Skirts: the new (old) trend story (Getty Images)

"Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months," Oscar Wilde once famously quipped. He was almost right. When discussing trends in fashion staples, very little is altered...not even the copy. Such is the case of The New York Times and its obsession with skirts.

"It seems parrotlike to go on repeating the statement that short skirts are fashionable," wrote The New York Times fashion reporter Anne Rittenhouse, "but it is amazing to observe their progress toward a complete sweep of the field."

Ms. Rittenhouse (a penname for Ms. Harry-Dele Hallmark) must have been looking into a crystal ball: she was already exasperated by the skirt trend stories back in 1909, when the novelty of a hemline was that it was no longer attached to a dress. Her item was titled: "What the well-dressed women are wearing; The Skirt With Separate Bodice the Correct Styles for Smartly Dressed Women This Season."

With that, The New York Times pronounced that skirts were "in." And twice a year because it lines up with Fashion Week: long skirts come back for fall, short skirts for Spring, with an almost clockwork preciseness, the parrotlike Grey Lady announces that once again, skirts are fashionable. Yes ladies, free yourself of those dowdy knickerbockers and put on a skirt...they're back in style!

The only problem? No one has ever made the argument in the last 100+ years that skirts were somehow not in vogue. Even when The New York Times was reporting on trousers and slacks as a feminine workplace alternative to skirts, they were running concurrent articles about "miniskirt mobs": women rebelling against conservative groups telling them to lower their hemlines.

The most recent example of the "skirt trend story" trend was found in a Thursday Styles piece mid-March. In "Only the Half of It", Ruth La Ferla made a passionate argument for the attire, saying "its very multiplicity, emblematic of a fashion landscape in which no single style or trend prevails, is acting as catnip to consumers, who are combining skirts, long and short, slim and wide, plain and patterned, with pieces varying from tank tops to mannish shirts, from turtlenecks to blazers."

There's even a quote from Marshall Cohen of the research firm NPD Group: "The skirt has become the new hot toy for women to play with in fashion."

Ms. Ferla's column begins with a young MTV executive whose choice of attire makes her feel left out among colleagues who wear leggings (confusing, since leggings--like tights--aren't fashionable unless you wear something over them...or are an Olsen twin), and ends with the definitive last word on the subject: “Skirts are a statement for sure.”

Really? Are they?

Even fashion insiders seem to think that the the never-ending skirts-are-in story seems dubious.

"Are you wearing a skirt right now?" Kelly Cutrone, of PR firm People's Revolution and America's Next Top Model, demanded over the phone. "Are you wearing leggings?" No, we were wearing jeans...then again, no one has ever accused us of being at the forefront of fashion.

"I will guarantee," she continued sardonically, "that in the summer people will be wearing skirts, shorts, and bathing suits." She broke into  hysterical, throaty laughter. "And no, they won't be wearing leggings, because those are cotton-poly blend and don't breathe."

Jennifer Wright, editor-in-chief of fashion and beauty blog TheGloss.com, put in her two cents as well when asked by The Observer where skirts had gone that necessitated these "Return of Skirts" trend stories.

"Where did skirts go? They went into your closet. With the rest of your spring/summer clothes. Because it was 30 degrees out. Every spring they come out again. Because it's warm again."

Now, one could make the case that most skirt stories in The New York Times have not really been about the novelty of the item itself, but the styles in which people wore them. Throughout the century, there have been endless debates over the mini, the micro-mini, the a-line, the midi, the maxi, and the pencil. But even these pieces tend to have a Groundhog Day quality to them.

In December of 1991, Bernadine Morris wrote that designers were trying to find a way to have longer skirts catch on with the public after 20 years cropped styles. "Still, the mini will not disappear," she wrote. "Designers will do their best to keep a balance."

That seemed reasonable, if that just two years prior, Ms. Morris had written almost the exact same story. Her June 13th, 1989 piece, "Summer Comfort, in Long Looks" ended with a very similar line. A woman walking down Seventh Avenue told Ms. Morris, "We don't want to invest in good clothes that cost a lot of money and then be told we can't wear them more than one season. I feel comfortable in long skirts and in short ones. I plan to wear them both.''

Of course, The New York Times isn't the only offender. Across the seas, Harriet Walker wrote in The Independenton January 17th, 2011 that long skirts were indeed making a comeback, without acknowledging that they've apparently been in the comeback stage for over two decades.

"The long skirt has, understandably enough, gained something of a reputation for being for fuddy-duddies—a bit droopy, a bit (apologies here) 'art teacher," Ms. Walker opined, before ending her piece in the style of her predecessors with a quote from Caroline Evans: "Fashion is defined by rapid style changes. It never stands still ...After all, nothing is less fashionable than the recently out-of-fashion."

