Over five days, I digested Leandra Medine’s Man Repeller: Seeking Love. Finding Overalls. Being that it was published back in 2013, I am late on reading this book. I only recently discovered that she had written this and upon the revelation, immediately purchased it on iBooks.
Leandra (after reading such personal experiences, I feel like I can call her by her first name) filters her personal experiences through the lens of the articles of clothing she associates with or wore during notable life experiences.
The experiences leaving the biggest impression on me were a weight gain due to a summer at camp / the seersucker bermuda shorts she lived in after the gain (I went through a similar phase recently) and her first menstrual cycle / her period underwear (because who has not been there…save for maybe just the entire male population).
Sidebar: I, too, clearly recall the outfit I was wearing during my first menstrual cycle. I thought I ruined my favorite pair of Calvin Klein jeans (worn with my Hang 10 white pointelle tank top) and a sleeping bag. That summer before Freshman year of high school, I was away from home and spent several weeks of the summer with both sets of my grandparents. My Grandma Joanne kept proclaiming that she just knew it was going to happen while I was staying with them. Did she discuss the possibility with my mom prior to the trip? Mortifying. And likely.
I identified with so many of Leandra’s experiences and points of view. She touched on cost per wear, a lesson I learned in my twenties. She touches on the oxblood trend of 2012; six years later and I still am hunting for the perfect pair of oxblood ankle boots. She even got send home for violating school dress code, which happened to me on my third day of high school. That see-you-next-Tuesday Ms. Boatner, after being instigated by the teacher who had the classroom in the previous block, sent me to the office for wearing a pair of American Eagle khaki shorts that many a high school gal had as part of her back-to-school wardrobe. (That story never fails to bubble up angry feelings.)
But Leandra had a similar things happen to her and I found comfort in our mutual experience. Between menstruating in public and ruining furniture and getting sent home for breaking dress code, I was ever impressed with her candor and by the time I wrapped up reading the book, I was an even bigger fan of hers.
Man Repeller: Seeking Love. Finding Overalls. by Leandra Medine
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