Establishing Voice

Leandra Medine is one of the most prolific fashion bloggers that exist today. There’s no denying the power and influence she holds over the fashion community, as I’m sure you’re already aware. However, one of the main reasons Medine has shown to shine above many other aspiring fashion bloggers in such a short amount of time (only 2 years! WTF) is due to her unique voice and sense of humor. Medine’s dry, unfiltered comedic sense becomes extremely palpable through her fashionable blogs posts. 

Let’s examine one of her recent posts, “Precious Details” from October 4, 2012 to see how exactly does Medine exhibit her voice within her writing:

“And here’s the thing about Paris Fashion Week: this particular week tends ro set the tone for whatever will become it-trends of the coming seasons. Yes, the trickle affect starts here, well, there.

Unfortunately though, few vaginal inspiration was recorded.”

^^ Clearly the part about "vaginal inspiration" isn’t something a writer from the New York Times would write or the Wall Street Journal; however because Medine is writing on a blog and not in a traditional medium as a newspaper or even magazine, Medine can get away a lot more from the restraints of typical journalistic writing. Medine is able to be much more free with her diction, sentence structure, and overall tone. Medine often times marries informative and engaging fashion content (as we will see more as we examine her post) with her humorous/casual writing style. Which in this case, “Classic Leandra Medine” is exhibited by her choosing to use the word vaginal in this situation to describe the (inadvertent) focus on a model’s lower region when photographing fashion runway shows. 

See below pictures for Medine’s references:

credit: manrepeller.com

credit: manrepeller.com

A great point that Medine points out about “details” is how:

“Now, no matter how lovely a runway show could have been–no matter how immaculate the clothes, interesting the makeup, clean (or messy) the hair, nothing is quite as lovely as a strong detail shot. This, I believe, can be added to the roster of things I’ve learned from Instagram. Allowing viewers the liberty to mentally mock up an image giving them fundamental blocks: e.g. a dash of gold, hint of denim, is far more lucrative and thought provoking than displaying a full look.”

(Notice Leandra's use of a hyperlink above too btw) Medine goes on to dissect six specific shows (Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Valentino, Chloe, Celine, and Miu Miu ) she saw in Paris, and the various details each collection adhered to. A few instances where Medine showcases her more conversational writing style is when she inserts extra comments and punctuations to emphasize her p.o.v. such as “rendered a collective (three thousand people!) gasp.” or using Oprah’s signature phrase “a-ha moment” to describe a moment between Karl L. and Anna W.

Medine also shows that even though she’s funny, she knows her fashion:

Note how here she uses the word “minaudiere” as opposed to simply saying "clutch:"

“Season of the Valentino it-purse is near and this time, it’s not as much a handbag as it is a minaudiere."

She also incorporates her historic knowledge about fashion shows/designers here in discussing Karl Lagerfeld and Chanel:

“At Chanel which was–believe you me–the most extensive show of Paris Fashion Week, it wasn’t so much the beautiful bright colors (and they were beautiful) and some indications of a resurgence of trends Lagerfeld loves (see: his collections for Chloe ca. 1990 and the embroidery on closing looks,)”

Medine shows a bit of her fun and comedic sense in her writing quite literally, writing “hehe” and “WTF” within her post:

“I didn’t notice these red striped pants while at the Chloe show last week perhaps thus proving my detail-oriented (hehe) hypothesis correct.”

And 

credit: manrepeller.com

“As for the biggest WTF of Fashion Week: Celine‘s fur Bikenstocks.”

Medine ends her posts in her signature style, combining lots of adjectives (“bonafide hooker intimate” and colloquial language (i.e. stating “butt-loads”)

Seen here: 

“Nothing will be more relevant than a pseudo-lab coat with bonafide hooker intimate just beneath. And believe you me, it will make for a brand new strain of man-repelling and that we will have butt-loads of fun with.

Never end a sentence with a preposition. That’s a wrap.”

However, in another short post from October 23, 2012 titled “Contrived,” Medine continues to show her humor in referencing Britney Spear’s popular hit “Hit Me Baby One More Time:"

“This particular series of three photos was taken on a side street in the 6th Arrondisement in Paris last month and while I may not be able instigate your imagination as rigorously as I’d like, I will debunk the wildly brilliant and famous American literary rhetoric of a certain Brittany Spears.

For, what you see is not what you get, baby.”

credit: manrepeller.com

credit: manrepeller.com

credit: manrepeller.com

Medine then continues to describe how her seemingly perfect, candid street-style photos were not generated as naturally and gracefully as they appear. 

Medine’s posts always incorporate photos and hyperlinks to better exhibit her points and give visualization to her underlining ideas (as seen in both of her posts we examined here).

Medine is a fantastic example of how to portray a distinct character voice, especially within a blog format. However, just because Medine uses humor to showcase her voice doesn’t mean you have to do the same. You have to figure out what method best showcases your own particular voice whether it’s found in your word choice, punctuation, and so forth. 

Good luck!