Fashion photographer Yael Bar Cohen documented talented students from the Department of Fashion Design at Shenkar College in Israel – focusing on two young designers – Gili Bruchstein & Yanky Golian, both inspired by different aspects of social criticism.
Fashion Design student, Gili Bruchstein, which presented her creation as a part of her studies at Shenkar College of Fashion Design had to choose a song, and create two sets of clothing using it as an inspiration. Both sets with the same shape but were executed using different materials. This was designed with Australian singer-songwriter SIA cover version to The Kinks song “I Go to sleep” in mind. The designer used Sia’s story as an inspiration – a celebrity trying to avoid the paparazzi in order to keep her private life out of the limelight. Bruchstein has built a rather graphic interpretation based on anti-biometric and digital defense systems built to protect Sia, and her heart in praticular. The jacket she designed is made out of 114 units of handmade triangles creating a unique and original print.
The second focus was for Yanky Golian who combined two sources of inspiration into one set of clothing – as a part of his studies at Shenkar College. The first idea, which is very obvious. is the fundamental fear of ‘Judgment day’ and a potential nuclear attack. The designer approached this idea with a hint of humor and drew inspiration from sterile gas mask hazardous materials suit, creating a clothing system designed to protect the wearer when the time comes. The suit, however, doesn’t look intimidating at all – and that leads us to the second inspiration: a rather optimistic story of a Taiwanese artist who found himself alone in a remote village, where he began painting. His paintings helped him cope with the solitude and turned the village into a big work of art and a hub for tourists from all over the world. The village, called “The Rainbow village” inspired the captions and colours of the collection.
These inspirations emphasis the message behind this design which is approaching life with humor and optimism, even when facing severe circumstances.
The photographer, Yael Bar Cohen is a graduate of the photography department at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jersualem. She currently works as a photographer at Yarin Shahaf’s makeup school, lives and works both in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. www.yaelbc.com
