What is a men repeller?
It's a good question, which is probably why it's prominently posed (and fairly comprehensively answered) on the opening page of the fashion blog of that name. "She who outfits herself in a sartorially offensive mode that may result in repelling members of the opposite sex," runs the definition. "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."
The blog is the work of New York-based writer Leandra Medine and has become a bit flavour-of-the-monthy among fashion's chattering classes. In essence it celebrates a woman's right to wear whatever she likes without having to kowtow to male ideas of what constitutes good and bad dress sense, and it caught my eye for two reasons. First, because it got me musing on what the male equivalent might be to those harem pants, shoulder pads and clogs. And second, because it mentions overalls - or, as we call them, boiler suits. You see I'm about to buy the missus a set for her birthday as a joke and now I'm worried she might actually wear them in a spirit of not kowtowing to male ideas of what constitutes good and bad dress sense. (As an aside, it isn't easy. Even on the web there are not many sites offering boiler suits in women's sizes. This may turn out to be a good thing.)
First, though, to the sorts of clothes we men like to wear but which could be termed as sartorially offensive to women. Please be aware that I have consulted with an actual woman on this so it isn't all plucked out of my head.
Top of the list is open-toed sandals ("Absolutely repellent," says my Deep Throat, "because men's toes are so horrible"). Next up, any and all NFL-branded merchandise, followed closely by replica football tops, Crocs, Gore-tex jackets, tracksuit bottoms and "anything slightly formal but with jeans" (that was Deep Throat again). I was aghast when she added "particularly shirt tucked into jeans", which is a look I quite like. The trouble is that where I see Tom Ford she sees George W Bush. Fair enough.
As for the boiler suit, I won't go too much into the reasons for getting her one except to say she likes gardening and she likes avant garde filmmaker Derek Jarman, and if you put those two terms into Google Images you pretty soon come across a picture of him in his garden in a boiler suit. She's also fond of the idea of utilitarian workwear, especially if it's flame retardant and has lots of buttons, so it seems like a win-win present. Plus she thinks she's getting a fluorescent green cycling jacket so I know it's going to be really, really funny to see her face when she opens the parcel and finds herself kitted out for an episode of Land Girls. Of course the big question will be: is she man-repellent enough to wear them?
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