USA: An ex-hasidic fashion designer uses jewish symbolism in his designs offending many devout Jews

Record ID: 197629

  • Title: USA: An ex-hasidic fashion designer uses jewish symbolism in his designs offending many devout Jews
  • Date: 17th August 2008
  • Summary: (L!1) NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (AUGUST 11, 2008) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) RABBI AVI SHAFRAN SAYING: "Oftentimes when a person is alienated or far from his roots - and in the Jewish context that means a Jew who may not have a close connection to Jewish observance or Jewish belief but at the same time his soul years to express its jewishness in some way and I would like to think that perhaps that's what's happening here."
  • Embargoed: 1st September 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Fashion,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA5KT3IH5JTA0GGDHC5MEXJY0B9
  • Story Text: A designer who grew up in one of New York's strictest hasidic communities uses Jewish symbolism in his designs, much to the chagrin of many Jews.
    Levi Okunov, who grew up Hasidic in the Chabad Lubavitch community of Crown Heights in New York, has created dresses with bustiers made of parchment paper, which is traditionally used for Torah scrolls and gowns of velvet adorned with Torah mantels or covers.

    "These were highlights that are beautiful to me from my Hasidic upbringing," said Okunov. "Prayer shawls that you can see wrapped and draped around the body as they pray and as they walk across the synagogue with the movement and the stripes and then inspired by the Torah covers - you know, just phenomenal golden embroidery with these lions."
    Okunov rebelled against his traditional upbringing in his teenage years and consequently was sent by his parents to a yeshiva in France in the hopes he would settle down. It didn't work. At 15 he decided to leave the community and give up the strict lifestyle for good.

    "In a way I don't look at it like I've left," said Okunov.
    "I look at it like I've taken that plus what I have now and I'm bringing them together - unification. It's still a part of me and I'm not running away from it or anything."
    Many Jews say they are conflicted by Okunov's work. Many find the pieces beautiful but they are disturbed by the use of sacred Jewish elements in the designs. Nevertheless, it was hard to find anyone from the Lubavitch community who would speak on camera about his work because he is so well-liked. One Rabbi who would comment was Rabbi Avi Shafran of Agudath Israel, a right-of-center Orthodox group.

    "When I first saw the designs, I think like many Jews who may have seen them for the first time, I was offended in the sense that I didn't expect and wouldn't want Jewish symbolism to appear as a means of drawing attention to a model's body," said Shafran.
    Okunov says he doesn't mean to offend but he doesn't shy either from controversy either.

    "I'm not under the authority of anybody when it comes to my creativity so therefore I never care and in general about my life as well - from the fashion life to the religious world to anything, you know," said Okunov.
    Okunov's work has been on display at the Jewish Museum in New York and he will be putting on a show at New York Fashion Week.
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