Narcos style lessons

Who was the breakout star of Narcos Season 1? Brazilian actor Wagner Moura, overcoming his apparently dodgy Colombian accent to deliver a Pablo full of gruff charm and buried malice or Boyd Holbrook's ethically compromised, all-American, drug cop abroad – paunchily handsome like a burnt-out Ryan Gosling? If we had to choose one, we'd pick this incredible floral-print button-down.

Pablo's penchant for patterned shirting (if not his love for super-wide collars) would make him feel right at home in 2016. All summer long, we've been seeing washed out florals and faded, retro, Hawaiian styles bringing a surf-meets-grunge melancholy to warm-weather wardrobes. 

When he's not getting himself into morally murky situations in his obsessive pursuit of Pablo Escobar, there's nothing rogue DEA agent Steve Murphy likes more than slipping into a striped polo shirt in muted 70s hues. And this casualwear classic has re-emerged this year has part of general revival of interest in the more subtle, minimalist end of 70s dressing.

Cop a slim-fit, colour-block polo in forest green, mustardy-orange or reddy-brown for a dose of retro off-duty steez, or go for a knitted number for more textured, autumn-ready take. Go full DEA-dadcore and pair with straight-leg 501 jeans in a mid-wash blue.

Of the many things that made us do an excited dance when we first saw the new Narcos trailer – Explosions! Punching! A bunch of f**king helicopters! – none whetted the appetite for Season 2 more than Escobar's brilliant rope-print sweatshirt. On a similar tip, this anchor-patterned jumper has us wishing we owned a super-yacht just so we could wear one in its natural home.

Happily, you don't need a drug empire or a time machine to get on board with the 80s printed pullover trend. Retro logo tops are a 2016 staple, with every streetwear brand worth its salt – from Calvin Klein to Champion – digging through its archives to revive the strongest sloganeering sweats. Rock yours, like this guy, with camo joggers to tap into two key Narcos styles at once.

Now, we're not saying Narcos is wholly responsible for the utter ubiquity of the military drab colour palette this year – that other Pablo, Kanye West, would probably have something to say about that – but Season 1 was nevertheless full of the sort of dusty browns and khakis that are equally well suited to fruitlessly chasing a narco-baron through the jungle as to hanging out in an East London craft beer bar.

You can probably piece together a boxy-silhouetted tonal masterpiece of surplus staples in your sleep by this point, so take the military influence a step further for Season 2/AW16 by experimenting with more challengingly utilitarian shapes (jumpsuits!) or pairing your fashion fatigues with smartwear, like these two brave sartorial soldiers.