Entrepreneur Zayid Zayid opens Israel's largest women's fashion complex
The gospel of women’s evening gowns will come from Shfaram.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFEntrepreneur Zayid Zayid has launched the T&E fashion complex in Shfaram. (photo credit: Courtesy)
The life story of entrepreneur Zayid Zayid to some extent is a fairy tale: A young man (39) recently opened in Shfaram the largest women’s fashion complex in Israel covering an area of 2,000 square meters designed in the style of elite stores in Beverly Hills - the T&E fashion complex.The T&E fashion complex, which opened several months ago in Shfaram with an investment of NIS 12 million, includes over 10,000 dress types and elite clothing for women’s wedding dresses from dozens of fashion brands in the world of designers from France, Italy, New York, Los Angeles, Australia and more.A number of architects have worked on designing the fashion complex and already two huge TV screens have been placed that were specially imported from abroad. There are no other such televisions in the country, which screen fashion shows 24 hours a day.The second floor of the complex has a bridal salon with a studio where designers and seamstresses can be found fitting dresses. The changing rooms are personal salons that maintain the complete privacy of the customer, while outside the changing rooms there are armchairs where the shoppers’ friends and relatives can sit, and give their opinion.Zayid also thought about the men, building a drink bar to allow the accompanying men to drink a good drink or espresso (free of charge), to watch football matches or sporting events on big TV screens and to give the women the time and space to choose and try on dresses without feeling pressure to finish shopping.Also, Zayid did not dream that within a few months of opening, every day, hundreds of women from all over the country and from all sectors, including the ultra-Orthodox and women who come on shuttle buses, are coming to the T&E fashion complex, which has become a topic of conversation among many women in salons and on the Internet.Recently tourists have also started coming to T&E, especially from France “the fashion country,” to purchase dresses for family events.There is no doubt that Zayid has branded Shfaram as a fashion hub and other businesses in the city are benefiting greatly from the large traffic in the city as visitors are also shopping in other shops and visiting restaurants.Zayid, a graduate of the Technion’s Faculty of Engineering and Management, began his career as a junior director at the eyewear factory in Migdal Ha’emek. Less than a year later he flew to be with his sister in Texas.For four months he walked around malls and fashion stores and fell in love with the field.
“I started working for a company that offered evening dresses in Houston. After three months I made a decision, not simply for the money, to return to Israel. Amy encouraged me and told me that whoever knows how to be successful can be successful anywhere. I came back to Israel and found work at a Castro store in Herzliya. In 2004, I was appointed deputy director of the Haifa branch in the Grand Kenyon.He later got to know a resident of Shfaram who told him that her uncles had a fashion boutique in the city called “T&E” and that they wanted to sell it. Their store was advanced compared to everything in Zayid’s area, which looked like it was from the 1960s. He fell in love with the place but they asked for an astronomical sum. A year later the contact renewed, and Tony and Edward, the owners of T&E, asked to sit with him to negotiate. Zayid borrowed the money and bought the store.And, as mentioned, after several years of running this store, he decided to build the huge complex and turn the T&E complex into Israel’s largest complex for women’s elite fashion.
