The Man Repeller comes to Los Angeles tonight

Fashion fans who like their style with a jag of self-deprecating wit already know the blog Man Repeller, written by 24-year-old New Yorker Leandra Medine. Her first book, the memoir “Man Repeller: Seeking Love, Finding Overalls,” includes opinion, advice and her story about losing her virginity while wearing ankle-length white socks.

Medine will be at the Grove for a book signing -- not at a bookstore but at Barney’s New York -- on Tuesday from 6 to 8 p.m. Jacket Copy spoke to her by phone.

In your book you go really in depth about your family and fashion; they seem like parallel themes. I read your favorite fashion pieces as extensions of your family. Do you have emotional attachments to your pieces, like your harem pants?
No, I’m actually very adamant about reminding myself constantly that material objects are fleeting. I never ever want to have emotional attachments to anything that I’m subject to lose at any moment. I will say that those items are these sort of tangible memories that I’m able to holster. But I wouldn’t call them extensions of my family or anything like that. But maybe there’s a marker that notes the sense of family that I feel.

Technologically speaking, you came of age in a really interesting time for fashion with the advent of Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr. You mentioned in your memoir how you had accidentally posted a letter to your readers explaining your upcoming nuptials when you had actually meant to “preview” it. As a blogger, how do you feel about this instant gratification when it comes to technology and fashion?

Well when held up against writing a book I feel very safe about it just because if you write something and it turns out it wasn’t necessarily as well-received as you hoped it would be, just because it continues to live on and you know, everyone always says, “Once it’s on the Internet, it’s on there forever” ... and that’s very true. It goes away so much quicker because new content is produced, a new story comes out, and that starts proliferating. My fear is not in technology and fashion, I feel very lucky to be working in this medium, I’m afraid that if and when the book starts garnering more negative reviews, it’s never going to go away. Once it’s on the bookshelf, it’s on there forever. I can’t bury it in different books, because that takes time, whereas I can bury a bad blog post.

Take, for instance, writing something as intimate as losing your virginity. Was your husband on board for that initially? What was the thought process?My husband is very supportive and he actually didn’t even read the book until we got the galley copy, that’s how supportive and confident he was in my ability to call the shots on what I’m going to put in there, which I find very encouraging. But that chapter was very funny because while I was writing it, so much of our breakup is tangled in it, so while I was writing it, my husband would get home from work and I would have to remind myself that we’re not broken up. I’d be so angry at him, he’d be like, “Hi!” and I’d say, “What are you doing here?”

The most difficult part about writing a book of personal essays is having to dig into the memories of your subconscious and force yourself to remember things that you really wanted to forget.

When you described awkward years as a young, chubby girl going to camp -- was that as difficult as writing about the drama with your husband?

When I look back at those years I feel a little bit nostalgic. There was some beauty in never caring about how I looked and not even considering what other people thought of me. It occurred to me sometime when I was in high school that counting calories and being thin is actually the way most girls live ....

Do you still get criticism for being a “taken” Man Repeller?
I do, sometimes. My answer to that is Man Repeller was never actually about literally repelling men. I always hoped it would become a much larger statement about the way in which women interact with fashion in their own lives. When I launched the site, the whole idea behind the site was I had just sort of re-taken this sense of control over my love life. I was single because of the way I dressed, which therefore made it single on my own terms. And so it was a very empowering and uplifting thing for me, even though I was using my relationship status as the mule to sort of celebrate female independence. It was much more about the femininity thing than it was about anything else.

You’re 24 -- having released your memoir at such a young age, what were you hoping to share?

People always commend me for just letting it all out there and airing out all my dirty laundry. I feel I wanted the book to sort of serve as a testament to the fact that if you want to share something, then you should share it. There’s no reason to keep it inside if you have a message to share and you feel your story is going to help someone, share it!

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