Fashion Design Department, Shenkar
Ilan Beja, Head of department
Forty-three students are currently completing four years of a particularly creative academic journey, in a year of turmoil and upheaval the likes of which the world has never known.
Filled with curiosity, cautious optimism, and extensive familiarity with the world of design, art, and culture, these graduates are embarking on their independent path equipped with a toolbox filled with design, technological, and commercial tools.
In the past academic year the graduates engaged with many questions that reflect the mood and mindset of the younger generation in light of the immense changes in the world in general and the fashion world in particular.
The process of designing the collections, which began before the advent of the coronavirus epidemic, encouraged original and creative self-expression, and became imbued with sensitivity to and awareness of the lockdown period, and ultimately grappled with burning questions concerning the present and the future given the dramatic changes taking place around the world. In spite of all this, the students created, designed, drew, developed, sewed, cut, printed, embroidered, dyed, edited, and styled collections that convey a unique, bold fashion statement that is more relevant than ever.
Searching for a new way of living, creating a new contour of the human body by using surprising elements, transitioning between a natural and artificial world, the longing to reach space, modern nomadism, creating a new reality by exploring cuts, fabrics, knits, and modern technological techniques – all these characterize the collections in this group.
Open spaces vs. the human body, a terrestrial colors vs. space colors, the new technological nomadism and the historical state of humanity today lead to a new experience of visual research that creates new and complex silhouettes, and examines personal space that is so relevant for our time.
The collections also present a pioneering collaboration at Shenkar between the realms of design and engineering, examining the direct influence of technology on interpersonal communication and relationships between human beings. Can new interactions be created through clothes by means of technology, music, rhythm, and movement?
I AM HUMAN
This group of collections emphasises design individuality that is not committed to membership group or gendered content, but to examining content that is not fettered to gender or traditional thinking. The students do not bind garment and gender, and do not expect a clear social division – with reference to themselves and to the environment and society they live in.
The collections also raise questions about digital representations with reference to the impermanence of the place in which we live: What is the beauty ideal in the new? Who or what is the other? Where does private reality begin, and ends in public illusion and loss of privacy?
I AM OTHER
Collections that are a mix between childhood and maturity, between Tel Aviv city and Arad city, between historical and literary figures, between leading culture heroes and contemporary influencers dominating the web, between pressure and the daily race and practicing mindfulness.
A personal journey that begins with visual and figurative inspiration, with a genuine intention to combine and hybridize past and future, daydreams and journeying during sleep, local and global, tradition and cultural history and personal experiences that preoccupy members of Generation Z.
I AM JOURNEY
The collections in this group resonate in design that responds to social and economic events, discusses the issue of environmental pollution, which raises questions regarding the need to consume fast fashion, all through extensive theoretical investigation coupled with practical research.
The collections document happenings in the urban and natural landscapes in which we live, and translate this documentation into extraordinary textiles and cuts that create a modern fashion statement.
Creating and acting under rules of sustainability, the students stop for a moment to ponder about the future of fashion. They hope to act in a sustainable, tolerant, and inquisitive environment that will grant new life to waste, such as plastic bags, fancy dress costumes, packaging, and scraps of fabric.
I AM NOT TRASH
Collections that draw inspiration from the physical, cultural, and authentic space in which the students live, from a local and modern perspective. They engage with the nuclear and extended family, they ask questions about local identity and living spaces, in contrast with Diasporic sources, they search for a new language due to the cultural differences between the waves of immigration, and present a new conflict, and distinctive contemporary visual translation.
These issues are particularly acute in light of the recent period during which we were physically and socially isolated. They led to engagement with family, home, childhood memories, the tension between personal and public in the students’ lives, and their relationship with their parents.
I AM HOME
