A cultural scream

August 11, 2010 - 8:42 PM by Jessica · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Art, design, General, Israeliness, Life, Pop Culture

The original image

And now for a bit of irony. The self-portrait of an Israeli photographer reenacting the painting The Scream, so to speak, is being displayed on tee-shirts, posters, playing cards and graffiti art on the streets of Iran. Granted, they probably didn’t know that it was a picture of Israeli Noam Galai when they bought the tee-shirt, postcard or cards. The thing is, he didn’t know about it either.

Galai was an amateur photographer working in high-tech in New York when he first took the self portrait, first leaving it in his personal computer files and later uploading it to the Flickr photo sharing website. Because Flickr users can take any photo they like and use it, for free, for any purpose, it didn’t take long for Noam’s facial expression photo to spread. It was just a couple of years later that one of Noam’s co-workers asked him if he’d begun selling tee-shirts. Noam hadn’t, but someone else had had the bright idea of using his scream photo on a shirt, and then selling it for $25.

Eventually, his photo made it to the cover of several political magazines (with his permission), revolutionary posters, event invitations, and, wall graffiti in Iran.

Overall, Noam told newspaper Yediot Achronot that he’s flattered, and feels that the things produced with the image are “pretty cool and creative.” He considered suing the makers of the tee-shirt, but decided not to waste his time. Wisely, he’s taking the whole thing as a compliment.

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Tags: Flickr, New York, The Scream

Fashion in a global world

April 23, 2009 - 2:06 PM by Nicky · 1 Comment
Filed under: Art, Business, design, Pop Culture

I imagine for Israeli fashion designer Mirit Weinstock it must be a blast. In a new project on her internet site, she invited her customers worldwide to send in photographs of themselves wearing her clothes.

Fashion becomes real - Mirit Weinstock as worn by New Zealander Daryia Bing.

It’s probably the ultimate accolade for a designer. Rather like a journalist feels when they see some stranger out on the street not only reading one of their articles, but actually commenting on it.

It also actually makes for pretty compulsive viewing to anyone with a vague interest in fashion. Since the website was launched at the end of January, women from over 30 countries have sent in self-portraits of themselves wearing items from Mirit’s collections.

The nice thing about seeing the same clothes on different people from around the world is that they look SO different. In our global world, people often complain that we all wear the same clothes from the same chains, and that we are losing our individuality.

But as Weinstock’s site, Miss Mi, proves, when someone in Italy puts on a Mirit Weinstock jacket, they don’t look the same as the woman from Sweden, or Israel.

It’s a fact that hasn’t gone unnoticed. In a recent interview, Weinstock said: “What interests me is the girl’s fantasy, or the way she views herself. Their interpretation of my fashion is fascinating to me. I take pleasure in seeing how each one is taking it to a place of her own. They often wear the garments in ways that I had not imagined when designing them, which is inspiring!”

Thirty-two-year-old year old Weinstock has been in the fashion business seven years. A Shenkar graduate, she interned at the Alexander McQueen fashion house in London and later joined Maison Lanvin, one of the leading fashion houses in Paris.

She returned to Israel in 2004 and set up her own label of ready to wear fashion, designing out a studio located in Jaffa’s flea market. She launched her first US collection in 2006 and now sells in stores across the US and Europe.

Weinstock came up with the idea for Miss Mi, when she was browsing Flickr one evening. She saw the pictures there and decided to find five women from all over the world to take pictures of themselves in her new spring collection.

She found the participants on Flickr and Facebook, sent them a package of five of her garments and asked them to do self-portraits, expressing their own personal take on the garments. She then used the pictures for her spring catalogue.

Since then, the idea has grown into Miss Mi. Weinstock says the project isn’t just about clothes, it’s about creating a community of women from all over the world, who share their pictures, thoughts, favorite web sites. Etc. etc.

It’ll be interesting to see if other fashion designers pick up on this new marketing tool.

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