full look. Icialabas
This year, Kornit Fashion Week Tel Aviv seems different. Each year for the past 11 years, Fashion Week in Tel Aviv presents many new ideas and garments, but this year, things have changed. First, it was Tel Aviv’s first physical Fashion Week after Covid-19 broke into our lives, and you could feel it – one of the biggest trends for this Fashion Week was face covers, but differently and fashionably, bringing mystery back to fashion.
Kornit, a digital fabric printing company which has sponsored the Tel Aviv Fashion Week for the last few years, brings an interesting point of view about the connection between fashion and technology. All around the world, digital media is affecting the fashion industry and we can see that even on the runways themselves — many designers decided to create collections with a digital appearance that gives a computerised look.
Above all, the most fascinating thing was the ability of the designers to create a whole world with their garments. Each designer had his or her own unique story to deliver to the audience. Schön! looks back at the week to remember some of these stories.
Shahar Avnet is an Israeli designer whose garments have already been seen on big stars like Beyonce and Zendaya. Avnet presented a collection inspired by the lifetime of a butterfly, and talked about her mother who passed away and the lessons that she taught her about different stages in a person’s life, which was powerful and touching.
Avnet saved her DNA as a fashion designer and used the fabric Tulle, which is familiar with her unique style, whilst creating fabric layers that impressively filled puffy skirts and dresses. There were also colourful swimwear and shirts, adding to a show that had a wide range of colours that included black, white, pink, turquoise and other pastel hues.
Avnet created a new original collection that gave the audience the full experience of her emotional story, a fashion that one can feel in their heart. During a few segments, the audience in the room could feel the bridge that was built between joy, pain and growth.
This year’s Fashion Week featured collections by many young designers. Icialabas, a new brand established by the young and talented designers Aviram Fima and Dikla Levsky, knows how to do it right. Their collection spoke to Nomadism and the modern way of mobility, even in a deeper sense, expressed by garments made of sleeping bags, prints with space references, fascinating cutouts and even a bicycle and a skateboard being used on the runway.
This brand seemed like the voice of the whole Gen-Z, and asked substantive questions about uniqueness, fashion and social issues. As a young fashion brand, it is interesting to see which images and references are preferred — even moreso when the rules of the game are changing every single day. Fima and Levsky created a sophisticated and honest fashion series that doesn’t go by the old rules and mixes modern tailoring with a bold street style that corresponds to the bigger trends taking place in the world.
With phenomenal video art at the beginning, good creative management and incredible garments with surprising twists, Icialabas amazed guests. Chances are that we are all going to hear more about them in the near future.
Another brand that displayed a whole story and experience on the runway is Kesh Limited, one of the most interesting street-style brands in Israel, designed by Keshet Shapiro. At this fashion show, Keshet chose to leave the known street-style districts and instead combine heels, shiny dresses and bodysuits that do not always go together with the imagery of modern streetwear.
The fact that she has combined those garments with her style made this show much bolder and more fascinating. The designer, who takes a lot of inspiration from the world of video games, wanted her fashion show to look a bit pixilated, You can see it throughout the entire collection, the ‘American Wild West road’ background and also hear it in the music. As a street fashion brand, you could see a lot of loose and oversized shapes, matching sets and interesting combinations between the happy rainbow colours to camouflage. The styling was quite accurate, with lots of attention paid to small details.
Alon Livne, one of the most successful Israeli designers, reinvents himself every collection. At this show, Livne, who usually creates stunning women’s garments, gives space to men, deciding to ask his audience crucial questions about gender norms.
Livne took a few male models and dressed them in the way of ‘the new man’, with crop tops, bodysuits and skirts. The change in stereotypes made the audience wonder what is expected from the average man in 2022, and where this ‘new man’ stands in greater society.
Livne is known for his sculptural garments, and keeps this DNA as a designer while at the same time bringing a new creative perspective. At this fashion show, Livne created more interesting silhouettes and continued with his architectural inspiration. The collection was colourful, included hues of pink, orange, beige and light blue. The accessories and the small details were wonderful — including the extra big cat-eye sunglasses and platform heels.
The collection of David Weksler was special and avant-garde. Weksler presents fashion that doesn’t fit anyone in particular — a sort of inclusive club’ that doesn’t let everybody in. Many of the garments were exposed and extravagant, and matched the standards of queer fashion. The collection included loose and oversized shapes, extreme streetwear and sharp cuts. The face-covers trend, seen on the runway and with the unique menswear looks, gave a mysterious vibe. Weksler decided to break the social rules and brought unconventional garments which surprised the audience with their twists — puffy gowns, jeans that become an unraveled skirt his bottom, extremely wide shirts and more.
Weksler recreated recycled garments and gave them new life, full of inspiration. For his collection, Weksler took different moments from his life and made garments that were inspired by them, so that every garment told a complete magical story.
Discover more from Kornit Fashion Week Tel Aviv on Instagram.
words. Dor Gabay
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