The Milan fashion show has designs on male clothing – and there’s real evidence of the effect of the new American President, Barack Obama, on both formal and casual clothing. On the formal side, every designer from Armani to McQueen had a solid, three quarter length winter coat as the keynote of their collection, picking up on the many occasions when Obama was seen wearing versions of the trench coat this winter.  Even his dark coloured scarves haven’t escaped attention, Versace in particular had black scarves with winter wear.

For casual wear those scarves appeared again, wrapped around the top of jumpers and sweatshirts, and under puffa padded jackets that gave a softer silhouette to casual winter wear than we’ve seen for men in recent years.

Trousers are higher – Obama’s suggestion that ‘brothers need to pull their pants up’ delivered a whole rash of higher crotch jeans and velvet trousers, with belts at waist height, worn with white shirts and black or navy blue scarves, or white sweatshirts or hoodies.

Alexander McQueen had a lot of leather for his Victorian London effect show, think Sweeney Todd meets Gordon Ramsey and you’re exactly right, so leather waistcoats and brown toned jackets are likely to be big this year. And a lot of the menswear featured a deep red to chestnut palette, so expect both bright and deep colours to feature in the High Street as the designs filter through to there.