Israeli model Esti Ginzburg shot in New York

March 12, 2009 - 3:45 PM by · 4 Comments
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Pop Culture 

Esti GinsburgBar Refaeli seems to be getting some positive attention headed Israel’s way, thanks to her recent appearance on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition and other correlating accomplishments, as I enumerated earlier this month:

Bar is going to save Israel from a water crisis. Bar ate at these three Tel Aviv restaurants (I’ve eaten at all three as well). Bar wins a Women’s World Style Award. Bar appears on Ellen Degeneres. Bar’s body appears on the fuselage of a 737 jet. Bar eats a hamburger (this is news apparently). Bar shuts down the New York Stock Exchange. And my personal favorite, Leo (that kid from Growing Pains) must convert to Judaism in order to marry Bar.

I’m not the only one getting sick of her hotness. The Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO) is apparently wondering about Refaeli’s contributions to the greater good of womankind.

Basically, the gist is, can’t there be another Israeli hottie about whom we can get excited? And the answer is decidedly yes. Meet Esti Ginzburg, a Tel Aviv teen who also featured prominently in the 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, for which she was photographed in Naples.

She’s come a long way since her first modeling gig, for the Tnuva dairy farms, at age eight. Two years ago, she replaced Yael Bar Zohar as the face of Fox clothing, and she hasn’t looked back since. Ginzburg went on to become an international talent, representing brands like FCUK, Pull & Bear, Castro, Tommy Hilfiger. She also recently featured in promotional materials associated with the H&M clothing store’s Winter 08-09 line (pictured). She’s also been on the cover of the French version of Elle magazine four times.

Ginzburg was recently announced as joining the stable of Victoria’s Secret models on the Israeli website for the E! entertainment industry news channel (story in Hebrew). Apparently a shoot is already underway in New York, where Ginzburg is celebrating her 19th birthday. Mazal tov.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A textile peace

January 15, 2009 - 10:34 AM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Business, coexistence, General 

There was a time, back in the days of Oslo and the peace accords, when several Israeli manufacturers thought about establishing factories down in Gaza, in the Karni Industrial Zone, as a way of utilizing Palestinian labor and forging ties of economic cooperation. There weren’t that many Israeli textile companies left by the late 1990s, but at least one, bedding manufacturer Kitan, had a factory in Karni for a short while.

Delta Galil So when the military operation began in Gaza, my editor at Women’s Wear Daily asked me to do a piece about whether the current situation was affecting local textile companies. It was a logical question, given that goods manufactured in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip and shipped to the U.S. are duty free. But instead of manufacturing in Gaza, private label manufacturer Delta Galil, like other Israeli companies, went to Jordan and Egypt instead, where relations were warmer and the commute wasn’t too bad. And that’s where the underwear that it makes for Marks and Spencer, Target, Victoria’s Secret, Tommy Hilfiger, and other companies are actually cut and sewn, after being designed in Israel, thereby working within the U.S. duty free model.

I’ve written about this phenomenon a number of times over the years, in good times and bad. And when I spoke with my contacts at the remaining Israeli textile companies, Delta, Tefron and Bagir, they all said the same thing, “There’s nothing to write about because we’re not affected.”

And they’re not. Delta’s main plant is in the north, where work didn’t stop during the Second Lebanon War either, even with a solid percentage of Arab employees and Katyushas falling nearby. The same went for Tefron, whose Israeli plant that specializes in seamless underwear is located in the north as well, in Misgav. The only real question mark is Bagir, the innovative suitmaker manufacturer that is located in Kiryat Gat, uncomfortably close to the rest of the southern towns that have been hit in this two-week-plus war. But the answer was the same for Bagir as well, even though they’ve had to conduct bomb shelter drills just to be safe.

I wasn’t able to get to Jordan or Egypt to see what things are like right now in the companies’ factories. I’m told it’s just “business as usual,” says Esti Maoz, Delta’s chief marketing officer, because the “Egyptians aren’t such big fans of Hamas.”

Let’s hope the quiet continues on the fabric front.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

 

© 2012 ISRAELITY | Site by illuminea | Sitemap