Man Repeller, a fashion blog by the American writer Leandra Medine, has become one of the most influential industry voices since it launched five years ago. A Man Repeller, Medine explains on the site, is “she who outfits herself in a sartorially offensive mode that may 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, jewelry that resembles violent weaponry and clogs.” The phrase has become a buzzword during a period when taking delight in clothes with a cheerful disregard for the male gaze has become an increasingly mainstream fashion position: see, the enduring and unexpectedly widespread popularity of dungarees.
And now, finally, the unthinkable: “man repelling” has stormed Milan. Milan fashion week has long been the spiritual home of sex appeal – which sounds like a mixed metaphor, but actually sort of isn’t if you have experienced the transcendental glory that is a supermodel on a raised catwalk at Versace – and has stayed as true to its principles as Anna Wintour has to her bob and sunglasses. Prada’s strange colours and Marni’s balloon shapes have long been but a diverting sideshow to a contest in which being a contender ultimately means being hot.
The tables have been turned by Gucci. The label that once flirted with a porn aesthetic – remember the advert where model Carmen Kass had the Gucci logo shaved into her pubic hair? – is now channelling Renaissance princesses, and the French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. On the catwalk, hemlines are mostly long, and where the dress is short it tends to come with long sleeve and tights from the oddball school (canary yellow, duck egg blue). The shockwaves of this about-turn reverberated throughout the city, this week. At Fendi, the home of trophy-mistress fur coats, this season’s mink has been doodled on with flowers and stripes, and is worn with a dressing-gown belt. At Maxmara, boiled-wool textures and oversized patch pockets make the models look practical, work-ready, rather than decorative. Versace is still leggy, but now businesslike, in boxily cut two-pieces, and the thin black elastic hair bands made the supermodels look more like sportsmen than cheerleaders. Even the corset – a totem of clothes as a tool for turning women into sirens – was debunked at Prada, divested of its power when worn loosely-laced over a woollen coat.
Miuccia Prada said her collection was a meditation on the history of women, and Donatella talked up her “strong woman” muse – but really, this trend may have less to do with gender politics than fashion-industry politics. Faced with the rise of see-now-buy-now fashion, Milan is digging in its heels and insisting that it will continue to show clothes six months before they go on sale. A shift from fashion that plays on basic instincts towards clothes that have a more thoughtful appeal and a more practical application follows naturally from there. Molto sexy? Only as long as sex is what sells, it turns out.
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