transition before people will start thinking you’re dressing like a big kid.

**What’s the new business smart? Double-breasted pinstripes with cufflinks seems dated now. With the launch of The Ned, it seems fitting to refresh boardroom style, but how? #donthatemebecauseimabanker

From james_bickerton, via Instagram**

To DB or not to DB? That is the question. There was a time not so long ago when you could probably have had a fair guess at someone’s profession from what they wore to work, whether they were an advertising creative, a lawyer, an architect, an accountant. A banker was especially easy to spot.

But today’s workplace is a jumbled-up confusion of flexi-time and freelance, hot-desking and co-working, where our social lives and professional lives can often overlap into “bleisure”, which means we need to dress for both. Plus, dress codes generally have relaxed in all but the most corporate of offices. Even Soho House’s infamous anti-dress code (no suits) seems to be less rigidly enforced, if not removed altogether, for its newest property, The Ned, due, one would assume, to its location in the heart of London’s financial district.

For some, the new school of power dressing is to pointedly dress down when everyone else is dressed up. Look at hedge funder Bobby Axelrod (played by Mr Damian Lewis) in Billions in his Metallica T-shirt and jeans. Look at Mr Pharrell Williams in a leather jacket and ripped denim at the recent Met Gala.

The disadvantage of autocratic dress codes such as “no suits” or “jacket required” is that they don’t take into account nuance. A stylish guy in a suede bomber jacket and sneakers can look much smarter than someone in a cheap ill-fitting suit, for example. By the same token, wearing a suit doesn’t necessarily make you A Suit, which has such derogatory connotations. Good personal style isn’t a tick-box exercise. How you wear something is just as important as what you wear.

And yes, while the City-boy cliché of a double-breasted pinstriped power suit seems as dated as Gordon Gekko himself, you only have to look at the elegant way Messrs Alasdhair Willis or William Gilchrist wear double-breasted tailoring today to understand how cool it can look if you wear it well. Could we interest you in a form-fitting DB from our Kingsman line?

In your case, James, I would suggest adopting a “stealth wealth” approach – no need for anything too overt or ostentatious. As well as Kingsman, look at Tom Ford, Brunello Cucinelli or Thom Sweeney for tailoring, George Cleverley or John Lobb for shoes, an Emma Willis shirt (and a matt and muted Drake’s tie if a tie is still expected), accessorised with an IWC Schaffhausen watch and Bottega Veneta wallet.

The “new business smart” is less a prescriptive dress code, more an attitude. No one should hate you because you’re a banker. But they will probably hate you if you start gauchely ordering magnums of eye-wateringly expensive champagne while they’re trying to have a nice civilised dinner at a nearby table.

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