Fringed Fashion

At Fashion Week in New York last month, Brazilian designer Alexandre
Herchcovitch...included below-the-knee skirts, billowing silhouettes, and, most conspicuously, hats. Lots of elaborate, distinctly undainty hats, which bore a striking resemblance to, of all things, those worn by fashionable Orthodox Jewish women on holy days—making Herchcovitch's runway seem less like a Saturday at the Shows than Sabbath in certain synagogues. This followed on the heels of his summer 2007 men's collection show, in which models were draped in oversized Star of David necklaces, and more than a few others dressed in pants and belts that plainly recalled zizit, the ritual fringes worn by Orthodox Jewish men.

Herchcovitch's work has been startling...The 35-year-old, whose Jewish grandparents immigrated to Brazil from Poland in the early 1900s, attended a yeshiva and enthusiastically points to his religious background as an inspiration. "I was influenced by the modest Jewish attitude of dress, of not showing the body," Herchcovitch once told the *Jerusalem Report*, underscoring that "this goes strongly against the body-beautiful culture of Brazil."

Nevertheless, designers have stopped short of weaving Jewish references into their designs—until now. The pioneer in this is Herchcovitch, a couturier of serious talent, but he is not alone. Earlier this week, designer Levi Okunov credited Kabbalah as the inspiration for the peacock-style Oscar dress he made for Sally Kirkland (leading some to wonder how many other blights Jewish mysticism has in store for the universe). Whether inspired or atrocious, though, the real surprise has been how slow the trendsetters in this traditionally Jewish industry have been to catch on to the fad for Jewishness.

(Source: Slate)

(Kippah tip: LH)