The Department of Fashion Design's bridal gown design project was particularly challenging this year in light of the collaboration with Swarovski. Under the guidance of lecturers Ronen Levin and Dalia Cohen Bat-Shimon, the students were required to design a personally significant and creative collection of bridal gowns, incorporating Swarovski jewels to highlight the design message.
The bridal gown designs were presented to Swarovski's chief designer, Ms. Karin Strametz, who came to Israel especially for this event. She was highly impressed by the creativity and uniqueness of the designs and the amount of effort invested in them. Swarovski dedicated a special studio, equipped with machines the company brought for embedding the jewels.
The highlight of the project was the fashion show during the Gala Evening that concluded the events of the Board of Governors' meetings. The show was spectacular and evoked excitement from the audience, among them Mr.Lenni Klocker, Area Sales Manager, Swarovski Company. The designs demonstrated original creativity and profound thought that found expression in meticulous and rich implementation.
The students' sources of inspiration were diverse and reflected a breadth of horizons and personal interest in the Jewish culture, world culture and social issues. The use of such diverse sources of inspiration gave the students the chance to cope with thought-provoking issues such as the idealization of the wedding ceremony versus a sense of the woman as a social victim, with cultural customs like the wearing of the kimono, and with a combination of cultures and fashions from the past, present and even the future.
The precise choice of integrating Swarovski jewels with the various materials, as well as the use of various sewing techniques, reflected the inspiration and the thought behind each design. Transparent and light cloth, ostrich feathers, brocade fabrics and satin silk, natural cloth for creating an organic effect – all this, together with Swarovski's radiant and impressive jewels, combined to create a breathtaking collection.
Throughout the evening, projects that were carried out by students of Jewelry Design were shown on giant screens. The students, tutored by Anat Grozovsky and Hagar Ben-Shalom, designed spectacular jewelry pieces for a wedding, set with Swarovski crystals.
Description of the projects:
Jonathan Zohar combined various sources of inspiration in a bold wedding dress – a couture dress of the 1930s in the spirit of ancient Greece; the bride he selected is a princess and heroine of a Japanese movie. Olga Green designed a country wedding dress inspired by neo-pagan religion. Sharon Hayun designed a beach wedding inspired by the world under the sea. Lori Mizrahi drew her inspiration from Samurai clothes, while Ya'ara Mann drew from childhood memories in Paris. Oshri Chao designed a bridal gown based on an imaginary encounter between Lou Andreas-Salomé and her lover Sigmund Freud, with the wedding taking place on the banks of the Rhine River at midnight, in a mystical atmosphere. Shir Kolton turned to Jewish influences, Judaica, sacred objects and marriage contracts (ketubot). Avi Kuperman combined the culture of the Indian world and the Spanish-Catholic.
Several students turned to the world of cinema as a source of inspiration – Genya Krol drew inspiration from a Zen wedding and Takeshi Kitano's film "Dolls." Roselo Shimriya designed a bridal gown inspired by the Elf Princess from the "Lord of the Rings," and Miri Kalfon returned to the water films of Esther Williams from the 1940s.
