By Carson Griffith

Photos by Aram Bedrossian

For maybe the first time in her career, Leandra Medine is showing signs of opening up. The 23-year-old blogger, known to readers of her site as “The Man Repeller,” has followed a strict mantra of “personable over personal” that has made her irresistible, if not entirely accessible, to her fans.

But with a recent engagement and an upcoming wedding at the St. Regis, she’s slowly coming out of her Thakoon cocoon.

Over a latté at The Smile in Noho the Friday before Fashion Week, Medine almost looks like she’s wearing a disguise. Having made her living for over the past two years on the promotion of fashion-forward, often wacky attire, it’s slightly disappointing to find the native New Yorker in an oversized sweater and scarf. But a large, sparkly engagement ring and an “arm party” of bracelets—a term Medine herself coined—make up for the lack of a tufted skirt with multiple layers or high-waisted shorts.

The Upper East Sider has made time for me in her morning between a flurry of meetings, including styling a Lila Horn show for Fashion Week, and working on her popular blog, which garners 2 million hits a month and helped her top Adweek’s “Fashion’s Power 25 list” last September, beating out Lady Gaga, Anna Wintour, Michelle Obama and Kate Middleton.

“I’ve RSVPed to, like, 50 shows,” she admitted when I asked her for her Fashion Week schedule. Among them are Calvin Klein and Derek Lam, both coveted first-year invites for the blogger, but she did not attend the show of one of her favorite young designers, Alexander Wang. Strangely enough for Medine, she missed the hot ticket, which took place Saturday, Feb. 11, to attend her own engagement party.

In a short white Marchesa dress at 583 Park, Medine brought friends and family to celebrate her engagement to her long-term, on-and-off boyfriend, whom she keeps anonymous on her blog and won’t name here. When I asked what he does for a living, she said, “We’re fulfilling all the New York stereotypes, which means…” she trailed off. “Finance,” I said.

But getting back to fashion, the open-faced, long-legged brunette will not be slipping into a dress designed by Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig for her nuptials. While her millions of readers and 60,000 Twitter followers have waited with bated breath to hear who will be designing her wedding dress, it sounds as if she’s narrowed it down to one hot designer, one she also considers a friend: Prabal Gurung.

“We’re actually talking about the prospect of him doing my wedding dress,” she smiled, almost shyly, at the thought of a custom-made gown on a girl’s biggest day by one of fashion’s most popular men. “I think Prabal Gurung is probably going to be the most relevant and important designer in fashion five years from now. His collections are insane.”

As for any woman who has made her career in fashion, it is easy for Medine to tick off a litany of favorite designers. The difference, however, is that a number of them, such as Gurung, are personal friends with the famous blogger. Last fall, Medine walked the catwalk for Rebecca Minkoff’s Fashion Week show, after, Minkoff tells me, she challenged Medine to a walk-off after dinner on a rainy night. Medine concluded her audition runway strut with a funny routine from Saturday Night Live, which she watches regularly. It sealed the deal.

“I love Becky,” Medine said, calling the designer by a pet name when I inquire about the relationship.

The feeling is mutual. “Leandra reminds me of what Katharine Hepburn was to fashion in a time when women only wore skirts and she wore pants. She stood for the modern woman in an era of glamor,” Minkoff enthused. “I appreciate her singular point of view; women love the trends men hate. She’s fearless and empowers other people to be the same.”

Minkoff keeps Medine on her mind in the workplace as well. “We consider her part of the brand’s family. Our barometer. We always ask ourselves, ‘How would the Man Repeller wear this?’”

Danielle Snyder, of the jewelry line Dannijo, which she created with her older sister Jodie, has developed an almost sister-like relationship with Medine since meeting her a year ago at a party for the blogging forum Tumblr. “It was love at first sight,” Snyder said, adding she thinks they’ve spent “364 out of the 365 days” that they’ve known each other together.

