It's time for gents to look sharp for the seasonal party circuit... Richard McComb gets suited in style.

The weather is unsettled, the Champagne is on ice and the garden party invites are piling up on the in-tray.

There are weddings to attend, your attendance is respectfully required at a clutch of corporate drinks parties, perhaps there’s a special day at the polo or a swanky regatta?

It’s at times like these when the thoughts of young, middle-aged and more mature fellows turn to one overriding question: what the hell am I going to wear?

You could blend into the background with a dull suit, thus assuming the anonymity of a limpet on a rocky cove at low tide, or you could “go large” and opt for something dramatic, which usually means loud, possibly asymmetric or unstructured, which, in turn, usually means naff.

Fortunately for gents in Birmingham there is a third way offering effortlessly modern, quintessentially English tailoring. If you are looking for a suit to knock spots off other guests then go and worship in Church Street, just off Colmore Row, and enter the temple of taste at Clements & Church.

This place is like a gents’ outfitters would have been 30 years ago in terms of relaxed, unsalesmanlike, unpushy service. And yet there’s a decidedly 21st century, modern feel to the designs, the cloths, the colours and the display.

There is a freshness and vitality here, not gimmickry. This is tailoring for real men, not 18-year-old Gucci models with girls’ waists and 36-inch inside legs.

The Church Street store was Clements & Church’s first when it opened in 2003. There are now two others in Solihull and Leamington Spa.

The Birmingham shop is managed by Matt Roden, who is one of a close-knit team of four in-house designers. If it’s on a hanger or neatly folded on a shelf, there’s a good chance Matt was involved in its creation, from scratch.

He says: “I try to take classic designs and update them and make them contemporary. A paisley tie will always be a paisley tie but you can introduce new colours and warp the concept. It is about taking a modern approach.”

The exclusive nature of the designs and the compact nature of the shop means first-time customers do not feel overwhelmed.

Matt says: “We pride ourselves on service. The construction of our suits, and the cloths we use, are superior. It is the attention to detail. You can’t buy our clothes anywhere else. We make between five and 10 garments in a range and then that is it.”

Clements & Church always stocks a classic plain grey, navy and black suit, but everything else changes. Like they say, when it’s gone – it’s gone. The lines never stagnate.

Navy is my default setting when it comes to suits but Matt is keen for me to think outside the box, take my time and see what’s on offer.

Matt explains that fashion-conscious younger buyers are looking to bring a dash of glamour to their downtime. “People are trying to bring a bit of St Tropez to Birmingham at the weekend,” he says.