I was in the mood for a longer read this week, so I thought I’d share one recent and one older article about two different designers who share their thoughts on authenticity and integrity.

The notoriously press-shy Hedi Slimane, Creative Director at Saint Laurent, gave an exclusive, in-depth interview to Yahoo! Style this week in which he discusses the state of fashion in 2015, his relationship with his critics, his strategy for the brand, and many other topics. His thoughts on authenticity resonated with me:

“It takes also forever to make the clothes look like they have always belonged, the credibility of it all. It is an expertise that you keep pushing. You try until it feels just right, and will age accordingly, looking better with time, and looking like you own the clothes you wear. This principle of authenticity applies to everything. Any piece has to feel real, from an evening gown that needs a perfect luxury and couture execution, to a leather jacket or a pair of denim that can’t feel ‘designed’.”

This quote from an older piece on Austrian designer Helmut Lang touches on soul and integrity:

“True to form, Lang doesn’t seem to want just anybody wearing his garments. ‘You hope to find the people who can interpret the soul you try to put into the clothes,’ he says. ‘But they have to interpret it with their own energy, their own soul. It doesn’t work — this is not only for me; I think it’s in general — on people who just buy a label. They don’t really have a relation to it, unless they’re ensured that they can’t be wrong because the label is in fashion. And that always gives, I think, a kind of strange, flat look to the clothes. I think that’s the worst thing that can happen to clothes, basically.'”

Fab Links from Our Members

Celia enjoyed these pantyhose ads of the 1980s for the wackiness of it all, but adds that it also shows how much media presses body image on women. The amount of glamour expected from a pantyhose is just too much.

Annagybe liked these inspiration pictures on how to style the preppy classic polo shirt.

Banoffi found this article about the “Makeup Tax” interesting. The author argues that women have to spend more time and money on their appearance in order to compete with men.

Both she and Deb also wanted to share this article and visual on how sizing has changed over the years.

Joy is liking some recent outfits on The Sartorialist, especially this floral tee pattern mixed look, and this white outfit on the streets of Milan.