“She’s like a fox on oversized clogs,” she said about the blogger’s ability to actually not repel men. “I never tease her because just when I think she’s looking too hot, I realize she hasn’t shaved her legs in way too long.”

“I feel so blessed I’ve become so close with [Danielle and Jodie],” Medine said earnestly, despite Snyder’s joking commentary and despite the fact that she has never in her life owned a pair of clogs. Medine helped host a dinner with the sisters the night before Fashion Week began last season and has another collaboration with Dannijo due out next month, called Mr. Dannijo’s Eye Spies, a takeoff of their original Mr. Dannijo collaboration.

She admits not everyone is singing her praises, though. The “haters,” as she calls them, are still lurking on the Internet, ready to pounce on her every move, due to her quick, though not unwarranted success. Despite receiving lengthy and numerous congratulations upon posting news of her engagement on her website, other sites condemned her for it as if it were a kind of betrayal. “I didn’t mean for the ‘Man Repeller’ to be me [initially],” she said, explaining that the name of the site and online persona was about making a “social comment about fashion.”

This story first appeared in the March issue of AVENUE. For the rest of the story, visit avenueinsider.com

On Monday DOC NYC and Grey New York, in association with Morgan Spurlock–creator of the documentary Supersize Me–announced the new initiative.  Today, at 4:15 p.m. the two groups held an informational “Branded Content Panel” at the IFC center.  The creators of this initiative were very optimistic about its possibilities,  “We see tremendous potential for doc makers to leverage both the marketing resources and advertising expertise of these brands to gain more exposure,” said Artistic Director for DOC NYC and Launch PAD creator, Thom Powers.

However, it remains unclear how exactly this happy marriage will take place.  Ideally, documentary film makers would be able to reach greater notoriety and success through the help of this brand-attachment and the brands will in turn benefit from the exposure.  But is this a sell out?

How will the brand’s benefit? Are we going to be seeing plugs for Pepsi and Nike in documentary films?  Many people view documentaries as one of the last sincere forms of film-making, and this program brings into question how exactly the balance of art and branding will work.

The Launch PAD program goal is “to create meaningful marketing programs to support both the brand and the film,” according to the press release.  Time can only tell what the nature of these programs will be and who really will be getting the most “support.”

By McCamey Lynn

The Brooklyn resident, who grew up on the Upper West Side, said he became interested in covering Second Avenue subway construction after the 2006 elections, when Sen. Charles Schumer promised federal support for the project. Thinking work would speed along, Kabak began writing regular dispatches. Once he saw there was (sadly) not enough activity to devote an entire blog to, he began covering transit on a more general, citywide level. But the “Second Avenue” name stuck, and in January, the Village Voice named Kabak one of the city’s top bloggers.

We caught up with Kabak, who is about to celebrate his 27th birthday, at a Park Slope coffee shop to talk transit.

Q: How did you get to become so knowledgeable about transit?
A: Most of it’s just self-taught. When I was a little kid, I used to love riding the subway. My parents used to take me to the Transit Museum, and I really got into the importance of trains as a way of life in the city. I started the blog in 2006, and since then I’ve mostly delved into the material.

Benjamin Kabak also contributes to a Yankees blog, River Avenue Blues. Photos by Daniel S. Burnstein

Q: Obviously, the MTA takes you seriously and responds to your questions. What’s your relationship like with them?
A: It’s pretty good. They’ve been very helpful. As I’ve gotten more readership and more on their radar, they’ve been more responsive to me. I think it’s more of an opportunity—it’s not their forum, but it gives me a chance to write more in depth about a lot of the issues facing the MTA, more so than some of the papers would. They’ve invited me on their press tours, they’ve included me in a couple of briefings, so it’s been a good relationship.

