Fashion and mathematics make unlikely bedfellows. But within an atelier, you will find a fashion designer doing things like calculating seam allowances, measuring the length of a sleeve or a hem, or using pencil and ruler to draw paper patterns—the technical templates used to turn two-dimensional pieces of fabric into three-dimensional forms.
A set of paper patterns appear on the moodboard for Max Mara’s Spring/Summer 2025 collection, which is how creative director Ian Griffiths makes the case that math and fashion can, indeed, intersect. Griffiths’s moodboard is also populated with images of Women In STEM—the colloquial phrase used to refer to women who work across the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics—both real and imagined. There is a photograph of Dallas Johnson, the first director of the National Cancer Institute in the US, working in a laboratory. There is a shot of Brie Larson as the fictional scientist Elizabeth Zott in the TV series, Lessons In Chemistry. And there is a sketch of Hypatia, a scholar of ancient Alexandria, who is also one of the first women to study and teach mathematics, astronomy and philosophy.
Griffiths looked at the clothes that would have been worn in Alexandria during Hypatia’s time and reimagined them for the modern Max Mara woman, with math in mind. Instead of draping, dresses feature flat, origami-like folds that are centred on the shoulder or the hip. Sheath dresses, which were often depicted in ancient Egyptian art, are transformed into sensual column skirts and dresses with rib knitting. The collection’s looks were also accessorised with flat leather sandals, echoing the footwear of the past.
Griffiths also referenced Hypatia’s scholarly contributions for the collection. The 4th-century mathematician famously explored the slicing of cones, a concept that led to ideas of hyperbolas, parabolas and ellipses. Accordingly, Griffiths placed unexpected elliptical cut-outs on long-sleeved tops, bodysuits and dresses, baring a flash of skin along the waist or on the midriff. One tailored jacket even features a large oval cut-out on its back.
Speaking of construction: Max Mara is known for its tailoring, that most mathematical of fashion offerings. And while the first men’s suit was only introduced centuries after Hypatia was born—and still more years passed before women started wearing pants—it’s easy to see how the Alexandrian intellectual would have appreciated the smart styles in the collection.
This season, Griffiths makes the tailored jacket even sleeker, creating a streamlined silhouette with narrow and square shoulders. Elsewhere, he further refines the jacket by doing away with lapels or buttons on the front.
Max Mara’s minimalist suits are also styled in fresh ways, ideal for the summer. Blazers are paired with those aforementioned ribbed knit skirts, as if making the statement that women should not need to wear pants to be taken seriously. Tailored jackets were also layered with open poplin shirts with upturned cuffs (they resemble trapezoids), or simply thrown over a triangle bra. With Max Mara’s suits, Griffiths makes an even bolder proposition: that math can, in fact, be sexy.
Ahead, discover the Max Mara SS25 campaign.
This story first appeared in the June/July 2025 issue of GRAZIA Singapore.
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