In the pink: Why menswear’s latest trend is borrowing from the girls

Let’s talk about the colour pink and its unfair rep? Traditionally a masculine shade, like its darker cousin red it was primarily worn by men to signify strength and vigour. But something happened along the way to emasculate this vivid colour, and so pink has now became associated with all things feminine and fluffy.

Whatever caused this switch is hard to fathom, but to think that pink is solely for girls is certainly now an outmoded concept.

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Admittedly, the very thought of wearing any pink can still make a grown man feel a little skittish. It doesn't matter that designer labels like Paul Smith, Kenzo and Gucci have embraced this vibrant hue in their Autumn/Winter collections, because most men don't have the confidence and swagger of a male model to pull off a hot pink coat or magenta sweater.

So the pressing question is how do we go about adding a smidgen of pink into our daily wardrobe?

By far the easiest way, especially if you're partial to wearing a suit, is with a shirt, tie or pocket square. Pink suits, on the other hand, are a huge faux pas; in the novel The Great Gatsby its eponymous hero reveals his total lack of refinement, despite his untold wealth, when he wears a salmon pink three piece.

Clearly, a middle ground needs to be found, where wearing fuchsia or cerise isn't going to make you blush and thankfully there's a raft of pink accessories out there to indulge in. But if you are game for a full on bout of sartorial pea-cocking, be sure that the number of pink items you wear is strictly limited to one garment per outfit.

Head to toe pink is a non-starter unless your aim is to look like an entirely different feathered friend - step forward the pink flamingo, the national bird of the Bahamas.