Our Showroom at Tel Aviv Fashion Week at Comme ill Fuat – Namal TLV
Text by: Jacqueline Dara
Photos: Liya Geldman
Tel Aviv fashion week has just enjoyed its seventh year and was honored to have featured 23 of its top designers on its runway. This year, the shows where hosted at Tel Aviv’s beautiful port known for its gorgeous sunsets and excellent cuisine. The city is emerging as a fashion metropolis which encourages creativity, entrepreneurism and belief that beauty come from all ages, colors and sizes. This year was built with extra vibrancy thanks to Roza Sinaysky and Vika Kanar who hosted 17 of Israel’s creative talents and designers at ‘The Designer Showroom’ in Comme Il Faut’s store. The pair wanted to open the showroom so that everyone may come and have an experience with the colors and materials of the new collections and to meet the designers. For your convenience, the following is a brief description of interviews that I had taken from the designers who presented at Comme Il Faut.
Designers participating:
Bleeker & Prince – Bleecker is the brand’s semi-annual fine jewelry creation. Designed by the house and sold online, there are 8-25 pieces per collection. Prince is a studio where the cliential go for custom made pieces. They are involved in every creative step staring with hand-drawn sketch, 3D renderings, sourcing materials until the end vision. There is a brilliant duo behind this brand, Shirley Segal and Leehe Segal. You may contact the designers with the information for their Tel Aviv and New york.
Dikla Lensky is a luxury scarf designer perfecting designs involving juxtaposing coloring, and exotic patterns. Her designs are a mix of modern influences, saturated with Eastern culture, unique compositions and hand drawn sketching. Producing her collection out of Como, Italy, a region famous for its tradition of high quality textile printing, Dikla is outsourcing for the finest materials. Her scarves are ever lasting and filled with joy, playfulness and sometimes daring pieces.
HOLYLAND Civilians is an Israeli high-end streetwear label offering a range of ready to wear garments, from workwear inspired garments to modern sportswear – a multicultural brand looking at the holy beauty existing in all religions, its symbols and ceremonies, and with equal admiration and translating them into a new everyday wardrobe. The brand’s message is in disseminating the idea of inclusivity & love, in all forms, for all people, as we are all equally HOLY. All garments at HOLYLAND are produced at the highest quality, with the utmost attention to detail – from stitching, to prints and washes, through to the labels and packaging. All woven garments are made in Israel, produced in a factory near Jerusalem and all jersey garments are produced in a high-quality factory in Turkey.
Toledano Tel Aviv based brand specializing in high quality, handmade leather goods. Hilla Tolando is the sole founder, establishing her presence since 2008. Her products are selling in 25 stores in locations such as Paris, China and the US. Tolando’s products are designed to be long lasting, functional, and versatile while maintaining the element of cool and modern chic. The founder, Hilla is very involved. “There isn’t a stage in the manufacturing process I am not involved in”. Besides her season lines, Hilla has also designed capsule collections for some of Israel’s celebrities, such as Dodo Bar Or & Sample. Her designs are worn by the international and local crowd such as actresses, models and ‘It girls’. All products are handmade in Tel Aviv and include evening handbags, clutches, large bags for travel, wallets, belts, and leather bracelets.
Sorry is a brand experience that is rememberable. After meeting with the founder, Danielle Weinberg she expressed to me that Sorry is about not apologizing for yourself. The brand is rooted on an emotional appeal and has created a large following of customers who recant that Sorry has been life changing for them. The designer is very involved with her clients and encourages them to “stop apologizing to yourself and go all the way with what you believe in and to not be afraid. Start saying your truths out loud and begin breaking the barriers between yourself and the world”.
Gil Zohar offers jewelry inspired from Israel’s neighbor’s, the Egyptians. The high end jewelry designer has been selling her cario native inspired collections at fashion weeks in Paris, and has had recognition in Vogue Arabia. Her jewelry are statement pieces, to say the least. What truly brings out this austentatious collection are the not only the multiple color gems embedded into the 24k gold sets, but the research that is contributed toward each piece. Since Gil was a little girl, she was has cherished ancient Egyptian history. This passion has driven her to research all about the goddess of past Egypt and have maliciously crafted the relics. For example. Her collection is beyond time, it is not a trend, nor is it in or out of fashion. The woman or man who carries Gil’s designs carriers with him or her a powerful meaning of the roots in human history.
Tali Kushnir designs clothing for both men and women, offering an “at ease” approach to tailored, classic clothing, with a focus on work wear as her inspiration. All of her garments are attentively made in Tel Aviv, in cooperation with local craftsmen and artisans. Kushnir’s clothing offer her personal interpretation to what she calls “The Middle Eastern approach to dressing” – Lightly monastic but existential, sustainable, meek and humble, with a relaxed yet proud Levantine spirit. A balancing act between respect for history and the need to innovate, T.K. creates collections that tell a modern story of past times, a middle path towards a better future.
Fancy Hand Fans designer and founder Sharon Jerusalmy, began her brand after turning a scorching day in Tel Aviv into an opportunity. Her and her daughter where sitting on a terrace in one of Tel Aviv’s charming cafes, fanning themselves with their menus trying to fend off the blazing heat of that day. Looking around, Sharon noticed everyone, everywhere was doing the same. On this day she realized how to help everyone to “stay cool and look hot. A fan for fashionistas”. She wanted to revive the hand fan to an everyday accessory. Fast forward 9 years later, and Mrs. Jerusalmy is selling her fans online, in high-end boutiques across Israel, and throughout Australia. She took her mission further by providing fans for Cure Diva, a website that supports women undergoing breast cancer treatments.