"Saying that skirts are in trend is like saying pants, t-shirts or jackets are in trend," Houghton Creative Director and stylist Katherine Polk told The Observer.

Now that's a good idea for a Styles Section trend story if we've ever heard one: "T-shirts: What the well-dressed women are wearing."

New York Pride (via CafePress)

For anyone who lives in the city, the iconic "I Love New York" logo usually brings to mind millions of tourists streaming into Times Square like so many locusts descending on a neon crop field. There are entire stores in the city dedicated to selling products featuring the image of a heart where the l-word should be. (For a visual example, look at the image to your left.)

But the "I Love New York" brand is more than just a cheesy tourist item: it's a state-owned logo that made $1.83 million dollars in licensing fees this year alone. Which when you think about it, is really creepy. You don't usually go into stores like Macy's or Saks and expect your money to be going right back into the state government's biggie bank, but that's exactly what has been happening ever since New York began selling the trademark in 1994 to everyone from high-end couture lines to novelty shops. The state is even launching its own brand of "I Love New York" scene with perfume company Bond No. 9.

"I Love New York" is even making New York rich when it's sold out of state (or country). Samira Ali from CMG Worldwide, the state's licensing agent, told The New York Daily News, "We are huge in Japan. That is our second-largest market."

We're all for bolstering New York's tourism industry (which is where all the millions from the licensing deals are going), but it's a little Big Brother-y to have the state making deals with fashion lines and suing anyone who tries to use the "I Heart _" trademark without forking over dough. Especially since the logo was given to the state as a freebie by graphic designer Milton Glaser in 1975, and he's never seen one red cent off royalties for the iconic image.

[See Ten Guaranteed Man Repelling Must Haves >>]

As she prepped for this season's Fashion Week--otherwise known as the Man-Repelling Olympics--Medine spoke to The Observer about fan mail, Shabbat and going "full-out jeg." 

You've spent your whole life in New York. Ever think about living somewhere else?
I was abroad in Paris and I absolutely loved it. I had the best five months of my life. And I visited a ton of cities--I went to Stockholm, I went to Spain, I went all over. But the only place in Europe where I was, like, Wow, I could see myself living here and being happy, was London. I would move to London if I had to.

How do you compare Paris to New York through the lens of man repelling?
The entire concept manifested itself while I was in Paris--that's where I really realized I was a man repeller. Like, in the middle of Fashion Week, we're leaving one of the after parties and I'm with two of my friends and we're looking for a cab and it's impossible to find a cab late at night in Paris. And I look at myself and I'm like, "I'm wearing high-waisted denim cutoffs with ruffles on the bottom and a shoulder-padded shirt that would put Pierre Balmain to shame. What is wrong with me?" I think I took a lot more creative license with the way I dressed over there--I think anyone does that when they're not in their own hometown. I wasn't afraid to run into people that I knew.

Do you ever wake up and think, "I just want to be conventionally sexy for today?"
Not really. You know what the thing is? It's not that I necessarily want to man-repel, but I stray away from being generic. To me, adding layers and not looking like a mannequin turns out to repel men because it's not easily comprehensible.

You must occasionally find yourself in a situation where you have to dress conventionally.
Well, I mean, this past Saturday night I had a wedding at the Plaza, so I wore a silk Peter Som skirt and a plain white tank, an open-backed tank. A ton of girls I didn't know rushed over to me and they were like, "You're not man repelling! Oh my god! Is that a man next to you? What's going on?" I'm like, "Relax, that's my brother, number one. Number two, we're at The Plaza."

Is there anything that you see girls wearing all the time that you just wish would go away?
I mean, a lot of fashion I wish would just go away, although I don't take it so offensively. Like, I don't have clogs, I've never bought clogs, I never really gave into the clogs. But I never hated it so much that I wanted it to go away. I don't know, I try to see the positive motive behind every trend. I think Crocs are insulting. I think it's offensive when people wear Crocs and Snuggies, but those aren't really trends.

What's your position on jeggings?
I like the name. I own a few pairs, but I think they suck. I think they're so stupid. Just buy a jean with a little spandex in them, you don't need to go full-out jeg.

And leggings as pants?
I guess that's a trend that I wish would go away. You know, it was cool for a minute in, like, 2008, but then it became--it looks like you forgot to get dressed on the bottom. It's like going out unfinished. I do hate that trend, actually. I hate it so much, especially now, because tailored trousers are so in. Leggings are just so off from what chic could be, or is.

Turning the tables a little bit, what lady-repelling looks have men adopted?
People keep telling me that I should start a Woman Repeller, but dissecting men's fashion is just not as interesting. There aren't very many men's fashion blogs, and there's a reason for that. But I would say that that I hate sneakers with formal wear, square-toed shoes, athletic socks with dress shoes, ill-fitting jeans, boxy jean jackets. I don't like cowboy boots on men, I hate short-sleeved button-ups.

