For a long time, the suit was the exclusive fashion indulgence for British men. British designers like Paul Smith produced runway collections exclusively consisting of suit jackets and trousers. In the past several decades, this mindset has gone the way of the dinosaur, but tailoring remains a big part of the British fashion identity. Grace Wales Bonner strips away the pretension of the suit while acknowledging the precise tailoring that put Saville Row on the map. Her suits are cut with flowing trousers and fitted jackets and they’re executed in unusual textiles like goat leather and velvet (a signature fabric for her). Wales Bonner’s shows are as focused on culture as they are on clothes—her shows take on male and black identity—demonstrated both by her casting and her designs—which blur the line between men and womenswear. Many of the slim-fitting, cropped men’s blazers recall women’s suiting and they’re often sent down the runway without shirts underneath. Collections include dresses and slim capris, worn by male and female models, despite the show ostensibly being a “menswear” show. Wales Bonner’s collections are a revision of British fashion informed by the current political climate; nevertheless, they aren’t so much a sign of the times as much as they are a hint of the future of luxury labels.

Alongside fellow British labels Travail en Famille and Tender Co., Story MFG got their start while posting a fashion message board. These labels all focused on ethical manufacturing and production, and have since enjoyed some success in finding stockists and fans around the globe. Story has since moved away from domestic production, but still makes high-quality, relaxed-fit clothing. Tapping into an aesthetic and design approach that’s more akin to a Japanese label, Story MFG’s garments are individually produced by craftspeople and are intended to age alongside their owner. Many of Story’s garments revise British workwear garments (wide jeans, chore jackets) into fresh silhouettes. The organic textiles avoid retreading ground already dominated by denim-focused labels like Britain’s own Iron Heart and the relaxed cuts embrace a forward-thinking, genderless style that’s currently en vogue. However, instead of merely cashing in on a trend, Story’s designs are ageless, they defy the conventional seasonal approach favored by most fashion brands in favor of garments that age alongside their owners, and are meant to be worn for life.

Technical garments have always been popular among British youth; Stone Island and CP Company have been desirable for a long while among the tracksuit-clad football fanatic. Nasir Mazhar’s collections are a blend of sports gear and functional clothes; however, the designer clothing pushes the boundaries of what can be considered ‘streetwear’ (a term that Mazhar despises). Collections often include women’s tracksuits with large cutouts evoke provocative eveningwear, reinvented athletic headwear and lots of zippers, drawstrings and pull-ties. In theory, reworked takes of sportswear staples don’t make much sense on the runway, but alongside other A$AP Rocky-approved designers like Astrid Andersen and Shaun Samson, Mazhar’s output makes more sense. In particular, Mazhar’s clothing is indicative of a British take on sportswear, aggressive and unapologetically auspicious.

For many people, wide pants are marmite. After spending so many years obsessing over the perfect fit, the fashion industry is telling them that slim is no longer in and relaxed fit is the way to go. These people, seeking solace within Hedi Slimane’s legacy, will find little to like about Patrick Grant’s revamped E. Tautz. Yes, E. Tautz may have been a brand founded by its namesake more than a century ago, but after taking over the brand in 2009, Grant steered it towards relaxed cuts, without neglecting its Saville Row heritage or its British heritage. Indeed, each collection builds off generations of style, informed by decades of United Kingdom culture. In the vein of other storied British labels like Margaret Howell, E. Tautz’s clothing is reliably wearable, shunning bold patterns and trendy tastes for tasteful patterns, revitalized sportswear and yes, plenty of big pants. There’s also elements of Saville Row suiting, as Grant often creates suit jackets and trousers for each collection. Unlike the typical bespoke suit, however, E. Tautz suiting is generally cut to fit oversized and slouchy. This is a new kind of timelessness, one that embraces the history that shaped it, while also remaining aware of modern tastes.

British clothing is not limited to Saville Row—however, a great deal of Britain’s young designers have been informed by these sensibilities. Joe Casely-Hayford has been creating suits under his own name for over 3 decades, but in 2009 he began a luxury menswear line simply called Casely-Hayford, alongside his son Charlie. There are plenty of nods to the label’s tailoring roots, but collections frequently move beyond mere suits. It’s challenging to pin down Casley-Hayford with generalized adjectives, as the focus of each collection shifts seasonally. For instance, the accessible and colorful Spring/Summer 2016 played with proportion using cropped jackets and relaxed trousers, with clever layers built right into the tops to create dynamic shapes. Meanwhile, Fall/Winter 2016 completely flipped the script with militaristic coats and patchwork denim jackets contrasting with suits patterned both loudly and subtly. Regardless of each season’s focus, the clothing is always of exceptional quality. The pieces are all created in England or Japan, the latter of which makes up a large portion of Casely-Hayford’s client base. Despite their Eastern patronage, Casely-Hayford wears its legacy on its sleeve (no pun intended), with consistent references to British heritagewear and sportswear, all recreated in luxurious fabrics.

Other creatives, like Martine Rose, Christopher Shannon, Phoebe English, Sibling and Charles Jeffrey Loverboy, deserve recognition for envelope-pushing designs (to say nothing of Craig Green, who—if he wasn’t already honored with a Master Class—would be included in the list as well). Several stalwart British labels have cosigned some of these young brands with collaborations; recently, Fred Perry worked with young label Thames on a small capsule collection. Another important British store, Hostem, has incubated young, experimental designers, like Amy Revier and Toogood. The breadth of these brands is truly impressive, as it demonstrates the necessity of British designers on the ever-changing fashion stage—These designers incorporate and reconstruct centuries of culture in their collections, shaping the landscape of fashion as they do.