May 30, 2006

Tel Aviv 2006: A City with Style

by Renan Fried

During the last decade Tel Aviv has emerged as an exciting fashion city. Tel Aviv of 2006 is a different city from the city we once knew. The Tel Aviv of today centers around a world of fashion of all types and for all ages. It has become a city of style where people want to dress well, and a city of designers who ingeniously make this happen. Tel Aviv now offers any number of fashion houses of top-notch designers with clothes for all age ranges and at a wide range of prices.

The local designer community includes designers of all ages, most of who are Israeli born, including graduates of leading fashion schools in Israel, New York, Paris and Rome. They open fashion houses after successfully completing their studies, gaining experience in the field, and then becoming ambitious to start up their own business. The amazing talent, originality, special designs, range of styles, personal and warm attention have won over all of us, and the ability to buy a unique garment, which only you will have, has enticed many.

The burgeoning fashion sector in Tel Aviv has even managed to push aside bigger phenomena, such as globalization. In a world where plenty is the keyword, and where you’ll find a shopping mall on every street corner, large fashion chains aren’t as impressive anymore. No-one can withstand the allure of attractive fashion houses with exciting designs which are changed and renewed all the time. Fashion houses don’t compromise on design and quality, nor on designers with imagination, vision and endless talent.

Successful designers from around the world have been here, taken stock of the rich talent and have stolen a few designers for themselves. Donna Karan, for example, on her last visit to Israel was highly impressed with the designs of a young designer who, just before she graduated from her course, was offered a contract and accepted. Israeli designer Bari Mayer, who lived abroad for 15 years and gained experience with leading Italian and American designers (and dressed quite a number of Hollywood stars for the glittering Oscar Awards ceremony) returned to Israel this year and opened his own fashion house in Tel Aviv.

Tel Aviv of 2006 offers everything there is to offer. Any woman who knows something about fashion and has seen a thing or two in her life will be able to appreciate this after a brief tour of the city’s fashion houses.

Israeli fashion offers an excellent solution for all needs. This begins from designers of special evening wear made of the best materials, in all styles and uncompromising quality. This is the kind of garment made just for you that you won’t see on any other woman. There are also designers who specialize in leatherwear, and designers who produce items with the best models and cuts, the type of designers who have no rivals anywhere in the world. And there are other designers who offer solutions for day-to-day clothes for older women looking for garments in their size, and which take into consideration the measurements of bodies that have been through several pregnancies. There are classic fashion styles with trendy touches, finely tailored clothes and sports-wear made with the understanding that the human body changes its shape over the years, and that what looks wonderful on a 20-year-old may be embarrassing for a 40-year-old woman to wear. Some designers produce clothes for young women in an urban, avant-garde and romantic style in a range of styles and at competitive prices.

The fashion houses of the better established and longer serving designers are located at the northern end of Dizengoff Street. These fashion houses belong to well-known highly experienced designers who specialize in clothes for men, women and even children.

The Basel Compound, one of the younger and livelier areas of Tel Aviv (bordered by Bazel Street, Alkalai Street, Hashlah Street and Hafarhi Street), just a short walk from Dizengoff Street, one can find some wonderful stores in-between the innumerable cafes. There are stores that sell bags, shoes and practical art.

The Electricity Park Compound, also known as Collective 6940 (in the square between Levontin Street, Hahashmal Street, Mikveh Yisrael Street and Barzilai Street) is a relatively new fashion spot. In the past two years dozens of young Israeli designers came to the area and opened charming stores that sell clothes, bags and jewelry. This is the fastest developing fashion area in the city.

There are a number of very select stores in the picturesque Neveh Tzedek neighborhood. The ambiance there is very different from the designers in the Electricity Park Compound. There is no neo-punk atmosphere of a new enterprise, rather the scent of the old stylized Tel Aviv. Here one would find fashion houses, jewelry stores and stores of designers of household items.

To view a full list of "Fashion Houses" in Tel Aviv please click here

Posted by ARZA World Team at 11:35 AM