Men Are On The Scent Of Fashion

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31344, 14 April 1967, Page 6

Men Are On The Scent Of Fashion

If you were man enough to use cologne in America a few years ago, it was advisable to be useful with your fists—to prove you were not effeminate.

But today more than 30 per cent of American men use cologne and other toiletries, including hairsprays, and nobody considers it effeminate. Men’s toiletries are taken for granted, now, as neces. sary aids to good grooming. This change of outlook, which has come about in an extraordinary short space of time, is not confined to America. It stems from men’s growing fashion-con-sciouness, a characteristic of all affluent societies. The trend is as apparent

in Britain, Australia and New Zealand as it is in America. On the Continent, of course, it is nothing new. Figures are not available to indicate the extent of the trend in New Zealand; but, proportionate to population, it is about the same as in Australia. It is reported that Australian men are spending about £2 million a year on perfumes, toilet water, talcums, skin cream, bath oils and hair sprays. Men’s toiletries account for nearly 10 per cent of all

cosmetic sales in Australia, and this figure is expected to rise to 25 per cent to the next five years. Fragrance for men is becoming big business. Each year sees its proportion of masculine diehards won over to the idea—as long as it is presented as having a manly appeal. In America, for example, it is out of the question that a man should think of himself as using scent, however much he addicts to cologne. Colognes are called after-shaves. Scent is