Q: What’s your take on MTA chairman and CEO Jay Walder’s tenure?
A: So far, I think he’s done a pretty good job. When he showed up, I don’t think he anticipated having to deal with a $700 million budget shortfall. He came into a situation where he thought that the state had provided enough money for the agency to sustain itself. And then, when the budget happened, a lot of what he’d hoped to accomplish had to be put on hold, just until he can make sure that the finances are shored up. But he’s saying the right things, and I think it’s just a matter, at this point, of whether he can enact what he’s saying.

Q: One thing that you’re really passionate about is the proposal to cut student MetroCards. A lot of people are angry at the MTA about that, but you’re saying their anger is misplaced. Tell our readers whom they should be ticked off at.
A: I think they should be ticked off at the state and city. This has its origins in 1995, when the MTA was introducing student MetroCards and they worked out an agreement where the city and state and MTA would each pay for one-third of the cost of the program. Since then, the city and state contributions haven’t increased at all. So the MTA has been left holding the bag for increased costs, paying for more students. And the state actually, last year, dropped its contributions.

I think the real issue is that the city and state are willing to pay for student transit in every other district, but they’re not willing to pay here for the costs of sending students to school. I like the MTA’s saying, “We’re not a yellow school bus provider, we’re a transit provider.” So should they really be expected to incur $200 million in losses because the city and state won’t pony up or donate the money?

Q: What do you think is the biggest hindrance to improved service?
A: I harp on the workers a lot, and I don’t mean to be anti-union because I think they do a lot of good, but the MTA pays out a lot in pensions. Some of it is the management structure. There are definitely proposals out there to overhaul the way the agencies are run. But I think one of the biggest expenses is debt service on a lot of [the MTA’s] capital budgets.

Q: Don’t we have George Pataki to blame for that?
A: Yup, we do. Pataki and Giuliani, too. They stopped guaranteeing a lot of money for the MTA and relied heavily on municipal bonds. If you pay for a project with bonds, and you do it the right way and don’t let the bonds come due until [the project’s] open, you’ll have revenue service to pay off those bonds.

Q: So why did George Pataki and Rudy Giuliani agree to these terms? Did they think that by then the Second Avenue subway would be completed?
A: I think it’s an issue of not saddling the state with these expenses, issuing the bonds to cover the project and thinking, “We’ll be well out of office when the bonds mature.”

Q: In the current plan for select bus service on the M15, there are no cameras to enforce staying in lanes, or a separated bus lane. Do you think that select bus service is even worth it at this point?
A: I think it will definitely help, and there are enough elements there to speed up the trips. From an implementation standpoint, I’d much rather see a dedicated lane, and whatever they can do to give [buses] priority signals. I think what the DOT has run into is that a lot of businesses, vocal businesses at least, are going to complain about taking away a parking lane and taking away curbside access. Anything that can speed up bus service in New York should at least be given a shot to work.

Q: You contribute to another blog because you’re a big Yankees fan.
A: Yes, two of my friends and I run a blog called River Avenue Blues. It’s a nice way for me to keep writing. I did a lot of journalism in college. Didn’t go into it afterward, but wanted to keep writing. I miss having an editor, sometimes.

Q: I’ve often wondered that about bloggers, being an editor myself. How do you get by?
A: It’s tough to self-edit your work. My mom will often send me typos when I make them, but it’s not the same in terms of structuring your stories.

Transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.

New York State has one of the strongest shield laws in the country to protect journalists, but only those who work in traditional media.

The bill stems, in part, from the Bronx district attorney’s attempt to identify commentators and bloggers on the New York City political website Room 8. The district attorney subpoenaed the site’s founders.

The introduction of the new bill, Duane said in a statement, shows that government recognizes the changing landscape of media. The bill would define a blog as a website or web page that contains an online journal with news and comments, and that offers hyperlinks provided by the writer.

“Enacting this legislation will ensure that those reporters who write for a blog are given the same protections as traditional print or television journalists,” Duane said. “If we don’t, we face a chilling effect on free speech and journalists’ ability to aggressively report the news.”