One of the herd

A few days ago the Mail Online - as it does - devoted two reporters to the earth-shattering story that HRH Prince Harry had been seen wearing the same pair of blue chinos three days running. The very thought!

Now, firstly, you must wonder whether there were more pressing stories going on in the world that day - you know, the prospect of nuclear annihilation in the Korean peninsular springs to mind - but evidently this was worthy of the headline you read above, along with the qualifying details that H was in Toronto for the Invictus Games, of which he is patron and figurehead, that his Dockers cost £70, and that he "appeared" to wear them for three days "despite 27C temperatures" (particularly puzzling, since the wearing of comfortable cotton trousers in 27 degrees shouldn't really be a bad thing).

Without wishing to add unnecessary oxygen to such tabloid nonsense, chinos are clearly de rigeur for our young male royals. Harry's elder brother William is, these days, rarely seen in anything else. Fashion commentators and royal watchers with little else to write about will say that the princes have adopted a "more relaxed" fashion style than, say, their father who was wearing double-breasted suits while still in nursery school.

They are, however, simply reflecting what has become a uniform in London - which is what has prompted this post: during my lunch break today I was somewhat overwhelmed by the fact that men in the City of London - yes, even that preserve of stuffy, besuited bankers - have appropriated en masse blue chinos and brown brogues as a default. It's a look that is suitably casual without feeling too far removed from the conventions of suit wearing, while not straying into 'smart hippy' land with jeans (a look appropriated by middle aged executives in the tech industry).

I, too, am a wearer of the blue-chinos-and-brown-brogues combo. However, I would like to put it out there that this isn't out of following the herd as they simply make a very pleasing colour combination. Chinos do, though, carry a certain tag: in the early days of that ridiculous concept 'Casual Friday' it simply meant that those who'd normally be dressed in grey or navy suits from Monday to Thursday put on a pair of khaki chinos for the final day of the working week. When I worked in Silicon Valley in the early 2000s, Casual Friday could easily have been renamed 'Beige Friday', such was the ubiquity of khaki Dockers.

The Dutch, too, embraced the trend, and by the time I'd moved back to Amsterdam in 2003, local men were flinging off - metaphorically speaking - their dull business suits for chinos, albeit with a somewhat disturbing tendency towards vibrant hues like pink, yellow and orange, a look also appropriated by those named Tarquin who live in Clapham.

The rules of officewear are being constantly tested. First there was the mass abandonment of ties (recently given the green light in the Houses of Parliament, no less) and then the appearance of 'smart' jeans, as worn by the dad-dancing titans of the technology world. I've attended press events with my own company in which spotting the divide between American and European executives is easy - it's those in jeans versus those in suits. Chinos, however, have remained resilient staples, as fashion writers are prone to inform us. Born in the 1950s as a preppy uniform for Ivy Leaguers, they now provide us chaps with something to be worn on almost any occasion, and if you're economising on travel luggage (not that Prince Harry would have been flying Ryanair...), it's the legwear that keeps on delivering, most days of your trip.