What celebrity is most your type?
Ryan Gosling.

He's so cute.
He's adorable.

Do you ever get any creepy e-mails from guys who've seen your site?
Yes! Yes, I do. I actually just got a funny one from this guy in Canada. He was like, "I think you're super beautiful and even though you're a man repeller, I wanna date you." I answer all my e-mails, so I just replied, "That's really flattering." And so he wrote back, "It seems like you're interested, so let me tell you about myself. I'm a 29-year old aspiring teacher living at home with my parents in Toronto." I was like, all right!

You're like, "I'm moving out there immediately."
Yeah, right. And sometimes I get e-mails from men saying, "How could you do this to my girlfriend?" That's also funny. One guy even proposed to me via Twitter.

So are you dating anyone?
I don't comment on my relationship status vis à vis the blog.

Do you think of Man Repeller in political terms at all? 
I didn't neccesarily aim for the blog to make any sort of feministic statement, but I did want it to serve as an open forum for women to draw their own conclusions, whether it be something as simple as "This is what I want to wear tomorrow" or a more complex millennial statement about women, fashion, men and feminism.

What's the garment that you think men hate the most?
I think that the harem pant is particularly offensive. That has to be the worst, because pants are usually a really good way to show a woman's silhouette. If she has really nice legs, you can see them in her pants. That alone annoys a man, because he'd rather see her in a short skirt, and so for the pants to be harem-style--with a crotch so low that, from the back it looks like she's wearing a dirty diaper and from the front you're like, "Is she wearing a long skirt or is she wearing pants?"—it kind of confuses them. And it makes her look 15 pounds heavier.

On the other hand, is there anything that seems man repelling that you think they secretly like?
I thought that red lipstick was a definite man repeller, and though men say that it gives off this bitchy, unkissable vibe, it's really sexy to see. So that was interesting for me.

You're 22. What's your typical weekend like?
I don't go out that much. My family's Jewish, so I do Shabbat dinner with my family on Friday nights. Saturday night I'll go out--I'm a big fan of the Jane. I'm not a club-goer, although I do like to dance. But definitely more of a go-to-the-bar, have-a-drink, go-home type of girl. I haven't lived with my parents all this time. I had an apartment the first two years of college, and my friends used to make fun of me. They were like, "Why do you have this self-inflicted two a.m. curfew? No one is telling you to be home by two." And I'd be like, "Guys it's getting late, I have to go home, I have to go home." Because nothing is worse than a hungover Sunday when you have so much stuff to do.

What's your go-to drink?
Always a tequila with lime juice. Gets you drunk really fast.

So you live on the Upper East Side—not exactly a hotbed of man-repelling outfits. What neighborhoods do you frequent for inspiration?
I was at The Smile yesterday for brunch and I was like, "This is where man repeller meets hipster meets 'I shouldn't hang out anywhere else.'" So I would say, that exact spot. I think it's on Bond between Lafayette and Mulberry? Something like that. Because of that restaurant, The Smile--and it's right next door to Oak--I feel like that neighborhood has a really high concentration of super stylish, unique-personal-style girls. It's beautiful.

What about Bedford Ave. in Williamsburg?
I guess I'm not that familiar with it, because I don't venture to Brooklyn that often, even though every time I go I'm like, I have to hang out here more often. But from what I've gathered, it's not that different from Lower East Side fashion, which is sort of what I try to incorporate into my look. Because even though I live uptown, it always annoys me when people are like, "Oh, you're not a hipster, you're not supposed to be dressing like that." I'm like, "It's my life, I can dress however I want, 'k?"

You've got one semester left at the New School. Has it been hard to keep up with classes?
Yeah, last semester, especially toward the end, I felt like I was hanging on by such a loose thread. I literally did enough to get by, and that's it, you know? I'm so nervous that I'm not going to graduate on time, and I only have one semester left, so it's totally outrageous if I can't. I just have to finish my senior thesis and then I'm done, but I do have to remind myself that my education comes before the blog.

What are your plans for Fashion Week?
I was invited to be on this Teen Vogue blogger panel in Vegas that's smack in the middle of Fashion Week. And I spoke to a few of my friends who are immersed in the industry, and every single one of them was like, "You cannot go to Vegas for this panel. This is a huge Fashion Week for you." I've already been receiving some Save the Dates and such, so I'm going to stay. But I mean, I've realized Fashion Weeks are like the two weeks out of every year when Style.com gets a million page views and my blog has like, no hits. Last year, I was like, "Oh my god, no! People are sick of the Man Repeller!"

They'll come back.
Hope so. Also, I forgot to mention--I'm styling a friend of mine's Fashion Week presentation. So that's probably going to be the highlight of my week. 

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