Man Repeller: Seeking Love. Finding Overalls.
Medine is known to fashion lovers as both the voice behind the blog turned style website Man Repeller and the original Man Repeller herself. The girl-power philosophy behind the name implies that enjoying fashion for its art and dressing accordingly can be subversive, empowering, and, often, confusing to the opposite sex. Medine writes in a style tributary to the layered looks she’s known for snapping on her site—using 10 curlicue, roundabout words when a couple plain and direct ones would do—but therein lies the fun of reading her. New Yorker to a T, she delves into dating, her Manhattan upbringing, and her stumble into the A-list fashion spotlight with candor and a surprising amount of physical comedy. Her essay about getting engaged and then panicking about how to “come out” to her readers—who only knew her as their dear Repeller—presents a uniquely modern problem well told. A less talented writer behind this high-fashion curtain could make it all a detestable snore, but the utterly likable Medine comes across vividly and sincerely in writing what she loves. --Annie Bostrom