In 1994 British journalist Mark Simpson coined the term "metrosexual" to describe a rising class of young urban men who wanted to look good and had the money to burn on retail therapy to realise that goal.

"Metrosexual man, the single young man with a high disposable income, living or working in the city (because that's where all the best shops are), is perhaps the most promising consumer market of the decade," wrote Simpson in The Independent in 1994.

Just over 20 years later, no one could dispute his foresight.

Men everywhere are so willing to spend money on their appearance that growth in the global menswear market is now outstripping that of womenswear, research has shown.

Menswear will contribute an annual $US460 billion ($615 billion) to the global clothing and footwear market by 2020, according to Euromonitor International. The menswear market will grow by 2.3 per cent a year over the next three years, compared with 2.2 per cent annual growth for womenswear. The global market for men's designer apparel is projected to reach nearly $US33 billion annually in 2020, up 14 per cent from $US29 billion in 2015, according to Euromonitor, yet the overall market for personal luxury goods will grow no more than 2 to 3 per cent a year over the next four years, according to Bain & Company.

In Australia, sales of menswear rose 3 per cent in 2015, outpacing the 2 per cent growth in sales of womenswear, according to Euromonitor.

Where once the metrosexual was mocked as a petty peacock, today he is being hailed as the salvation of the retail economy.

"The menswear market is a huge new growth area for retail," says Manuscript men's journal editor and fashion curator Mitchell Oakley Smith.

Online retail therapy

Driving the boom in menswear sales are the rise of internet shopping, the continuing athleisure trend and the equal emphasis designers are now placing on men's collections, rather than seeing them as an afterthought to womenswear.

"The online landscape has radically transformed the way men shop," says Oakley Smith. "By nature we men are quite shy and don't get caught up in the same way women do in a culture of retail as entertainment or therapy. We are shoppers of habit who do a lot of research about the investments we want to make, so online is the perfect forum for that. It's private, you can do your research and it's incredibly efficient."

As Australian men shop up a storm on luxury menswear e-commerce sites including MrPorter.com and Matchesfashion.com, they are increasingly buying designer clothes outside of suits and workwear.

"Our professional work uniform has become a lot more casual in recent years and at the same time there's been an incredible rise in athleisure wear, which for better or for worse has gone from an exercise uniform into men's everyday lives," says Sydney tailor Patrick Johnson.

Men also have more choice than ever before as luxury designer brands expand in response to growing demand, in some cases opening standalone menswear stores to augment their womenswear offerings.

Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Prada, Hermès and Dolce & Gabbana are among the brands that have launched men's flagship stores in recent years, and in November British designer Stella McCartney launched her new men's collection with a lavish party featuring performances by Run DMC and Beth Ditto.

"For a very long time the retail environment was catering predominantly to women and men weren't taken seriously," says Johnson. "Designers saw men as an afterthought to the women's collections, but now they are taking men more seriously because they are looking for new areas of growth."

Today it's the metrosexual who is having the last laugh.