It's all in the numbers; What do you get when you apply the Golden Ratio to dark, skinny jeans.

Byline: Robert Sullivan

The universe, while chaotic and filled with forces that clutter physical matter as well as our closets, is governed by a mathematical principle of harmony and proportion that has been celebrated by philosophers, mathematicians, and artists alike, at least since the time of the ancient Greeks. The formula is known as the Divine Proportion or the Golden Ratio, phi, or just _. The fashion universe, likewise susceptible to change, is also governed by constants, one of them being denim. Now, for the first time ever, the constants of both universes have come together to achieve something that the ancient philosophers may or may not have pondered: making a person's butt look good. This looking-good part happens, by the way, even if the denim wearer doesn't care about the ratio, which, if we can get all _math-y about it, is sometimes algebraically explained like this: a+b/b = a/b = phi The formula, which is all about the alignment of parts and proportions (think of it as the feng shui principle of artistic design), has been applied throughout time to the design of buildings (the Parthenon), sculptures (Michelangelo), and paintings (Georgia O'Keeffe). "Whether people catch on or not, the garment is going to look good," says Richard Atkins, the Shanghai-based half of the Proportion of Blu, the design duo that came up with the idea to use the Golden Ratio in jeans. The other half, Terrell Wick, is based in L.A. The story of their collaboration begins when Atkins was out late one night at a place called O'Malley's, the Shanghai pub said to sell the largest quantity of Guinness in China. During a moment of beer-fueled inspiration, it struck Atkins that the pool table was beautiful, a thought that occasionally occurs to men when they are ...