Bridges 2011 Short Paper

This paper describes the strategy of approaching math through fashion using interdisciplinary methods such as ``Design Thinking''. A group of designers, artists, physicists and mathematicians from different universities mingle regularly at the Design Thinking Lab at the University of Applied Arts under the supervision of Ruth Mateus-Berr. Now they are approaching fashion through math. In Western Europe, the making of patterns in garments mainly comes from one tradition. As far as we know, no one has yet thought about an approach based on platonic solids or reformulated the traditional S,M,L,XL sizes with a new mathematical interpretation, Body-Index-Cloth. Rotational forms of conic sections enable us to find forms for a hyperbolic ball gown. The Lab covers a broad range of problem domains from pattern making to fashion for buildings with inflatable membranes. Recent experiments reveal new perspectives for fashion and, additionally, bring up educationally fruitful methods for working with mathematical topics using a creative base.