Fashion Statements

Decoding Israeli Dress

Curators: Daisy Raccah-Djivre (Curator-in-charge), Efrat Assaf-Shapira, and Noga Eliash-Zalmanovich, Tamara Yovel-Jones (initiator and consultant)
Bella and Harry Wexner Gallery

Based on pioneering research, Fashion Statements surveys a century of dress in Israel. The exhibition explores the late 19th-century indigenous pre-Zionist “fashion,” the opposing forces of Europeanism and Orientalism that converged in the early decades of the state, and, finally, the place that Israeli creativity holds on the global fashion scene today.

Through a sumptuous display of clothing, fashion sketches, films, and fashion photography, this large-scale exhibition illustrates the broad scope of fashion in Israel, from its deepest historical roots to contemporary collections, fostering a dialogue about tradition and modernity, myth and reality, and conflicting ideologies.

Presenting a rich, quintessentially local narrative, the exhibition is part of the Israel Museum's ongoing exploration of this region's cultural landscape.