Metrosexmania: Will It Affect Men's Fashion?
By: Mari Davis
Photo below: David Beckham and wife Victoria.

DALLAS, Apr 21, 2004/ FW/ --- British writer Mark Simpson coined the term “metrosexual” in 1994 in an article in he wrote for the UK national newspaper, Independent.

It did not cross the Atlantic until July 2002, when he wrote the article “Meet the Metrosexual” on Salon.com, in which he cited British soccer star David Beckham as the poster boy of metrosexuality.

Here is Simpson's pithy definition from that article: “The typical metrosexual is a young man with money to spend, living in or within easy reach of a metropolis -- because that's where all the best shops, clubs, gyms and hairdressers are. He might be officially gay, straight or bisexual, but this is utterly immaterial because he has clearly taken himself as his own love object and pleasure as his sexual preference. Particular professions, such as modeling, waiting tables, media, pop music and, nowadays, sport, seem to attract them but, truth be told, like male vanity products and herpes, they're pretty much everywhere.”

“After 'Meet the metrosexual' aired on Salon," says Simpson, "metrosexuality went from being a visually to a textually transmitted disease -- the word seems to have become even more popular than the phenomenon it describes." There are now over 24,000 Google hits for the term. [more]