When it comes to clothes, Made in Italy is synonymous with tangible virtues of quality, craftsmanship and design. It’s far harder, however, to put one’s finger on what it is exactly about the way the most stylish of Italian men dress that sets them apart. What are the sartorial quirks that result in Italian men being so heavily represented on street-style blogs? This very question was part of what inspired Mr Scott Schuman to set up The Sartorialist in 2005 – he wanted to record the way that men in Italy’s big cities dress in order to decode their tricks and understand how they do it.

A decade later and the world of men’s style has changed immeasurably, with street- style shots of men in Milan and Florence as influential and eagerly anticipated as the latest looks from the runways of Paris and London. With nothing more at their disposal than great clothes, superb taste and enviable self-assurance, men such as Messrs Lino Ieluzzi, Luca Rubinacci and Simone Righi have become menswear superstars. What is it about the way they update classic outfits that works so well? How do they achieve that distinctly Italian look, at once careless and artfully put together?

To add a touch of Italian swagger to one’s personal style requires a brief study of both the small things (such as sleeve lengths) and the big things (fabric and colour choices) that the men there do to achieve their winning looks. Because wherever a man lives, there will be something he can learn from the world’s most stylish nation.