Mews has developed their sense as slow contemporary fashion. Gal Shenfeld founded the brand in 2014 and has been producing from Tel Aviv since. Their main audiences are toward men and mostly woman in their late 20’s and up, who find themselves in a cool atmosphere, wearing comfortable clothes which fills them with gleaming confidence. Mews has also established an influential clientele who are the heartbeat of the local culture scene such as performers, musicians, and designers. Mrs. Shenfeld encourages her customers to believe “less is no more”, meaning that she wants them all to push their style. The collection that you saw is called Americano which was inspired by retro American culture. One of her designs stemmed from Kodak cameras from the 90’s. Gal Shenfeld studied at Shenkar College of Art, Engineering & Design graduating in 2011. Upon her graduation she received honors and was awarded the Fashion Award at Mittelmoda in Italy for her innovative collection. Gal has previously worked for Elie Tahi in New York and has collaborated with many Israeli designers and brands. You may contact Mrs. Sheffield with the below information.
Modern Muse Victoria Zerkal launched Modern Muse in 2018. Victoria shops her multi brand collection from an agency she uses to connect her to designers in South Korea. She communicates to the designers her vision and style, and they return to her a collection that expresses her minimalistic, European wardrobe. She aspires to fit her clients to be the modern woman. A collection for the woman with a taste of simple, clean cut elegant street style, and she calls her brand’s style as a “modern classic”. As I browsed through her offerings, I can envision the cool Tel Aviv woman to wear Modern Muse’s tailored striped jacket, cotton shirt and jeans. Along with an earth toned wardrobe, Victoria designs a line of jewelry. Such as pearled initials that are attachable to a number of dainty, gold chain necklaces, offered in her series. You are also able to stack the necklaces with gold plated coins and mix it in a variety of fashions, very similar to how Chiara Ferragni wears her jewelry. Victoria relays that, “integrity, simplicity and intelligence are the three sources of our inspiration and the main foundation for our collections. Our woman are today’s Modern Muse”.
Para Ruk is the brand created by Anna Shenderova, a jewelry and scarf designer who immigrated from Russia and made Aliyah to Israel. Her brand was launched two years ago as she moved from being a marketer to a designer. Her previous job surrounded her with scarves that where sold using the Shibori technique which is a Japanese style to dying scarves that produces ambivalent patterns. Anna believed that she could create something truly unique by expanding the scarf designs with watercolor techniques, and adding gems. Her materials provide the luxury essence to her brand. The press enjoyed a gift of mulberry silk sleep mask, cushioned with feathers. Her product lines include earrings garnished with baroque pearls, brooches made out of organic glass, and twilly scarves. She has been selling her collection out of Israel and exporting to various countries such as Russia, U.S, Canada, Germany, Italy and France.
Aner Shevah is a street style hat wear designer known for this outlier designs and high end luxury material. His brand has been growing since 2017 and is being sold across Europe and in Israel. Aner learned the craftsmanship of hat making from ultra-orthodox Jews back when he was living in Jerusalem. The ultra-orthodox are known to create large hats and is a symbol of fashion in their communities. To learn from them, Aner humbled himself and asked to learn from these holy men. After great persistence, they agreed to be his ‘mench’, his teacher. A few year later he left back home to Paris and worked with diverse brands in the fashion capital. It was here where Aner created Aner5777. While working with Parisian brands, he noticed the waste of fine material coming from fashion houses such as classic Chanel wool or felt from Celine. The scrapes dumped by their homes where not large enough to make clothing, but just enough to make hats. Clever enough, Aner used this sustainable solution to launch his hat brand. His series involved designs such as miki hats, bucket hats, trucker/ baseball styles caps and fedora styles.
BC by Jenny Agasnian is very new to the fashion scene only having her launch in the beginning of January 2018. Jenny Agasandian, Theatre educated Fashion Designer (MA), owner of B.C. (Be Creative, Be Curious, Be Courageous) has dedicated an important mission to her brand which is to restore the respect for the garment. Also, to restore the healthy and sustaining attitude to the body and the environment – just as it was before the mass production era, when every woman knew where her garment came from. Her brand is “in the process of transitioning from using just natural fabrics (cotton. silk, wool, viscose, remi, hemp) – to using ecological fabrics with high-quality certificates (GOST, NGO, SAC)/HIGG Index) and full transparency of the garments manufacturing.
Guillain – A young fresh brand presenting their first collection of vibrant 80’s inspired clothes. With matching suits with shoulder pads, pastel colors and fun mix of patterns.
EN by Einav Nasiri was founded by Einav Nasiri who has been in working in the global fashion markets for over 30 years. Before the start of her own brand, Einav was found working in sales for nearly a decade. She was a well respected stylist working in the U.S with household names such as Ralph Lauren and J brand jeans. After returning from the States, Einav found herself in high demand to work with Israel’s top stylist, Rovin Cohne. For six years the pair would help local brand such as Castro, Fox and luxury designers for styling. EN serves up a fashion dish for those seeking comfortable, feminist and powerful statement style on their next summer vacations. Her collection is made mostly from silks or a pure cotton blend. She vibrance in her dresses that are minimalistically ornamented with vibrant patterns and designs.
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