Israeli fashion between individuality and national identity: Reflections on the exhibition White-Blue Collar

Abstract

Abstract This article explores the tension between individualism and national collectivism in modern Israeli fashion design. When looking back at the end of the nineteenth century up until the declaration of Israel as a country in 1948, one can recognize the creation of the ideal community and image of the ‘New Jew’. In this process of building and defining the new national culture of Israel, the dominant approach within the ‘New Jew’ community was one of unity for a greater cause. In this state of mind, clothes did not matter, nor did individuality. Unlike bourgeois city fashion based on individual preferences, the unified ‘anti-style’ became a visual marker of Israeli identity. In the last couple of years, fashion designers are trying to go back to their roots by creating unique local garments. Due to the ‘anti-style’ visual past of the local fashion scene, one has to ask weather contemporary designers succeeded in creating a unique Israeli fashion by following the past and erasing individuality? Or by standing against the past and criticizing collectivism?