Hip and edgy on display at Tel Aviv Fashion Week
Visiting fashionistas find favor with Israeli designers, but still see collections as a ‘pioneering endeavor’
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleJessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
For many, Israeli fashion design remains a bit of an oxymoron. But for visiting fashion writers and bloggers at Tel Aviv’s Gindi Fashion Week, which ends Wednesday evening, it’s a pioneering endeavor that shows promise.
“Some of it is exportable,” said Lisa Mancini, an editor at Cosmopolitan Italy, reflecting on the “rock-edgy” parachute pants and tunics of Gadi Elimelech, the most recent designer to fill the runway on Tuesday morning. “I like the use of color, that’s good for women. But the accessories? They’re not there yet.”
Perhaps Macini didn’t like the pastel-shaded, rounded beltpacks worn by some of Elimelech’s models or the multi-buckle suede sandal-boots used in the Sample show. But she did appreciate the “boho hippy” look of Israelis she saw on the street, as well as the long linen dresses and unmade-up faces she saw among many older women in Tel Aviv.
“That’s elegance,” said Mancini.
More than 30 Israeli designers presented their collections at the four-day event, including a selection of new, emerging designers and a show of work by students from Shenkar College of Engineering and Design.
There was a handful of foreign fashion writers as well, including a delegation of fashion bloggers with VIBE Israel, the non-profit organization that invites web-based opinion makers to tour Israel.
“It reminds me a lot of LA and Miami,” said Adam Katz Sinding, a fashion photographer with the VIBE delegation.
Katz Sinding, like other critics on hand, was a fan of fashion veteran Dorin Frankfurt’s show on Tuesday, which opened with a classic “50s vibe” collection of white pieces, including crisp, billowing shirtwaist dresses and sleeveless tunics with cigarette pants. The latter part of the collection was mellowed with black pieces for a more typical Frankfurt approach.
He said he wasn’t surprised by the black, as it echoed what Frankfurt herself wears.
#vibefashion bloggers hit the #RedCarpet at #GindiTLVFashionWeek @batshuaj #fashion pic.twitter.com/nQr7gy29qs
— Vibe Israel (@VibeIsrael) October 19, 2015
“She dresses how I would, if I were a woman,” said Katz Sinding, who said the Vibe Israel group had drinks at Frankfurt’s home earlier in the week.
Alina Tanasa, one of the two Fabulous Muses, another set of fashion bloggers, also liked Frankfurt’s collection, as she noted on Twitter: “Totally in love with dorinfrankfurt collection! So many nice details and so chic outfits!! I see…”
Or as Tanasa noted earlier, “TLV fashion week isn’t bad at all!!!”
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