Today’s Sunday Style Inspiration comes from The Man Repeller’s Leandra Medine.  The recently wedded fashion blogger has been made popular for her creatively quirky and fearless style of dressing featured on her online blog, The Man Repeller.  Spotted in everything from drop crotch trousers, jean overalls, and outrageously lacey jumpsuits, Medine’s “man-repelling” manner of dressing is a celebration of fashion trends that men hate, but women love. 

Although some of her looks may take both men and women by surprise, Medine’s “man-repelling” is not undergone with malintent. Rather, in coining the term “man repeller,” Medine directly confronts the fear many women have of dressing so over-the-top that it repels men and instead, turns this idea on its head. In fact, not only has the blogger made “man-repelling” fashionable, but perhaps also a tool for indicating one’s level of fashion sense: the more men repelled, the more fashionable.

---RD 

It comes as no surprise that one of this summer's biggest trends is the nature-inspired print. Exotic floral and palm prints have graced the runways this season in a variety of forms: peplum and bra tops, pants, form-fitting dresses, and high-waisted skirts.  Although often overlooked, fruit and vegetable patterns have also made their way into the Spring/ Summer 2012 collections of countless designers, including Dolce & Gabbana, Moschino Cheap & Chic, Missoni, and Kenzo.

Dolce & Gabbana 2012

Kenzo, Paris 2012 

Dolce & Gabbana 2012

The resurgence of nature-inspired prints as a major trend this season suggests a humble return to the earth and celebration of nature and its bounty.  The naturalistic theme and combination of warm yellows, oranges, and greens in these patterns are reminiscent of the portrait and landscape paintings of the famous French post-impressionist artist, Paul Gauguin.

Gauguin (1848-1903) is best known for his painted scenes of Tahiti, characterized by a stark contrast of bold colors and depiction of soft, rounded human figures.

Femmes de Tahiti (Sur la plage) [(Tahitian Women (On the Beach)]

1891 (150 Kb); Oil on canvas, 69 x 91 cm (27 1/8 x 35 7/8 in); Musee d'Orsay, Paris 

Nave, Nave Moe (Miraculous Source) 

1894; Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

For the majority of his early life, Gauguin worked as an artist in Paris, where he lived a bohemian lifestyle typical of artists during the late 19th century. However, Gauguin quickly grew dissatisfied with the Parisian bourgeois society and in 1891, left Paris and Western civilization as whole for the remote island of Tahiti.  For Gauguin, Tahiti was a land of beautiful and strong people, untainted by the superficiality of Western culture and instead, grounded in a love and respect for the earth and natural environment that surrounded them.  

-----RD