I was an architect in the 90s, before rising to prominence as a design theorist, publishing books and travelling the world to give keynote addresses. If clients could be found to build modern day temples (like those from the 50s by Mies van der Rohe) I might not have changed course, but it is swimwear, not architecture, through which I can pursue beauty.

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Mies van der Rohe would quote Thomas Aquinas, and it is Aquinas who I look to as well, for this definition of beauty: 

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The challenge presented by these unassuming five words, separated by two little commas, is to side with the eyes, instead of the mind, on occasions when the two are in conflict. The conflict comes daily for me, as I design and photograph swimwear. Should I trust my academic mind with its warnings about the patriarchy and dreaded male gaze? No, guided by Aquinas, I trust my eyes and the sights I find pleasing. 

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Otherwise the signposts are all from Modernist, architectural, thinking:

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• "Less is More" and "God is in the details" — Mies van der Rohe.
• "Ornament is crime," Adolf Loos.
• "Form ever follows function," Louis Sullivan.
• "To be Modern is not a fashion, it is a state." Le Corbusier.
• "The sun never knew how great it was until it hit the side of a building" (or swimsuit), Louis Kahn.

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At its deepest level, my design philosophy is a reaffirmation of the Enlightenment project and a rejection of post-modernist angst. The more we allow reason to guide us, while ignoring false dictums, the more elegance will be conferred on the world by our clear vision and actions. 

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—Dr. Steven Fleming, 2020.