Fashion

Man Repeller x Veda Outerwear Is Here

by Renata Certo-Ware

I still consider late August a time to get my back-to-school shopping done, even though it's been years since my last detention. A transitional trench coat from The Man Repeller's Veda collection is definitely at the top of my list this year. Man Repeller founder Leandra Medine, who by now has cemented her icon status as a whacky-chic street style star, collaborated on the designs for the capsule collection of outerwear for the indie brand, so you know it's going to be oh-so-good.

Medine and Veda have a long and happy history that predates even Medine's wedding — she wore a white leather vest from Veda over her Marchesa wedding gown to marry Abie Cohen in 2012, and tells Vogue she still counts the piece as one of her faves. A quick search of Medine's blog turns up pages and pages of posts featuring Veda's leathery goodness, which she is especially partial to incorporating into her lessons in layering.

So it's no surprise that her own collection of outerwear for Veda lends itself so brilliantly to layering. The military jacket ($295) and a more traditional trench coat ($425) get the Man Repeller treatment with bright sashes of red, leather sleeves, and boxy, menswear inspired cuts.

Veda is perhaps best known for their leathers, but Veda designer Lyndsey Butler told Vogue that for this collection, they wanted to go for the unexpected. “Leandra came to the table knowing that she wanted to make the perfect trench.”

For Medine, it was all about breathing new life into old wardrobes. "Do you ever feel like looking into your closet and trying to figure out what to wear is kind of like trying to spread expired jam on a slice of stale toast?" Medine asks in a post about the collection on her blog. "It’s sort of the like the fashion item equivalent of a wellness retreat, one that brings you back from the dead/your fashion burn out," she says, referring to the perfect trench.

This is a Fall collection, so each piece is made in lightweight cotton twill, but subtle marketing tactics — or subtlety in general — are not Medine's thing (not that it's a bad thing). She quickly banished thoughts of "but it's 90 degrees out, I'll never need a coat again" with a photo of NYC in the midst of a blizzard on Instagram, quickly jerking her followers back to reality that indeed, Winter Is Coming, so plan ahead and suit up.

If that inspires a sense of urgency, that's a good thing — each style is being made in a limited run of 150 pieces, so they're likely to sell out fast.

So how does Medine plan to wear the looks? A la Sevingy, she tells Vogue. "With a straight high-waist miniskirt, a graphic T-shirt, ankle socks, and loafers."