BY LINDA BACHRACK
can live anywhere in the world, and I will still be Israeli," said fashion
designer Yigal Azrouel in an interview with Jewish Week correspondent
Martha Mendelsohn. Azrouel, the new darling of Manhattan's hip
Meatpacking District, recently opened his first boutique just across the
street from Alexander McQueen's storefront.
"I love the energy and the people in New York," says Azrouel, 31, who
,grew up in the central Israeli port city of Ashdod, the son of a French mother
and a Moroccan father who owned a sportswear store. Azrouel's mindset is
more global than ethnic, as he borrows couture nuances from such fashion
icons as Dior and Balenciaga, and mixes them with Asian embroidery and
Gatsby-like femininity.
The former bagel factory that houses his West 14th Street store comple-
ments the edgy fashions hanging from pegs on exposed brick walls that meet
polished concrete floors. Antique furniture from Azrouel's collection provides
some soft curves to the spare, rustic look of
the space, designed by Israeli architect Dror
Benshetrit.
It was the Shouk Hapishpeshim, the
famous flea market in Old Jaffa, that first
drew Azrouel's attention to clothing design.
Elegant dresses from the '40s and '50s often
turned up in the -market, along with wedding
gowns. He studied all facets of the fabrication
of these sophisticated garments worn mostly
by immigrants from Europe.
• "The flea market was the only place that
really inspired me," he says today.
At age 22, after a brief venture designing
. wedding dresses and a stint in the army
(where he learned how to make patterns),
Azrouel traveled to the United States to visit
his sister in Washington. He migrated to Miami's South
Beach, then moved to New York and continued experi-
menting with fashion design, stitching up a few evening
dresses, which he promptly sold to Oxygen, a Miami
Beach boutique. Since then, his romantic dresses and
curvy jackets have been seen on Sex and the City, and, in
2000, he debuted his collection during Fashion Week in
Bryant Park. This year, the shows coincided with the
High Holy Days, so he opted not to participate, substi-
tuting photo artistry to share 30 looks of the new collec-
tion in a sophisticated image book.
Now Azrouel finally has the opportunity to show his
collections the way he wants to show them, in a "bou-
tique that touches on lifestyle, with multimedia enter-
tainment and lighting displays throughout the night."
Birmingham salon owner Bashar attended
Azrouel's grand opening party in February
and deemed it "glamorous and great fun."
Bashar has acquired several of Azrouel's
designs (from his menswear collection), and
especially loves the "ex-per-i-mental" pieces
(which Azrouel sews himself) — "kind of
unfinished and deconstructed with special
stitching and trims."
For Spring 2003, Azrouel presents a time-
less collection that is at the same time indi-
vidual, spontaneous and dramatic. Feminine
and fluid fabrics drape the body, and the color
)aletre is "refined, yet happy"
"I'm not a trendy designer. I have my own
y" says Azrouel. Sexy, with an edge.
Israeli fashion designer Yigal Azrouel. Right: Designs from
Azrouel's Spring 2003 collection. Available at Saks Fifth
Avenue and Neiman Marcus.