Meet the young designer spearheading the Finnish fashion revolution

Finnish designer Leevi Ikäheimo’s work plays with the perception of extreme masculinity: the plastic toy bodies marketed towards young boys and their outrageously unrealistic proportions. Commenting on the unrealistic expectations we put on young boys, the designer first started exploring the subject in his graduate collection ‘No pain, No glamour’. “I read up on studies about body dysmorphia as it pertains to toys, but most of it was focused on young girls and barbies,” the designer explains. “I remember growing up, playing dress up in Batman costumes with foam abs. With the collection, I wanted to tackle something serious, which for me is this pressure we put on young men.”

The design of his first collection has clear aesthetic links to the idea of superheroes. Upon first glance, Ikäheimo’s sharp silhouettes look like they would prick the skin. But upon closer inspection, the protruding spikes are something different altogether. “They’re really very soft,” the designer explains. Knitted by Ikäheimo himself, the fabric has been moulded and manipulated to acute angles. “I wanted to create this fabric that would make you hesitant to touch it. An aggressive looking outer shell that is the opposite of how it is perceived. The juxtaposition of it all.”

Winner of the Designer’s Nest award during Copenhagen Fashion Week and currently working in Antwerp, Ikäheimo is planning to return to Aalto University for a masters degree. “I’m not very attracted to having my own brand one day,” he says. “But this merger between fashion and costume and knitting is something incredibly fascinating for me. Who knows what the future holds? Maybe I’ll become the knitwear designer for Nasa or Space X someday.”