Fashion week highlights men's buying power

The eve of London Collections: Men has arrived and the capital is rife with designers, stylists, buyers, public relations gurus, production teams, groomers and all those associated with pulling off a fashion week. There have been endless column inches

about the importance and growth of menswear in the past year, and another study about men's buying behaviour towards fashion, clothing and luxury has concluded some poignant data.

A study commissioned by America Express found that males born after 1982, also known as "Generation Y", increased their overall spending on fashion faster than all other generations. Shopping at a heightened rate of 4% every year Generation Y will pay by credit card at twice the rate of the next fastest generation, the "Baby Boomers" (those born between 1945 and 1964).

According to the Telegraph, tagging the male mentality towards fashion as a basic "famine or feast approach", men, it appears, resist high street splurges in favour of luxury goods, spending 24% more per transaction, though less often, than their female counterparts.

In March, American research firm Mintel stated the US men’s clothing market is rebounding and is expected to grow in 2012 reaching $57.4 billion. The research stated many factors impact the market for men’s clothing including the male population in the U.S., and particularly the growth in Hispanic men, levels of obesity among men, changes in consumer confidence, and changes in men’s’ lifestyles such as getting married later in life.

Image: London Collections 2012