Core Neutrals

Core Neutrals is the navy-and-black edit at Mens Collection in Borough Park, Brooklyn, New York — the pieces chosen because they argue with nothing else already hanging in the wardrobe.

Navy is the anchor. It appears here on a cotton corduroy Harrington jacket, a cotton linen trouser cut for summer, a Ventile cotton mac and a showerproof one, and a button-down Oxford shirt in light blue that sits beside all of them. Black turns up on a cotton drill five-pocket trouser, the straight-leg alternative to jeans.

The logic of the collection is combination rather than statement. A dark trouser takes any colour above the waist. A navy coat goes over tailoring as easily as over a jumper. An Oxford shirt in a pale blue is the one shirt that works at a desk on Monday and with the sleeves rolled on Saturday. Nothing in here needs a plan built around it.

Fabrics are chosen for weather rather than season: densely woven cotton that resists rain without a synthetic coating, corduroy with a garment wash for a lived-in handle, a French cotton-linen blend that breathes in heat. Sizes run XS to XXXL and waist 28 to 46. If a wardrobe is being rebuilt from the bottom up, Core Neutrals is the sensible place to start it.