OK I am a glutton for punishment. I hope you are too, dear Readers. For fun, yes I have my sick moments, I googled "Hasidic chic" and the following are just some of the images that came up. These are as bad as the men in dresses fad these same designers were pushing a few years ago.
There are no accidents ~ ever ~ nor is there this presentation of Talmudic fashion into the eye of the public without some thought behind it. Yep, call me paranoid, but fashion is often used to shape mindset as well as to set trends and keep the goyim buying retail. I have included commentary that accompanied the photos wherever possible.
Bonus: I am sure the sight of tifillin as a fashion statement gave many a rabbi an unorthodox shock!
Readers' Guide:
Fashion Show
No self-respecting Hasid would wear a tight, sharkskin gray suit and, horror of horrors, white shoes with an ill-fitting Borsalino. But that’s the whole point of this loony look, mixing the traditional with the avante garde.
The arba kanfot are turned into an item of fashion, and the hat is a witty take on a Hasidic spodek, most notably worn by the Gerer Hasidim. (Dancing rabbis)
I confesses to a weakness for the Hasidic shtreimel, a round hat made of fur that can be enormously expensive. We hope that PETA members take one look at this article of clothing and feel their heads explode.
Above: Korean-born Gunhyo Kim, a graduate of Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Arts and an assistant to designer super-star Dries Van Noten, was inspired by Antwerp’s Hasidic Jewish community. He takes a traditional arba kanfot, an article of clothing mandated by the Torah (Numbers 25:37–41 and Deuteronomy 22:12) and turns it into… um… something else. At least there is no gender confusion with this group.
Plain ugly genderless graceless Hasidic influenced clothing by Danish designers Christina Højris Ottosen and Jens Kold-Christensen, from Uncommon Creatures
John Galiano who, in the early 1990's "shook the fashion world" with his avante garde fashion line (Picture and films below), has never been, nor will he ever be, forgiven when he, ironically, destroyed his career years later by a very public verbal attack on a Jewish woman in Paris. The above slam is from February of this year.
Even Abe Foxman got into the controversy by defending Galiano. Foxman pointed out that Galliano was wearing blue, not black like a Hasid, and a gray hat without the standard wide brim.
"This is John Galliano, OK? He dresses eccentric," Foxman said. "He has long hair, they're not peyos" ~ the traditional sidelocks worn by Hasidim.
ED Noor: Does anyone else find this as hilariously pathetic as I do?Foxman said he had personally spent hours talking with Galliano, and that the designer is meeting with a rabbi and studying Holocaust history. He said the designer had even offered to teach fashion to disadvantaged students in Israel.
"I think this is a malicious distortion, either to continue to destroy this man or to sell newspapers. Take your choice," Foxman said.
"I'm in the business because I believe people can change their hearts and minds, otherwise why bother?" he added. "This is destroying this man again."
Polish fashion magazine Viva! Moda used model Greg Nawrat to show off their interpretation of Orthodox Jewish clothing using this season's high fashion menswear. The spread was photographed by Rene Habermacher and features tallit katans and yarmulkes alongside skinny jeans, a printed bomber jacket, and some cloud-patterned pants. Nawrat even uses a tefillin for prayer in some of the pictures from the spread. Bottom shot, notice the imprint of the unwound tifillin on his arm.
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