Brighten up the most depressing day of the year with new (blue) additions to your wardrobe.

“How does it feel to treat me like you do?” passive-aggressively posed New Order with their 1983 (and 1988 and 1995) hit “Blue Monday”. To this day the biggest-selling 12in single of all time, it famously came in packaging so expensive that its record company made a 5p loss for every copy bought. Legend has it the song came about after complaints that New Order would never play an encore – they wanted an automated track that allowed them to return to the stage, press a button, then flounce off again. But “Blue Monday” was so good it went on to become a signature song for the band, and one they would actually hang around to play as the finale of their shows.

What all of this has to do with the third Monday in January – by which time the New Year’s frivolities feel like the distant past, while your next pay day is not yet on the horizon, with a trail of broken resolutions, cold winds and crushed dreams in between – is open to conjecture. “Blue Monday” is a neat phrase, which, attached to some pseudo-scientific reasoning and, tellingly, some more pervasive marketing, came to denote the most depressing day of the year (but, perversely, thanks to New Order, one with a banging soundtrack; there must be worse ways to spend it than listening to the song on repeat). It is a Monday, that much we can be sure of. Whether it will prove to be the bleakest 24-hour cycle of 2019 remains to be seen. But since we’re here to face the music, as it were, it makes sense to dress for the occasion.

Below is a selection of the finest (and bluest) items to arrive on MR PORTER today. Should you wish to get into the spirit of the day (or even the lack of spirit), this would be a good place to start. Said wares are available right now and – fingers crossed – some might even still be there on pay day next week, should you want to take a punt and add them on your Wish List instead. We especially enjoy the rather jaunty sweater by adidas Consortium, which wouldn’t look out of place on the dance floor at The Haçienda.

While the opening line of “Blue Monday”, and its deadpan delivery, might chime with your relationship with January as a month, the end is nearly in sight. And it is worth noting that today is also Martin Luther King Day, a reminder that others have faced far greater adversity than a lack of daylight, a lingering cold and a credit-card bill; and that there is always hope.

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