A renowned fashion and lifestyle blogger, author, fashion collaborator and fashion model; it would be wrong not to dedicate a style file to Leandra Medine Cohen. The 29 year-old New Yorker’s career in fashion kicked off after the creation of her blog, Man Repeller, in 2010. The content of the blog is true to Leandra’s personal style: contrasting, eclectic and really for her own enjoyment. In interviews on the inspiration behind her blog, Leandra has expressed her amusement from the ‘man-repelling’, outlandish clothing that dominates modern runways and stores, with their vibrant, intrusive colours and unfeminine fits, that also appeal to her own sense of style. A scroll through Leandra’s last ten Instagram posts is enough to reveal this: her knitwear is always unapologetically chunky, here eyewear always obtrusively funky. In fact, chunky and funky are the buzzwords to define Leandra’s style all over, particularly looking towards her accessories drawer which appears to contain endless over-sized, oddly-shaped treats, especially when it comes to her earrings and shades – she herself making reference in one of her latest Instagram posts to her penchant for accessorising herself as if she were a ‘human chandelier’. I would even go so far as dubbing her the queen of accessories, as she is the proud owner of some of the most enviably peculiar retro shades I’ve come across to date.
The appeal of Leandra’s style is that it is so obviously and unashamedly just for herself. She’s rarely photographed in an outfit where the volume has been toned down, and there’s such a charming sense of disorder and lack of self-consciousness in her dress that it makes you want to borrow one item of clothing from each family member – mum, dad, little sister, granddad – throw them all on and leave the house without even glancing into a mirror.
By Elicka Ghahramani
Image: Instagram @leandramcohen