Urbanity in an ancient world

Fashion photographer Ella Manor behind the scenes at Tel Aviv Fashion Week, speaks to Gideon Oberzon and Dorin Frankfurt about what makes them tick.

By ELLA MANOR
Holy Fashion (photo credit: ELLA MANOR)
Holy Fashion
(photo credit: ELLA MANOR)
Holy Fashion, a weekly column, follows fashion photographer Ella Manor as she explores new trends and icons within the fashion and culture of Israel

Urbanity and its relation to fashion was the theme of this year’s Gindi Fashion Week in Tel Aviv. The location for the event was built in the middle of a large parking lot in one of Tel Aviv’s busiest corporate areas which was a very unique and different experience giving everyone a clear vision of the connection made in this event between fashion and urbanity. In an exclusive interview I conducted with Gideon Oberzon just a few minutes before the start of his show, Oberzon, a master designer who has been working in the fashion field for over 50 years, told The Jerusalem Post that in the last few years he has also designed architecture, kitchens, doors and most recently, linens, and that he has always been very influenced by architecture in his work.
Gideon Oberzon
Gideon Oberzon
When asked about his sources of inspiration he replies, “very urban, rhythmic, urban in grey and white, because these are the colors of my concept (urban chic), and the traffic light. The theme of movement- red, yellow, green, stop, no entry, go. The subject matter that speaks of the tension in movement and traffic.” Finally I asked Oberzon what does he still get excited/nervous about before his own fashion shows. He replied jokingly that he is always excited, just not at the “right” things. He isn't excited about the collection because he has already finished designing it, was excited, and moved on to think about the next collection of 2015, but he is hoping that the mechanism of show runs smoothly as designed, and that it works.
Dorin Frankfurt
Dorin Frankfurt
In another exclusive interview with Dorin Frankfurt, another fashion design icon, who’s been designing for over thirty years, Frankfurt tells us about her sources of inspiration: “Here, the place. Because, the first thing is that we live in a place that is very different from the rest of the world. We have here some sort of casual elegance, we work all day, party all night, there is a lot of human diversity, a very strong connection to the land, an equally strong connection to the sea, and usually my inspirations are local artists but this time I had decided that this strange, hard, sometimes worrying place is my source of inspiration.”
The writer/photographer is a multimedia artist, fashion photographer and trendsetter. For more inspiration visit www.ellamanor.com. For questions or suggestions please email team(at)ellamanor.com. Follow Ella on www.facebook.com/ellamanorphoto Follow Ella on Instagram at http://instagram.com/visuella
Illustration by Efrat de Button