Menswear is making a comeback and I can feel it. Just some news that supports this feeling:

Ports 1961 is set to make a splash in men’s wear: The line will launch for fall 2011, with an emphasis on tailored clothing, outerwear, dress furnishings and knits. The company will introduce the collection with a runway show in Milan during men’s fashion week in January.

“I felt like it was the right time for men’s wear and our clients were asking for it,” said Cibani. “We really believe in men’s, and think it’s necessary to be in this market. We want it to be the same caliber and have the same sophistication as our women’s collection. We are going to nurture it, and we want it to be equal in size to the women’s business.”

The fall collection has about 51 full runway looks, including an expansive range of accessories, such as leather bags, gloves and scarves. Suits will retail for about $1,600, coats for $2,000 and knitwear for $450 to $1,000.

Everything in the men’s collection is made in Italy, unlike the women’s line, which is manufactured in both China and Europe. “Men’s is different from women’s. It’s very structured and I thought it was important to have it made in Italy,” said Cibani. [fact source: WWD]

Gilt Groupe added staff to support the launch of its full-price men’s Web site next year. They hired Chris Ventry (from rom two industry-leading consulting firms, Alix Partners and Kurt Salmon Associates, in addition to Rogan and Loomstate) as category director & head of business operations and Josh Peskowitz (a leading authority on men’s style, from Esquire.com – style editor, fashion editor of Men.Style.com, the former online home of GQ and Details and Vibe, Cargo, Stuff, and The Fader) as style director. And last September, Gilt launched the Gilt MANual, an editorial site for men. Gilt MANual covers style guides, advice and designer + up and coming labels to look into. And, of course, there are ads that drive readers to Gilt sales. In my opinion, the site marries editorial content and company advertising extremely well, unlike GQ or Esquire, where the advertisements are in-your-face obvious. [fact source: WWD]

MR. PORTER, “The Men’s Style Destination” and “brother” site of Net-A-Porter, will launch in early 2011. The site will offer the best in men’s clothing from global designer labels to niche specialist brands, and based on the success of Net-A-Porter’s editorial content, I’m sure MR. PORTER will incorporate compelling content. Gilt MANual vs. MR. PORTER.. which do you think will come out on top?

Finally, before the end of 2010, Bonobos (a men’s online retailer), raised $18.5 million to fund market expansion. Here’s some history:

Andy Dunn built a direct-to-consumer Web brand called Bonobos– a hybrid of the Gap and Zappos. He raised three rounds of angel money from some rich customers who didn’t want to live life without his pants– a whopping $7.7 million in all. With no marketing team, he sold about $1.3 million in pants in November– more than 3,300 pairs on Cyber Monday alone.

He recently raised $18.5 million from Accel Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners to up his game again (Accel has been all over this wave of companies funding Etsy, Groupon and ModCloth. Lightspeed’s Jeremy Liew has similarly been hot on modern ecommerce, funding LivingSocial and ShoeDazzle). He needs to generate demand, to make people want his pants. And he’s doing that through good, old-fashioned offline media, brand advertising and PR. [fact source: TechCrunch]

A pair of Bonobos pants will cost $100. Interested to see how this plays out..

Not convinced? WWD just released this article about the return of menswear, with insight from behavioral experts.

2011 is looking to be a good year for retail. Hopefully, that means some better designs and more offerings (including sizes!) for guys everywhere.

[[ image via tommy ton of the amazing jak & jil ]]