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Notes -
It's a useful distinction, and I see you've taken care to avoid "good/bad" judgements, but it's interesting you're still making positive claims under aesthetics which I think demand justification. For instance, that certain colours "will work". Oh will they? Why? Because something something colour wheel theory? What if I like the wrong combos? On what basis can you object? Pure appeal to popularity?
I don't think aesthetics are so quantifiable because year after year I see things that were once explained to me as hard fast prohibitions with hand-waving justifications like "because it would ruin the silhouette, obviously" then become the next big trend. Maybe I'm misreading here and you mean aesthetics are totally value-free. There's combos on the colour wheel axes and off, but it doesn't weigh in on whether either is more correct than the other.
The eye adjusts to certain color combinations. Colors that looked right in the 80s look wrong today and vice versa. This also goes for silhouette. The more something "wrong" is repeated the more it begins to look "right" until it becomes "passé" (unless it never reaches that stage, different things work in different cycles and on different timelines. Fashion is extremely complicated and trying to explain it like it's math is like dancing about architecture.)
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I have blue eyes. They're by far my best feature. Blues, especially sky blues, will bring them out. Purple never will. That won't change no matter what the trends are. My light blue ocbd might be in or out of style, look stylish or look lame, but it will always emphasize my eyes.
Similarly, take a classic item, like the schott Perfecto double rider. The aesthetic of it is always the same, has always been the same since 1950. The thick leather, double breast, and structured tailoring creates added bulk while also emphasizing a v shaped silhouette. What that means has varied over time and place, from motorcycle riding wild man to gay fashion bottom to lame suburban dad trying to recapture a youth he lost before the bush administration. But the shoulders are the same.
I realize I didn't actually answer your question. My view is that certain aspects of visual aesthetics are universally hard coded*, certain colors interact with other colors in certain ways, lines drawn in certain ways create certain proportions. Color and cut and material will emphasize or de-emphasize certain physical features. What the colors or features emphasized mean is changing constantly. A slim silhouette or a baggy silhouette have both been perceived as young and hip and urban at different times; and fashionistas tend to backfill the meaning by talking about aesthetics as though they are universal.
*I'm leaving aside Other-Minds "Do you see the green that I see?" questions and defects in perception here, because that can take us way off track.
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