"All our knowledge is the offspring of our perceptions." - da Vinci

I was lying on the grass yesterday afternoon, reading Man's Search for Meaning, and I thought of something I wanted to post about...but now I've forgotten what it was...

Anyway.

While I was getting paid to take off my clothes for money (read: nude modeling for figure drawing), I was in a position that apparently made me look pregnant. As I was staring off into space, I hear the professor say, "You've made her look seven months pregnant!" Of course, I'm not pregnant, so I can't be seven months pregnant. Furthermore, I'm fairly certain I don't look pregnant. But, it illustrates how our perceptions influence how we see people, society, ourselves, the world, everything.

A friend once anxiously said to me, "But Erin, what if my red isn't your red?!" My red probably isn't her red, but does that matter? We can still talk about "red" and be referring and thinking about the same definition of the color, so it essentially doesn't matter if our perceptions match. Just as color is a perception, I would argue that everything else is as well. Beauty, especially, is surely not a matter of "fact" but of perception (which usually boils down to opinion, right?). What I consider to be beautiful may not be the same as what you consider to be beautiful. (Though social and evolutionary psychology will argue that everyone finds symmetrical people "beautiful.") But, again, we can still talk about the concept "beauty" and have some idea as to what we are talking about.

Many would maintain that this dress is ugly. Let's be honest, it's essentially a well-cut sack. And therein lies the beauty. It's a really, really well designed sack. The print alone is divine.

Drives Van Noten SS 2011

Tim Blanks described Gareth Pugh's spring/summer 2011 collection thusly: "And, keen as he was to avoid the sci-fi tag that has been continually attached to his clothes, he still showed sinuous silvery pieces that clung to the body like thirty-first-century armor" (italics mine).

Yes, actually, I would like to pretend that I don't live in the 21st century where the majority wears jeans and t-shirts every day.


Okay, these pants are — and I'm stealing a line from Rachel Zoe — literally to die for. Clearly the model is wearing heels and is probably at least 5'10" but STILL (bold and italics are necessary, yes), the line of the pant is...I can't describe it. Just look at it!


Can I wear this dress every day for a month, please? (After a month, I'll want to save it for my future children.) If Pugh really wants to get away from the sci-fi label, he's not doing a very good job of it. (You can see the rest of the collection here and understand what I mean.)

If our perceptions already don't match and already don't matter, then the bottom line is essentially this: Wear whatever you want, because you can't please everyone's skewed perceptions.

(all photos via style.com)