As one of New York’s homegrown multi-hyphenates, Leandra Medine leads a rather busy life. The 27-year-old founder of the fashion blog-turned lifestyle website, Man Repeller, is also an author, businesswoman and all-around fashion icon. Now she has partnered with one of the hottest cool girl brands on the scene, Atea Oceanie.
The collaboration, which will debut for Atea Oceanie’s Pre-Fall 2016 collection, will consist of seven essentials for the ultimate “it” girl’s wardrobe. She created the limited-edition range with New Zealander Laura Myers, founder and creative director behind the British label.
Ranging from double breasted blazers and wide-legged lamé pants to summer’s biggest trend–the fitted slip dress–the collection offers girls everywhere the chance to dress like the blogger extraordinaire. Myers, who credits JFK Jr.’s wife Carolyn Bessette as her fashion icon, has been a longtime fan of Medine and her style.
“She encapsulates the quintessential Atea woman – confident and irreverent,” Myers told Observer of Medine. “She integrates our pieces so seamlessly into her wardrobe, so it felt like a natural progression to collaborate with her on this capsule collection.”
Featuring Medine’s distinctive, quirky style and Atea Oceanie’s effortless and minimal aesthetic, the collection features mostly navy and deep red hues. Marked by its complex simplicity and easy feeling, shoppers can expect a collared boyfriend shirt, turtleneck top and an ever-so-coveted midi skirt from the collection.
Myers, who describes her style as a “sensual sporty elegance with an unstudied modernity” created her clothing line in 2013 after years of extensive travel and study at Brown University. Worn by fashion goddesses alike, Myers’s designs have been seen on everyone from Alexa Chung, Gigi Hadid, Kendall Jenner and Kate Hudson to Poppy Delevingne, Kate Moss, Amber Heard and Elizabeth Olsen.
Marked by its reserved elegance, Atea Oceanie, which means “something distant and remote” in Polynesian, is perfectly assured in who its ideal woman is. And, undeniably, that woman is a Man Repeller.
With an intent to create a no-judgement, curiosity-laced zone for women to explore style, the site is grounded in its belief of female self-expression. Though not aiming to “repel” men, the site is guided by the principle that women must dress for themselves first and foremost, and a man, never. Think: shoulder pads, harem pants, clogs and full length jumpers to name a few of the “man repelling” fashions that Medine features on her site.
From the deeply personal–Medine’s piece on the difficulties of getting pregnant to the deeply important–a roundtable on the issue of white privilege, Man Repeller beautifully intertwines its comedically nuanced coverage of fashion with real ideas that matter to women. This irreverence and confidence that is so apparent in Man Repeller is just as visible in Medine’s designs with Myers.
“I knew that by partnering with her I would be able to play around with things I wouldn’t normally do,” Myers said of the whimsical collection with Medine.
Myers’s designs with Atea Oceanie are available in London’s Selfridges and Barneys in New York. This collection, which ranges from $270 to $650 will be available starting June 2016 at AteaOceanie.com and at Boutique 1’s stores in London and Dubai, as well as online.
