Fashionable Looks.

While women are trying to reinstate a serious discussion over women’s rights, men seem to be getting more comfortable with their softer side. Over the last decade men have come to care more about how they look and present themselves out in the world. Millennials seem to be leading the charge; these young men have grown up with more male-targeted personal care products on the shelves and seem to be more comfortable using them. HSBC has given this group the term Yummy (Young, Urban, Male) and suggest these men don’t have a problem spending money on looking good.

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• Fueled by this trend, menswear is the fastest growing segment of the fashion industry today. According to Euromonitor, the segment is expected to grow almost $60 billion between now and 2018. Mintel is estimating a 16 percent growth rate between 2011 and 2016.
• Because of this, we’re seeing more focus being paid to men’s shopping locations. Prada plans to open more then 50 stores dedicated to men in the coming years. Lululemon opened its first dedicated men’s location this year. In London’s Convent Garden Market, Capco, a leading developer of the area, is planning a set of dedicated stores designed specifically with men in mind on a strip of Henrietta Street, recognizing that the city lacks such as destination for men beyond department stores.
• Along the lines of the Yummy trend, we’d argue that in urban centers there’s a new “beach bum” or “ski bum” who blends urban with casual. We’d conjecture that the barista of today is actually the “barista bum” and supplants the outdoorsy “bums” of the past—one doesn’t long to go to the mountains or the beach, but rather to come to the city and work in a hipster coffee joint.
• In support of this trend, but perhaps a backlash against the Yummy term, the “lumbersexual” look also came of age this year. It suggests men care about how they look, but then again don’t care. This new look is rugged and hip featuring trimmed, full beards, flannel, plaid shirts, and outdoor work boots. It’s a well put-together look that is fashionable and distinctly masculine at the same time.
  

Consumer Forecast: Help me be fashionable and distinctly masculine.

Photo Credit: Tim Causa

Sources:

Gocheva, Nelly (Editor). “Monocle Retail Top 25,” Monocle, October 2014, p. 105.

Kelesidou, Fani. “Why Luxury Retailers are Betting Big on Menswear,” The Motley Fool, April 3, 2014. http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/04/03/why-luxury-retailers-are-betting-big-on-menswear.aspx

Rhoades, Logan. “Introducing The Hot New Trend Among Men: ‘Lumbersexual’,” November 13, 2014. http://www.buzzfeed.com/mrloganrhoades/introducing-the-hot-new-trend-among-men-lumbersexual#.wdGWV2279

Schneier, Matthew. “Dressing the Man of Means,” The New York Times, April 30, 2014.