On October 14, 2009, nearly 900 guests filled The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles to view the spring lines of Israeli fashion designers. The fashion show was designed to, in the words of Consul General Jacob Dayan, promote the “beautiful face of Israel,” and to help Israeli designers make headway into the American market trough the country’s “Wear Israel” campaign.

Eight designers participated in the show: Bracha Bar-On, Sugar Daddy, former model Bet-Ka, Israel’s leading plus size designer Kedem Sasson, Shai Shalom, Keren Naftali, Alembika, and Yosef Peretz - who was named best young Israeli designer in 2002. Some Israeli accessory designers also partook in Fashion Week at a separate jewelry exhibition at The Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hill on October 15^th. Many of their designs were on display at MOCA in cases and adorning the models.

Three of the eight fashion designers were able to make it to the show personally, and among them was former model, Bet-ka. She said that since she had less than three months to prepare for this show she decided to experiment. One of her pieces, not shown at the show, was “terror-inspired”, the design sparked by news footage of Hezbollah. She was clearly impressed with the turnout of the show when she said, “It’s heartwarming that whenever something comes from Israel, people turn out in masses.”

Sahar Azani, consul for media, culture and public diplomacy said about the show, “Fashion designers in Israel have always been on their own, for the most part, they have never received much support from the Israeli government, and I think they were pleasantly surprised to receive such an offer from our consulate. I mean, when does the consulate do fashion?” According to Azani, the LA consulate has waited to organize an Israeli fashion show for a long time and had finally joined agendas with Israel’s Economic Mission to approach LA Fashion Week.

Before the establishment of the state, few would believe that there would ever be a dynamic, productive country of Israel; with Israeli scientists, Israeli astronauts, Israeli lawyers, Israeli doctors, Israeli engineers and now Israeli fashion designers making an impact in their respective fields worldwide.  The recent fashion show in L.A. pays testament to the creative drive of Israel.