A question of style

I never get chatted up.

Some say it’s my height.

I’m guessing it’s my wardrobe choices. To me, a pair of tuxedo trousers and shoulder pads the size of tectonic plates signify style. I’m told it makes me look like the Queen of the Romulan Empire.

In fashion this qualifies as a compliment, and I take no exception at being compared with royalty — intergalactic or otherwise. That being said, my ‘look’ does nothing for my singleton status. In fact, one could can it a Man Repeller.

Enter Leandra Medine. A 22-year-old fashion blogger from New York’s Upper East Side, Medine has been catapulted into sartorial fame by virtue of her online tome — The Man Repeller (manrepeller.com).

Started in 2010 after failing to pull despite pushing the style envelope, Medine decided to point the finger at her own fashion foibles. According to her blog, The Man Repeller refers to “outfitting oneself in a sartorially offensive way that will result in repelling members of the opposite sex. Such garments include but are not limited to harem pants, boyfriend jeans, overalls, shoulder pads, full length jumpsuits, jewellery that resembles violent weaponry and clogs”.

Sounds like my wardrobe. Gulp. Take for example the outfit I am wearing, opposite. It’s my boy-meets-girl look: Annie Hall meets Annie Lennox. The oversized blazer, button-up shirt, boyfriend jeans and loafers are comfortable and slightly deviant, as if incognito in my boyfriend’s wardrobe. How very Shakespearean...

Although her catalogue of celibacy-inducing sartorial preferences — ‘birth control glasses’, ‘jungletastic leopard print capes’, ‘drop crotch utility pants’ and ‘Dinosaur feet for shoes’ — makes for hilarious reading, the truth about combining Buddy Holly glasses with a Hilda Ogden turban was a more sobering affair.

What might be considered pap-worthy at Paris Fashion Week, doesn’t so much as get a second glance down at the local (not without a snigger).

So just what is it about high fashion that is so highly off-putting to the opposite sex?

Cathy Cowan, co-director of PR Boutique (theprboutique.ie) breaks it down for me. “Numerous male friends of mine have often commented when they spot someone who is ‘too done up’,” she says. “They feel it gives off too much of a high maintenance vibe and that could be a characteristic they want to avoid in a potential girlfriend.”

Not one for wearing too much make-up or anything too tight, I was still a tad verklempt. Did my assortment of snazzy leather garb and ridiculously large bags that could easily double as a portal to an astral plane qualify as ‘too done up’?

“Girls love how women like Sarah Jessica Parker, Victoria Beckham, Lady Gaga and Alexa Chung put a look together or wear a trend,” explains Cowan, “but you’ll never see them topping any ‘men’s lists’ because they find their look too unapproachable — not very girl next door.”

She had a point. My Carrie-Anne Moss fan love had got lost in the fashion Matrix. Thankfully I wasn’t alone. DJ and Big Brother 11 contestant Keeva Guilfoyle shares similar sartorial snafus. “I have a friend who thinks my high waisted jeans are repulsive,” she admits. “I also recently discovered my suede wedge boots disgust the man in my life.”

Repulsion and disgust are some strong emotions. Ironic considering how fashion employs words like ‘lust-worthy’ and ‘covetable’ to seduce us with its latest trends and ‘must-have’ items. It’s just a pity they don’t have the same reciprocity for our fellas.

Editor of fashion blog Male-Mode (male-mode.com) Cillian O’Connor makes a candid observation. “I don’t want to be too reductive here, but I think men are very often much less interested in what a woman’s wearing, than what’s underneath,” he states.

Project manager Neil McHale agrees. “I think men find fashion trends off-putting that blur the traditional political relationship between men and women, eg, all angles and edges, towering Balenciaga boots or Balmain shoulder padding,” he observes, citing Kelly Brook’s ’50s-inspired wardrobe as a sartorial scoring guide.

I’m guessing then that power-dressing dames of the ’80s weren’t getting much action beyond the boardroom. This doesn’t bode well for fans of the androgyny trend as seen on the catwalks of Paul Smith and Haider Ackermann.

“I am a huge fan,” admits Guilfoyle. “This can be an incredibly sexy look but, for the typical male, it’s either too intimidating or just too out there.”

Statement clothing may be part of the fashion patois but its message can be completely misconstrued. That being said, is a gal supposed to ditch her Dries Van Noten duds in favour of a Herve Leger bandage dress and peep toe heels just to get a look in?

I wondered what Leandra Medine would do. Conveniently she has written a post on how to look ‘a little less contraceptive chic’. “Try something that bares a bit more skin and shows off the sexy curves you’ve nearly forgotten you have… A tight short skirt will add sex appeal to even your thickest shoulder pads and the cropped bustier will diverge attention from your usual outrageously high waisted trousers.”

Compromise. I could swap my Vivienne Westwood knuckle duster and five-inch studded platforms for a spot of Miu Miu demure. Perhaps a pencil skirt and a fitted peplum jacket would do nicely? Order that in head-to-toe leather with a pair of Louboutin Daffodil fetish Mary Janes and I’m in! Compromise is a two-way street after all.