Mens Summer Fashion Trends for 2011

Leading in this newly improved mens fashion onslaught is New York's Thom Browne, who continues to dazzle the catwalks with thin suits adorned in tricolor pinstripes and monochrome plaids. The pants are narrow, high-wasted and hemmed above the ankles, while the jackets are two-button with quarter-length sleeves. These suits are completed with matching ties and white button-up shirts. As part of the Browne signature, socks are visible and often hued.

Another designer making strides in the bold new paradigm of menswear is Yohji Yamamoto. The Japanese fashion leader staged his grand return with a vibrant showing at Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2011. His latest collection features a dazzling array of combinations - ruffled shirts with floods, trench coats with knickers and fedoras, one-button baby blue jackets with matching drainpipes - that grace the men who wear them with sartorial extravagance.

Reinventing all of the greatest ideas from the past is Donatella Versace, whose SS 2011 mens summer fashion show resurrected all the snappy urban looks from both the 1950s and the 1980s. Sleek quiffs, pointy shoes, pegged trousers and thin lapels were the common threads amongst an array of wardrobes paying homage to everyone from the Teddy Boys to the Rude Boys to the Soul Boys to... Pee Wee Herman. The fabrics ranged from sharkskin to taffeta to vinyl, with colors spanning crimson red to navy blue.

Forecasts in mens fashion trends were less dandy and more daring at the 2011 Milan Fashion Week. Strutting down the runways were clothes designed around the maxim that less is more. Male models were flaunting themselves in crop tops, chiffon button-ups and meggings (male stretch-pants). Most daring was the proposal to turn monokinis into a staple of the summer male wardrobe. Monikinis are a recent design in women's swimwear, which feature the top and bottom of a traditional bikini conjoined by a frontal strap. Colors were more neutral and earthy in this Milan showing, and floral prints were one of the few patterns presented.

Emblazoning the windows of Trussardi 1911 boutiques throughout Europe right now is a sharp and practical look, accentuated with popped collars, rolled-up sleeves, straight trousers and sleek shoes. If the pants aren't already cut high, they're folded high. Throughout the stateside storefronts of Banana Republic, a similar aesthetic holds, with a subtle shift from a 50s/80s to 30s/80s balance. Flat caps sit atop three piece ensembles marked by colorful v-neck sweaters, with tubular cuts showing just how far things have come from the lumpy legged looks of yore. These are the slim and shorter fashions that men are wearing worldwide.

With designers wasting no time in taking mens fashion trends away from the dreary noughties and into the fresh and new, we look to be headed towards one halcyon era.