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Israel’s fashion industry has designs on the global market

Caroline Baum
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Published: 21 May 2019

Last updated: 27 February 2024

When it comes to soft power, it doesn’t get any softer, quite literally, than fashion. A gentle, subtle form of diplomacy, most effective when worn by high-profile figures with sizeable Instagram followings, like British royals and pop culture celebs. But also capable of becoming an economic force: Israel was a significant manufacturer of textiles until cheap labour in Asia made the industry unviable.

Despite years of frivolity and excess, fashion has developed a new global consciousness in the wake of the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh and as a result of the new Who Made My Clothes hashtag. There is a growing awareness that the industry is a major culprit when it comes to pollution and landfill and a movement, largely led by a generation of younger designers and influencers who want to do things differently.

Vivienne Westwood and Katharine Hamnett were pioneers of consciousness-raising. Stella McCartney took up the fight for much of the current innovation by using new materials such as pineapple waste as a substitute for leather. Livia Firth championed environmental consciousness with her Green Carpet initiative, demonstrating that glamour does not have to come at the expense of the planet.

Others have started conversations about cultural appropriation, respect and sensitivities that were previously overlooked or ignored. There is a new mood, spurred by millennial customers demanding integrity as part of a brand’s DNA.

Until now, Israel has not been a major player in the fashion stakes. Its domestic market is too small. It has lacked the talented designers to put it on the map. It has no fashion infrastructure to promote and support the industry, although the revival of Tel Aviv Fashion Week as a showcase is a positive step.

Swimwear has always been strong, led by global brand Gottex, which has spawned a new generation of beach wear designers who are more body conscious and inclusive, such as Bananhot.

Casual wear is arguably the default setting for most Israelis, which explains the ongoing popularity of the Castro brand, which began as a family run atelier in Tel Aviv in the 50s and now has 180 retail outlets worldwide. Many of its customers probably have no idea, given the company name, of its origins.

Meanwhile, students from the powerhouse that produces most of Israel’s designers, Shenkar College of Engineering and Design in Tel Aviv, are applying the country’s undisputed tech lead to what we wear: last year graduate Danit Peleg unveiled the world’s first commercially available 3D printed jacket, perhaps foreshadowing the possibility that we might all one day make some of our clothes at home.

At the luxury level, Israeli Sharon Tal, designer at Maskit, has revived the fortunes of a once proud name. The label, established in the fifties by Ruth Dayan, then wife of Moshe Dayan, to give employment to newly arrived migrants, eventually faded after its initial success.

Bringing with her experience and prestige as the former head of embroidery at Alexander McQueen in London, Tal has given new life to some of the classic shapes from Maskit’s original collections, but added new polish and edge. Drawing on the skills of traditional Yemeni, Berber and Druze artisans, Tal creates embellished pieces, including evening dresses ornamented with the embroidery typically found on Tallit prayer shawls going back centuries common to Jewish cultures from Russia to Morocco.

By including these artisans in the Maskit ateliers where they share techniques that were in danger of disappearing, the label is contributing to a broader conversation, happening globally, about valuing and preserving unique heritage (as Maria Grazia Chiuri’s recent resort collection for Dior demonstrated, in a stunning collaboration with traditional African wax print textile artisans.)

Tal understands how to make what she calls affordable luxury - that is, high-end, hand-made, limited-edition ready-to-wear, attuned to a culture that loves to celebrate rites of passage from weddings to bar mitzvahs in style, whether in Israel or in her growing second market in the US. She is now attracting the attention of influential European magazine editors always on the look-out for the next significant talent.

And when high-profile Israeli women like Bar Rafaeli and Gal Gadot are photographed wearing these labels, they become Israel’s soft power ambassadressers.

 

Photo: A Sharon Tal design, Maskit. Photo: Eyal Nevo/Maskit.

 

 

About the author

Caroline Baum

Caroline Baum has had a distinguished career as a journalist and broadcaster. In 2016 she contributed to the Rebellious Daughters anthology, and in 2017 she wrote Only: A Singular Memoir.

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