GET YOUR COAT

Now is a good time to buy a summer jacket - a relaxed, unstuffy one, just like Brad's. Most of us haven't been on holiday yet and still expect a couple more months of summer, but clothes shops, with their usual sagacity, are getting ready for autumn. This means they are flogging off summer kit, so look out for linen bargains. Blue blazers with brass buttons are great if you're under 35, but after that, they're a bit dodgy. For the youthful, they add an ironic dash of formality to a jeans-and-T-shirt combo; as you get older, you start to look like someone who actually cares about the rules of golf. So, avoid, unless you have to wear one for professional reasons that involve looking through a periscope. Jaeger has a tightly tailored, two-button, linen jacket in blue or ivory (now £99, down from £250). If you have more of a tighthead-prop-type figure, check out Roderick Charles's roomier but still well-cut jackets (now £179, down from £375; 020 7930 4551).

WE ARE MOSTLY READING

Penguin is about to publish the final 20 titles in its Great Ideas series, running from Plutarch to Orwell. They are not so much must-read books as should have but probably won't. Kierkegaard and Trotsky, anyone? But the designs are so compelling, you'll want them anyway (£4.99 each).

HALFWAY HOUSE

With the summer we've had so far, a shirt is often not quite enough on its own. A perfectly serviceable light waistcoat is available for £25 from Topman. (My son dragged me in...)

LOAFING AROUND

While sandals bring me out in hives, I have to accept that brogues are a bit clumpy when it's warm. Loafers are just chilled enough. The Tom Ford numbers are elegant, if ludicrously expensive at £815; from Harrods.

BUTTON UP

The picture we used last month of the cricketer CB Fry in 1903 prompted a number of you to write in amazed at his button-down collar. Although this style is now the American businessman's idea of formal wear, it first appeared as sports kit: the buttons prevented the collar from flapping up and down. These days, the blue Oxford version is a wardrobe staple. Marks & Spencer has just brought this one back for £19.50.

TRY THIS AT HOME

I'm game to try most things, and I've heard that some men have taken to wandering about looking like this: sockless, with one trouser leg rolled up. An affectation they maintain even while eating lunch in the smartest of restaurants. Is it a look that says “Hey, I'm an eco-conscious, burstingly fit, posh cyclist, just like Dave and Boris”, or do I look like a prat?