This year began with a collective trauma and comprehensive inability to grasp the unbearable new reality imposed upon us. This period has tested each and every one of us in many ways, especially in our ability to express empathy and wisdom through design in general and fashion in particular. Forty-three students have completed four years of studies intertwined with many challenges. But what began with a global pandemic is now being concluded with beautiful collections showcasing an incredible ability to navigate our complex social and personal context.

​

I am proud to present the Class of 2024 with a sense of personal and professional achievement in such a challenging and complex year. This year's topics range from the historical aspect of design research to the innovative and modern, seeking anchors and local belonging. As citizens, we found ourselves questioning the relationship between the individual and the collective, and as designers, we confront these same questions, providing touchpoints through the language that is familiar to us—material, color, silhouette, texture, and more. The students' works highlight how design encompasses us in each and every path of time we walk through. 

​

The quest for the right form, unique creativity, craftsmanship, materials from the new world, quality and aesthetics, techniques, and precision in smart cuts with interesting and unexpected shapes demonstrate once again the high capabilities of the students' works. These works reflect the professional and personal challenges arising from the changing world in which we live. The collections merge the normal and the insane, the order, the chaos, and the heightened sensitivity, thus making the final projects diverse, complex, multi-layered and meaningful points of light. 

 

I invite you to examine, ponder, think, and enjoy.

 

The Normal and the Other

One of the research topics that students are addressing is the juxtaposition of the "normal" or "standard" against the "different" or "other." Several collections explore various aspects of this topic through designing collections and observing different types or dealing with disabilities based on personal or family-related experiences. Aspects of "otherness" also include references to national or religious identity characteristics, or the lack of belonging and defining a clear identity resulting from a family mix of Judaism and Christianity. Other aspects of dealing with this include the impact of different types of femininity as well as the self-acceptance of complex sexual preferences, examining the unusual tension between body and medicine, thus turning to a new entity that contains both biological and artificial components.

 

The Personal and the Collective

Understandably, a significant portion of the collections deals with the relationship between the personal and the collective, discussing the complex system of stress and tension arising from our surroundings and the recent events that we have all experienced. Thus, we find reference to "cult" series, reflecting the escapism from personal crises and conflicts through printed colors that create the illusion that "everything is fine," or dealing with the complex reality by controlling our self-external appearance. The perception of ‘home’ as a central anchor in our daily lives is also examined in light of the recent months we have endured, alongside exploring avenues such as the singularity theory through which we ponder the connection between chaos and sanity and emphasize the potential breakdown within our fragile reality.

 

Love and Militarism

Highlighting the illusion of eternal relationships, the tendency to ignore the potential for separation and heartbreak as well as the evolved cultural expressions of wedding ceremonies and postponing wedding days due to military reserve duty are just part of the personal challenges that inspired several collections. A reference to the kitschy fashion culture of the 1950s in the US versus the Israeli militant culture formed the basis for investigating and emphasizing these gaps in designing clothing systems that deal with objective difficulties. The engagement with the revealed and hidden and the aesthetics of pain, under the cover of a maximalist look versus the culture of perfectionism, created unconventional ideas for alternative collections.

 

The Tangible and the Digital

It is not surprising that in light of the rapid and profound developments we are experiencing through a variety of new and old technologies (AR, VR, AI-based image generators, etc.), we can see influences on the engagement with generative art as a tool to examine the transition between the physical and virtual body as well as engagement with broader questions about an imagined future of a beauty ideal that is dictated by software or a world where gender conformity is challenged by AI. Alongside the fascination with the world of technology, other collections turn to the "inner shadow" as a sign of the gap between the digital and the tangible, between isolation and connection, and the world of the digital nomad as a call to examine existence without physical objects.

 

 

The Traditional and the Ideological

Several collections deal with significant historical processes in the world of design from a top-down perspective, focusing on values that influence design action. The engagement with community formation and self-belonging as a result of pioneering and ideological immigrations, emphasizes the sanctity of work and the lack of engagement in leisure in Israeli society, which is, in turn, reflected in the use of "craft" works by conducting an examination of the future, the present, and the fear of being left behind, as well as examining reality from a fresh point of view, calling for the body to be freed from defined boundaries while breaking conventions in the perception of the traditional body.

 

Memory and Renewal

Elements of memento mori in the world of art and design and the delicate balance of human existence are intertwined with the vital memory of our loved ones who have passed away and who have served as a particularly sensitive source of inspiration. These include saying goodbye to a father or mother during childhood, grappling with memorialization, trauma and PTSD from personal experiences; dowry as a way of thinking about the generations who will be remain after we are gone, the need and desire to keep living, fear as a paralyzing entity, and the empty canvas of uncertainty that engulfs us for so long still clinging to hope and unique wise optimism possessed by so many. 

​

​

​