THE MATHEMATICS OF HOUNDSTOOTH

Photo Credits: Fractal Pied de Poule shirt by Marina Toeters and Loe Feijs, photo Brian Smeulders, model Stephanie Samson.

Intriguing new developments in the world of houndstooth! Loe Feijs, a professor in the Department of Industrial Design at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, has been working hard at quantifying the mathematic principles that go into various houndstooth weaves.
His earlier research involved the analysis of classic Pied de Poule patterns via "tessellation theory, compact Processing programs and compass Logo" (don't ask me what any of that means). His diligent mathematical efforts have come to inspire a series of fashion project collaborations between Professor Feijs and Marina Toeters, including the one above which incorporates a recursive algorithm to produce a repeating houndstooth fractal-like pattern which is then is apparently laser-cut into the fabric. They will be presenting a number of their fashion innovations at the annual Bridges Conference and Joint Mathematics Meeting in the Netherlands, July 27-31, 2013.
 Below is a link to the online Bridges Math Art Gallery where you can see more of Professor Feijs and Marina Toeters projects, including an incredibly beautiful skirt which uses OLEDs to responds to the heartbeats of the wearer:

http://gallery.bridgesmathart.org/exhibitions/2013-bridges-conference/feijs

I'm curious to find out how this project is received at the conference so I'll post a follow up some time in the near future!