SCIENCE AND MAGIC

Scientists and mathematicians are the guys who reduce the messy old universe to a series of sleek equations. Max Mara finds inspiration in the discipline which requires its students to believe that a cat is simultaneously alive and dead, and explores the mind-bending world of irrational, imaginary and transcendental numbers. Who said that there’s no mystery in mathematics?

It’s Max Mara’s custom to spotlight pioneering women from history. In fourth century Alexandria we encounter the mathematician, philosopher, astronomer and greatly loved teacher Hypatia.

Much of Hypatia’s work was developed from Pythagoras. Those equations, expressed as diagrammatic triangles, are like the simple arrows that the dressmaker uses to transform a flat sheet into a three-dimensional living structure; magical, mystical darts. So often disguised or camouflaged, here they are proudly proclaimed. In box-fresh cottons, they are stitched through externally, lending Max Mara’s tailoring and trench coats a trigonometric turn. Arranged into asymmetric origami-like clusters radiating from one shoulder or hip, they are a new take on the draped gowns of Hypatia’s time. Columnar knitted skirts and dresses with contour clinging ribs offer a hint of the high priestess. Inspired by Hypatia’s work on slicing through cones at different angles, mathematically plotted elliptical coulisses engender intriguing constructions revealing a segment of the abdomen, a sliver of shoulder, or a whole back. The sleek silhouette hinges on jackets with a new shoulder shape; sharp, square and narrow.

Chaos theory tells us to expect the unexpected. In a collection predicated on geometry, precision and articulation, there are impeccable linear fabrics, gabardines, drills and haut de gamme denims that lend themselves to engineering but there are also crumpled silks permanently criss-crossed with random creases.

When the aesthetic is inseparable from the detailed technical construction, even the modest poplin shirt can be elevated to a design statement. Max Mara presents a whole sequence to test that hypothesis. And by the way, what says ’summer in the city’ better than a crisp cotton shirt or a wrapped shirt dress?

In colours borrowed from the phials in the lab; crystalline white, copper oxide as black as brown can be, deep delphinium blue and silver nitrate, Max Mara buzzes with cool, magical chemistry.

Magic? Isn’t that at odds with the collection’s scientific premise? Kurt Vonnegut answered that when he wrote,

“Science is magic that works”