What kind of life could I have? Is love "good" or "bad"? Can an eternal friendship exist between a person and a garment? Is there a human need for touch? What is contemporary, surrealist fashion?

Thirty-one students in their final year of studies in the Department of Fashion Design at Shenkar will present their graduate collections as they approach the end of a fascinating four-year journey into the world of changing fashion seen through the lens of the dramatic design, geographic, social and technological processes that are underway. Through these collections, the students ask new questions, some of which remain unanswered or open-ended. Before they know it, they will be setting out on their independent professional journeys into the local and international fashion industry. The wide range of subjects in the graduate collection demonstrates the curious, accepting, affirming and individual learning environment in the department, an environment that strengthens the design research process, analytic capacity, critical thinking skills, and unparalleled broadening of horizons – this year more than ever.

Between the Tangible and the Virtual

The starting point touches on the ubiquitous presence of the media, social networks and the virtual world in contemporary life. The hybrid integration between the world on the screen and the world outside of it, between the ability to touch and feel materials or people with whom we come into contact and the inability to do so, results in a disrupted design experience that features unique effects that follow the movement of time. Digitally-stored memories, synthetic experiences, contrasting aesthetics, and the attempt to confront the physical space with augmented reality are just some of the issues raised by the students.

The design of the collections in this group seeks to confuse the viewer. The viewer is invited to observe the usual from a new perspective through personal, emotional, unrestricted compositions that are not always connected to the familiar reality, through the use of the senses and imagination.

Between Body and Soul 

Does a garment have the power to invoke calm and inspire tranquility? To disconnect us from our surroundings and gather us for just one intimate, sincere moment of serenity? Can a garment lead a harmonious life without being replaced by a new garment at the first possible opportunity?

The fantastic and absurd in fashion allow us to reexamine the body and soul. Emotional reactions arouse the imagination and the senses in the hope of improving the ability to empathize with the other through the vulnerable, exposed body.  

In this group of collections, the students investigate the ability to develop empathy through hugely imaginative, sensual clothes. The result is a garment that is sensitive to the environment and answers the human need for interaction; a garment that provides the illusion of normality and a grasp on reality.

Between Fantasy and Reality

Countless stories, mythologies, and artistic creations celebrate the contrast between kitsch, romantic aesthetics and the sober departure from innocence. From a genuine, unapologetic, maximalist, intricately detailed, humorous, and critical perspective, the students examine the gaps between functionality and pointless, nostalgic kitsch, romanticism and heartbreak. The collections discover the wonder in the tension between heroic characters and symbols and familiar brand names in contemporary culture – some of which are lacking and whose identity is examined, new, hybrid creatures that physical artisans created for the workers of the future, and imaginative memory and contemporary times.

Between Liberty and Sexuality

Fashion can move on the axis between the exposed and the hidden, the extrovert and the introvert, the male and the female.

The collections in this group challenge familiar identities and widen the definitions of the body and sexuality through the use of the body as an artistic medium via emphasis, accentuation, and the empowerment of personal freedom of expression in design and fashion. In some cases, it is a self-portrait that deals with the boundaries of gender and examines the differences in bodies and figures by using unique materials along with iconic items, which create a personal, specific appearance.

Between the Traditional and the Modern

What effect does religious belief have on us? A spiritual journey in the footsteps of personal conflicts casts doubt on developing technology's ethnic, social, and cultural consequences. These, and more, characterize the group of collections that grapples with dependency and the gap between the traditional and the modern. My family and my tribe, the intergenerational relationship, and the meeting between the local childhood and ethnic cultures create individualism and the search for personal identity. The projects emphasize original prints alongside traditional handicrafts versus industrial techniques, connecting two worlds; the world one is born into, and the world one grows toward.