Kibbutz designs

June 14, 2011 - 5:00 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: design, education, General, History and Culture, Israeliness 

The invite

Seminar Hakibbutzim, or Kibbutzim College, as it’s known in English, isn’t what it once was. Originally established back in 1939 as a college for training preschool and school teachers, based on the concepts of the kibbutz movement, including the strong relationship between the education system, the community and the role of nature in learning. At the time, the school used the approach of Professor Mendelssohn’s Zoological Institute, whose aim was to train teachers of nature studies, given the belief that knowledge of nature is the best way to link people to their land.

Looks like their poster is based on this kibbutz oldie

According to the school’s literature, even though it eventually established itself as a leading college of education, eventually gaining accreditation to award bachelor’s degrees and master’s degrees, it still retains that belief system and identity.

Which is why I’m always drawn to attend their design school graduate student exhibit, this year exhibiting bags and accessories. The Kibbutzim Seminar college is not Israel’s largest design school, not competing with Shenkar or Bezalel. But there’s always something about the school’s history, it’s connection to nature and to the country’s earliest roots that comes through in the student projects and themes. This year there will be accessories based on individual, communal and cultural wear. Using intricate hand-knitting, uniform design, leather and other natural materials, the students looked to expand the borders of clothing, looking to change and modernize approaches.

You can check out what they came up on the Kibbutzim College campus, starting July 7. The address is Rechov Shoshana Parsitz 3, Arts Campus.

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Fashion in a global world

April 23, 2009 - 2:06 PM by · 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.

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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The Golden Hour

December 16, 2008 - 11:32 PM by · 3 Comments
Filed under: General, Life, Medical Breakthroughs, Technology, War 

If there’s one thing Israeli medics are good at, it’s first aid. As a result of battlefield experience over 60 years of war, chovshim, as they are called in the IDF, have learned how to treat serious injuries with few supplies under heavily pressure.

The lessons learned on the battlefield prove invaluable for major civilian emergencies as well, such as the tragic bus crash outside Eilat. Sixty Russian tourists on a junket to Eilat plunged off the side of a narrow, twisty road to a ravine nearly 200 feet deep. Twenty four people died, and the rest were all in serious condition, as of Tuesday night. While many were killed on the spot, several died of the injuries they sustained later on,

What if the injured had gotten treatment sooner? Could they have been saved? Maybe, say doctors who advocate the Golden Hour theory that even severely injured people have a higher chance of surviving if they get substantial, emergency room style treatment within the first hour after they’re injured. The problem is getting them to the treatment site especially under difficult field conditions, such as when a bus is stuck at the bottom of a ravine, with no path or road to the top, and no place for a helicopter to land. Not to mention that moving the injured often makes things worse, exacerbating the problem and making treatment at the facility more complicated.

There is a solution on the horizon, though. As it happens, I spoke to Dr. Eran Shenkar today, a battlefield medical expert who has helped develop a new concept vehicle for remote medical care, called the MedUAV. Interviewing Dr. Shenkar and others at the Fisher Institute in Herzliya in preparation for an article for 21C (look for it soon!), I had no idea how relevant the conversation would be just a few hours later.

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The MedUAV, says Dr. Shenkar, can essentially bring the emergency room to the field. Developed for the battlefield, it’s also ideal for civilian emergencies in difficult to reach circumstances. As a remote UAV, it’s smaller, cheaper, and more compact than a helicopter meaning it can go places a helicopter can’t, and, in times of war, there’s nobody to shoot down. The MedUAV can land or take off vertically, meaning it’s ideal for use in, say, a narrow ravine where there’s no place for a helicopter to land. The MedUAV can carry sophisticated equipment equipped with Wi-fi sensors, allowing a field medic to hook up a patient and allow a doctor to provide remote treatment, by giving instructions to the medic. And, after it delivers its supplies, the MedUAV can transport patients back to the medical tent, where they can be transported to hospitals by helicopter.

It’s a great solution to the golden hour problem and when it’s ready for field use, chances are good that tragedies like today’s bus crash will end up being a bit less tragic, with perhaps many more of the injured being restored to good health more quickly.

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