Fashion influencer Katie Sands didn’t just choose her blog name (Honestly Kate) because it’s catchy. She’s on a mission to make the world a more authentic, relatable, honest place, and she means it. Below, we partnered with Jessica Simpson to catch up with Katie and hear more about her mission. Read on to hear what makes her feel confident, the women she looks up to, and how she’s embracing authenticity in a competitive industry.

What do you wear when you want to feel most confident (shoes included)?

At work: For sure a power suit! I’ve been loving all the pastel and plaid suits I’ve been seeing for spring! Pair your set with a pair of stilettos, and you’re guaranteed to get into to have that automatic confidence boost in any meeting you’re in!

With friends/IRL: My vintage skinny jeans–they just hug you in all the right places, a sexy silk top, my leather jacket that I bought used on eBay 50% off (No one loves a deal more than me!), and a pair of very high heeled booties… I’m 5’3, so anything to make me look just a tad bit taller gives me that extra chutzpah!

If you could walk in someone else’s shoes for a day, who would it be?

Patricia Fields! She single-handedly created what a New York woman should emulate in beauty, fashion, and attitude. Both in Sex and the City, and now with Younger.

Or Iris Apfel—the OG fashion icon, she paved the way for women to show their eclectic style, vivacious personalities, and has stayed true to her values to through all the glitz and the glam of it all!

Describe your style in 3 words.

Whimsical, Flirty, & Colorful.

You recently wrote about authenticity and originality on your blog. What’s the difference between the two, and why do you think it’s important to remember?

This is topic I’m very passionate about, as I feel it’s important for creatives to understand that not everything they do needs to be completely “original”. In fact, almost nothing we do can be original, as we had to be influenced by something in order to come up with our ideas in the first place. Instead of trying to say something completely new, we should aim to say something in our own authentic way. We should take what speaks to us, and make that a pillar for what we base our creativity on. If you think about it, is anything truly original? I remember having this conversation in college after reading Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and comparing it to She’s the Man (I majored in Theater, so I took a lot of literature classes). Essentially, they have the same plot – one is just a more modernized version of the other. Instead of seeking to be original, She’s the Man garnered influence from Twelfth Night and authentically portrayed the same characters and themes. Authenticity and creative concepts do not derive from originality; they come from emulating notions that already exist. To make them authentic, you’ve got to apply your own experience and unique perspective to them.

It’s important we shift our focus from “I need to create something new” to “why does this speak to me”, I think there are infinite possibilities of what we can conceptualize and create. For someone who works in fashion and beauty, I have been influenced by so many designers, stylists, movie stars, and fashion icons, that it feels almost impossible to create any sort of new style. But when I combine my influences into something that feels uniquely and authentically me, that’s when I feel like I’m doing my best work. That’s when my creativity soars.

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