STYLE

By Jessica Bailey

20 September 2024

MFW: Sleek Equations. At Max Mara, A Trigonometrical Twist On Tailoring

Inspired by a 4th century mathematician, the Italian house’s Spring/Summer 2025 collection tries a new fashion formula on for size.

Vittoria Ceretti opened Max Mara’s Spring/Summer 2025 show in Milano on September 19 in an impeccably tailored copper column skirt and open blazer. Her crisp white poplin shirt’s cuffs were flipped back atop the blazer at acute angles as sharp as a set square in a trigonometry class.

The Italian house’s muse this season was 4^th century mathematician, philosopher, astronomer and greatly loved teacher, Hypatia of Alexandria in Egypt. Much of Hypatia’s work was developed from Pythagoras and those equations, expressed as diagrammatic triangles, are used today by dressmakers and have informed Max Mara’s SS25 collection: Coats and trenches display precise external stitching, workings-out that are usually hidden out of sight. Asymmetric pleating—ironed in—decorate the collar and shoulder of the humble poplin. Mathematically plotted coulisses and darts ensure the construction of skirts fall at the right angles. Yes, while most luxury fashion collections are predicated on precision and articulation, very few celebrate it.

“We tend not to talk about the technical aspects of fashion, but in modelling itself there is calculation, precision, geometry. I wanted to adopt a creative approach to the construction of the model,” Max Mara’s creative director Ian Griffiths said.

Ceretti returned to the runway to close the show, this time in a white halter gown with a plunging neckline. Its asymmetric skirt, with an opening at its centre, resembled a Pythagoras-sliced triangle. While clear-cut, Hypatia—one of the first female mathematicians in recorded history who also loved astrology—knew even maths required a little magic to penetrate the minds of the subjects she taught.

“Magic? Isn’t that at odds with the collection’s scientific premise?” Max Mara’s show notes read. “[Late American author] Kurt Vonnegut answered that when he wrote, ‘Science is magic that works.’”