Leon Emanuel Blanck

Greatly influenced by the Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi genre, LEON EMANUEL BLANCK plays with seams and the human body, its’ interaction, and reaction with the material. Studying the interplay of the natural and unnatural.

LEON EMANUEL BLANCK not only pushes boundaries with his pattern-making method but also by completely abolishing symmetry within his garments. This is all the more natural, considering his idea of the human body not being symmetrical either. One dropped shoulder, one arm longer or thicker than the other or even scoliosis make it obvious that it is not enough to just form one body half and then mirror the pattern. Therefore not a single piece is found twice within one garment.

Considering the sheer complexity, high technicality, and uniqueness of his garments, with each, sometimes consisting of not more than 20 pieces, it becomes evident that the pattern making and sewing are extremely complicated and time-consuming.

His latest project ANFRACTUOUS DISTORTION is irreverence to the regular pattern making methods. Through the sole use of large fabric pieces that were formed directly on the human body, normal seam lines were completely ignored. This forming process reveals body fitted silhouettes showcasing extremely unique and complicated patterns, a truly anatomical way of tailoring. The process also resulted in details that are reminiscent of bark from a tree or muscle structures of dissected body parts.

In the holistic project named METHOD, some of the pieces were crystallized into sculptures, using a technique adapted from naval architecture. Every pattern for each size is handcrafted and takes up to seventy hours of work. While using an atypical way of pattern making, the anatomy and the movement of the human body naturally creates the sutures, diminishing “put-on” design.

All garments are created the same way. First, a cast is formed around the moving human body, yielding the prototype pattern that will be used for the first prototype-clothing piece. This piece is then adjusted on the naturally created seams to reveal a final garment.

GENESIS is the result of his experiment, trying to drape a pair of pants around himself, whilst constantly moving. This process resulted in an odd-fitting pair of pants, distorted. However, the coalescing seams, this unusual approach, and the interesting way the material and pattern evolved on the body fascinated him.

In this project, the design process is reduced to the minimum: every cut arises naturally through the flow of the fabric during the forming procedure. In a way, the process is even more technical than it is archaic. The outcome is a cutting edge organic collection that abolishes all preconceived ideas of pattern making. He only decides if the piece will become an upper or lower body garment, then lets the material and the body interact during the forming procedure.

ANFRACTUOUS DISTORTION’s complete anarchy results in a particular collection, which goes through a construction/deconstruction process to finally come to life. Every piece is a body cast that is molded into a sculpture and then gradually destroyed in order to create a pattern, which will give birth to a wearable piece of clothing. The casts look very human, it makes it all the more difficult to destroy them, that is why some of them were conserved to exhibit at carefully selected concept stores worldwide. Every piece of the collection was once a sculpture fitted perfectly to the human anatomy without any regular seaming, coming to life once worn by people.