Stefano Pilati: 'It's Not Easy To Find Elegant Women'

In this age of bare-it-all reality TV stars, are "elegant" women becoming a rare breed?

Yves Saint Laurent creative director Stefano Pilati thinks so, as he spills in a new interview with VICE.

Pilati says in part of the dialogue:

But seriously, it’s not easy to find elegant women. There are a few, the majority of whom are old – and there are one or maybe two in the world who created a new style when they were young. Today when I go to New York and survey art and fashion, I see smart women and the level is high. But there’s a difference between this and saying a woman is elegant.

Hmmm. Pilati further explains what he means by "elegance."

My idea of elegance – and this refers to women as well as men – is that someone is elegant when he or she shows a good knowledge of what fits them, where you can find naturalness and self-esteem. Not showing off. Elegance is the idea of showing an optimistic depiction of oneself, and to lose oneself in the frivolity of style and fashion. Nowadays nobody gives a shit about being elegant, or chic.

It's hard to argue with that.

But still, we can think of a few women out there who embody this standard of elegance; Cate Blanchett, Julianne Moore, Kate Winslet, Michelle Williams and Kate Middleton, to name a few.

While it may be true that culture inundates us with examples of women (and men!) who have forsaken their own sense of style and taste for trends and "frivolity," we think we'd all do well to celebrate as role models those celebs who maintain a sense of refinement and grace.

Tell us in the comments: who do YOU think embodies elegance in today's society?

Read more of Pilati's interview over at VICE, including some juicy details on drug use in the fashion biz.

Also on HuffPost:

Comments

[robertso2020]

11:55 AM on 02/22/2012

not kate upton

[lotus321]

01:43 PM on 02/22/2012

Kate is gorgeous for a white girl.

[Mrsbean54]

09:55 AM on 02/22/2012

Elegant women make other people feel comfortable in their own skin.

An old friend's great grandmother was one of those women. Even in her late 90's she still penciled in her eyebrows (not always in the right place) to go get the mail. She just loved being feminine. Every time she saw me she would play with my hair and tell me I was beautiful. She liked to talk about how powerful women are....we have children, a high capacity to love and care for our families, and men NEED us. She celebrated womanhood without ever being political or dissatisfied.

She was a matriarch in a family of matriarchs, and everyone respected her.

[Liban CZ]

07:47 AM on 02/21/2012

Hard to explain, class and elegance just IS or IS NOT.
And you do not have to be money rich.

[magld]

07:40 AM on 02/21/2012

Where are you looking!!!!!!!!!!!I If
you only look at celebrities/well known media types then you can
report what you see accurately as you claim. However, to also claim that its difficult to find 'elegant' looking women you need to expand your horizon a bit. This leads to the question of defining what
'elegance' means to you. As you said 'self confidence' in carrying yourself about is observed but what about how one acts as well [meaning in deeds and words} And, perhaps we as a society have a different definition for celebrity types; women all over the world carry on in their lifestyles
whilst enjoying the true definition of elegance where noone cares to speak to.

[nuggett]

11:25 AM on 02/21/2012

Several of the ones the author mentioned doesn't even fit his on definition. Do you really think these people are elegant without their stylist? They may appeal to you and yoy like them, but they arent elegant.
Pffffft

[Aunoriasmama]

11:16 PM on 02/20/2012

Rhianna,/Jennifer Lo/Beyonce/Mariah/et.al: you may think you're fashionable by wearing designer clothing that barely fits you and thus gets you attention on supermarket magazines, but you will NEVER be elegant women. There IS a difference!!!

[Mark Helfgott]

10:51 PM on 02/20/2012

nice

[Mark Helfgott]

10:43 PM on 02/20/2012

Interesting

[Mark Helfgott]

10:41 PM on 02/20/2012

Interesting.

[John Tang]

10:29 PM on 02/20/2012

When I think of someone elegant, I think of someone who exhibits beauty in his/her fashion sense, manners, actions, words. This type of person strikes a balance between humility and superiority; he/she doesn't put on an air of snobishness, but neither does he/she stoop so low to debase him/herself.

[sourpatch575]

10:29 PM on 02/20/2012

Hey, you haven't met me yet! ;)

[madeye1]

10:15 PM on 02/20/2012

A truly elegant person will not use the word s**t when defining elegance.

[robinbl2]

10:07 PM on 02/20/2012

Kate Middleton is a well trained to be elegant, and she has to be, she is a princess.

[Aunoriasmama]

11:18 PM on 02/20/2012

And the future queen of England. Will choose well,.

[lovesanimalz]

09:52 PM on 02/20/2012

I think that "class" is what the author was perhaps trying to get across, but didn't quite get their. I believe that class comes before elegant and they most certainly compliment each other.

[Hoss42O]

09:42 PM on 02/20/2012

No it isn't, I have met one in my life... Almost married her

[balloonboyrama]

09:20 PM on 02/20/2012

This article should be changed to "It's not easy to find FAMOUS elegant women". There are a lot of elegant women out there, today's society however is much more open and liberal to the point of being absurd sometimes. There was a time when the church had much more influence on people's lives and contraception wasn't so readily available. It was a lot rarer for people to have casual sex or sex out of marriage.

[alexandra412]

11:29 AM on 02/21/2012

Elegance as defined by Webster's Dictionary:
a : refined grace or dignified propriety : urbanity
b : tasteful richness of design or ornamentation
c : dignified gracefulness or restrained beauty of style : polish
d : scientific precision, neatness, and simplicity

I'm sorry, but I'm confused as to where casual sex or sex out of marriage comes into play at all....