ARTS OF FASHION FOUNDATION Competition Winners

An extraordinary and significant achievement for the Department of Jewelry and Fashion: Ofir Kertesz, Abed Elkader Abed Elkader  and Noa Azarzar, fourth-year students, are the finalists in the international competition for fashion design in San Francisco ARTS OF FASHION FOUNDATION.

The international fashion arts competition AOFF announced the names of the finalists last week. Out of hundreds of designers, 51 candidates were selected, three of whom are fourth-year students in the Department of Jewelry and Fashion, led by the head of the department, Shelly Satat Kombor.

The selected works bring diverse stories that come from personal experiences and a brave confrontation with the unknown: insects with butterfly wings as an expression of the lack of flight, due to a car accident that led to the disability of Ofir Kertesz; the exposure of electricity extension lines as an expression of longing for a father who worked as a building contractor, by Abed Abedelkader; and the fear of the ocean that led to the dream of the concept of Fantasea, by Noa Azarzar.

THE ARTS OF FASHION FOUNDATION COMPETITION was founded in 2006. The competition is an annual, unique, and authentic fashion meeting for students, schools and fashion professionals from all over the world. Students and graduates of the department have been representing Israel in important international competitions and have been leaders in the various fields of design in Israel and the world for several years. This year is the first time that three Israeli students have been selected to be finalists in the competition.

Abed Elkader Abed Elkader's collection was created from a personal process of separation after losing his father and his personal struggle with the feeling of emptiness and loneliness that came with his passing. "I chose to give expression to the experience I went through and am still going through. I started wandering freely among my father's personal belongings. I found his cell phone and in it materials that served as the starting point for the project. My father, who worked as a construction contractor, used to document various stages in the construction process and focused on the electricity extension systems that run throughout the body of the building. The photos he took revealed what was under the walls. The more I delved into the photos, the more I recognized in them the process I go through between dismantling and construction, between order and chaos, between concealment and exposure, between end and beginning. The photos he kept guided me in designing the models. This process allowed me to give these photos interpretation in my world and connect them to spiritual and futuristic images, which made the distance between our two worlds narrow," he relates.

During the month of March 2021, Ofir Kertesz was involved in a car accident. The incident left her disabled and for four long months she was hospitalized. During her difficult months of hospitalization, her thoughts were occupied by images of butterflies, and how such a delicate creature has to break out of its cocoon before it spreads its wings and flies. For her project she chose to study the symbolism of insects and use them to express the hopes, dreams, and strengths that Ofir discovered after the accident. The beetle became the strength she found within. The wasp, for her willpower to regain control of her life. And the butterfly, for the freedom she found in her new status in light of her physical disability.

Noa Azarzar says that for as long as she can remember she has been afraid of the sea, its tremendous powers, its unfathomable size and the creatures it hides in its depths. "The word FANTASEA is a word I dreamed about one night, a word that combines the two feelings I feel towards the ocean - deep fear and great curiosity. It is a word that now has a completely different meaning to me. The sea hides within it many creatures whose power and purpose we do not know, hides colors and shapes we have never seen, and hides unimaginable depths," Noa says, continuing, "My project deals with my emotions and feelings around the sea, between the fear and ceaseless curiosity, and its beauty that draws me to continue deepening my knowledge of what is hidden in it. The designs I created describe my presence, in a hostile and unknown environment in the depths of the sea. My imagination and fantasy describe what I would have to do if I got to these hidden places. Between the paralyzing fear and the wild imagination of what I see and feel in such a different and new environment. Working with different technologies in 3D printing, I was able to create my fantasies in a tangible and physical way. The shapes I imagine, the colors I see when I close my eyes, and the combination between the fabric, the body, and the different materials."