NYC Fashion Innovator Sponsored By Heineken: Leandra Medine Of The Manrepeller, The Thinking Woman's Fashion Icon

Artist Marcel Duchamp once said: “I am interested in ideas, not merely in visual products.” Duchamp’s seminal creations and thinking were instrumental in art’s paradigm shift over the next 100 years. It may be too soon to tell, but Leandra Medine, aka the Manrepeller, a fellow detractor of retinal art, seems to be on a parallel path, encouraging us to mindfully contemplate our own personal fashion choices, rather than mindlessly follow others’.

This year, Time Magazine named Manrepeller.com one of the top 25 blogs in the world (that’s the entire world, not just the fashion world!) – but it’s her innovative ideas on fashion and the business she’s gotten herself into offline that has caught our attention. With countless collaborations including a jewelry line that sells out in seconds, a new clothing line that will surely do the same, several ad campaigns with brands like Bumble & Bumble, and even a book of essays in the works - she’s become the thinking woman’s fashion icon of the moment, if not the future. She’s inspiring women far beyond the fashion industry to love who they are…with or without their man’s validation. In two short years she has redefined what it means to be a “fashion blogger” and, at 23, she has no plans of slowing down. As Hall and Oates almost once crooned: “Watch out here she comes, she’s a… MANREPELLER!”

Go HERE to see more from the Guest List series!

Photos by Porter Hovey.

  • Do you consider yourself a feminist?
  • "I did not expect that this would be able to pay my bills."
  • "It’s such a beautiful thing to be able to procure inspiration and insight.”
  • Who inspires you?
  • "I launched a dating column yesterday called More Modern Than Modern Love, because for the first time in a very long time all of my female friends are single."
  • Are you currently doing this site as a one man operation?
  • "I never really sought out friends on the Internet..."
  • What other collaborations do you have in the works?
  • “I have a clothing line coming out in February.”
  • “I started keeping all of the letters that designers started sending me because they were so sweet, and for like Marcus Wainwright and David Neville to be sending me personalized congratulations on my marriage I was like ‘This is too good not to keep.’”
  • “My wedding was just a surreal experience – it didn’t feel like it was me."
  • Tell me about how you met your husband.
  • Let’s talk about your book! Tell me about it...
  • So I guess maybe you’d maybe be writing if you weren’t in fashion?
  • What’s your typical day like?
  • "You have to expect that there are going to be critics – mean ones."
  • What do your parents and family think of this big business that you’ve created?
  • How did you meet Dannijo?
  • Leandra is covered in gold jewelry including an Aurélie Bidermann lip bracelet and another bracelet designed by her mother.
  • You seem to travel a lot – does it come with the job?
  • "There is always more that you can do, you can always out do yourself, but it’s just a matter of whether or not you’ll be happy."
To contact the author of this post, email rachelle@guestofaguest.com
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