What’s one thing helping Tel Aviv Fashion Week stand out from the rest? Its models. More specifically: the range of its models. Unlike New York Fashion Week, where models tend to represent one very specific segment of the population (read: young and thin), Tel Aviv’s recent show featured women of all different ages and body types.
As Tablet reports, Tel Aviv Fashion week, now in its sixth year, used models from a range of ages, backgrounds, sizes, and shapes during its event this past March. The founder and producer of the event, Motty Reif, said, “For the first time in Israel and around the world, Fashion Week will introduce a different beauty standard.”
In Gideon Oberson’s show, many of the models walking the runway were in their 60s, and jewelry designer Lara Rosnovsky used older models as well. Meanwhile, Dror Kontento’s show featured models who aren’t just size zeros.
It isn’t a surprise this shift happened in Tel Aviv. Israel has made groundbreaking progress when it comes to the modeling industry and was one of the first countries to pass legislation in 2012 banning underweight models from catwalks and participating in advertising campaigns.
We couldn’t be happier about this — seeing all kinds of different bodies in a high fashion light can make us all feel a little more confident about who we are.
