Pity the V-neck. Characterised by nothing more than the triangular shape of its neckline, it has become something of a sartorial pariah. When you google V-necks now, one of the first search suggestions is “out of style”. That’s very possibly because throughout the 2000s the deep-V became associated with men who waxed and polished their chests as though they were cars, and seemingly worked on their incline bench press specifically so they could wear the pec-baring garment, creating a symbiotic relationship between V-necks and bad taste (Davidoff Cool Water, anyone?). And so it was consigned to style Siberia.

But like the much-maligned Crocs, cargo pants and wraparound sunglasses before it, the deep V-neck is swaggering back into style. You can bet with confidence that what is abysmally unfashionable this year will nearly always get a revamp for the next – fashion designers love a challenge. V-necks have been showing up with increasing frequency over the past few years, but so far it’s been a tentative trend on the fringes of fashion rather than something to be taken too seriously. But, perhaps thankfully, the deep Vs we’re seeing now are a tad more sophisticated. Certainly at the SS23 menswear shows, it made a comeback that was decidedly more LOEWE-clad intelligentsia than Love Island contestant.

The best new deep Vs are (perhaps thankfully) not T-shirts, but knitwear. A case in point was Dries Van Noten, who showed a suave deep-V that stretched nearly down to the navel. It has all the preppy charm of cricket or tennis sweater, but with a sleeker, more cosmopolitan edge that would be much more at home in the city than on the playing field.