Episode 8: The ”Fashion Statements” exibition - Fashion and identity through the lens of curation

In this episode, your hosts interview Efrat Assaf-Shapira and Diasy Raccah-Djivre, two of the curators of the exhibition "Fashion Statements - Decoding Israeli Dress" that has been on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem for the past year. Efrat and Daisy (who joins for some of the interview) have a conversation with us about the exhibition and fashion identity, particularly its ties to sociopolitical context, multiculturalism, and nostalgia.

 

The "Fashion Statements" exhibition is the first major fashion exhibition in Israel, and it explores the history of Israeli fashion through thematic chapters. It begins with the exploration of two contrasting ideologies - the socialist, genderless, utalitarian clothing created by a company called ATA that would be efficient for people to wear while they worked, versus the high fashion of wealthy European immigrants, inspired by the Parisian standards of the time. The exhibition explores Israeli fashion at its peak, when it had a major place on the world stage, and it ends with a discussion on the future of Israeli fashion, and what it means today.

 

Three Israel Museum curators worked on the exhibition - Daisy Raccah-Djivre and Efrat Assaf-Shapira, from the Jewish Art and Life department, and Noga Eliash-Zalmanovich, from the Fine Art department. This curatorial team collaborated with Tamara Yovel-Jones, the fashion designer and teacher we spoke with in Episode 6, who initiated and advised the exibition.

 

For more about the exhibition, visit the Israel Museum website: https://www.imj.org.il/en/exhibitions/fashion-statements

 

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