Su nimer.
pleasures
From the
YOSEF ABRAMOWITZ SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
Meth
Israeli swimwear manufacturers transform the business and the body.
Ethnic prints and
bold colors are
part of designer
Gideon Oberson's
swimwear
. collection.
SI ometimes a bikini is just a bikini, Freud would say.
But in the case of Israeli swim fashions, the bikini
has become a symbol of something greater, more
enduring and surprisingly metaphysical. Some-
thing, believe it or not, uniquely Jewish.
This greater dimension of Israeli swimwear
can be seen not in the provocative curve of a Sports
Illustrated model, but in the collective statement that is made
by a small, young country making its mark on the world one self-
conscious bather at a time. "Israelis understand how a bathing
suit should look," says Gideon Oberson, a top designer who this
year sold $10 million in beach wear worldwide on the label bear-
ing his name. "We understand how it should look not only in the
department store, but on the beach and in the water. This is our
way of life. We have more
beaches than land."
Oberson is one of Israel's
largest swimwear manufac-
turers, second only to the leg-
endary Gottex and its $60
million in international sales.
"Israel is naturally a coun-
try of seaside, sunshine and
swimwear," says Yehudit
Gottfried of Gottex in Tel
Aviv, trying to explain the
great success of Israeli swim-
— Theodor Herzl 1902
suits.
Don't believe it for a sec-
ond. If geography was the determining factor in designing swim-
suits, then Jamaica, Surinam and Hawaii would be leading the
pack. What's caused the international sensation about Israeli
swim fashions is the daring styles, the innovative prints, the com-
fortable fit. And, most importantly, the hidden theology. Yes, the-
ology.
It is no surprise that King David first spotted the lovely Bat
Sheva when she was working on her tan in Jerusalem. "A good,
sound body...is a divine gift," Maimonides wrote in his authorita-
tive Guide to the Perplexed. "God created all things in accordance
with God's wisdom and what God created cannot possibly be shame-
ful or ugly," wrote Nahmanides in Iggeret HaKodesh.
"What a
marvelous
machine it is,
the human
body"
Yosef I. Abramowitz, a journalist, lecturer and consultant, serves
as assistant director of The Washington Institute for Jewish
Leadership and Values.
26 • SU1VINIER 1995 • STYLE