Video: Costume designer continues legacy every Purim

For Cinema Fashion owner Batia Rozental, Purim is good for business and a chance to remember her roots.

By HADAS PARUSH
Costume designer Batia Rozental 390 (photo credit: Hadas Parush)
Costume designer Batia Rozental 390
(photo credit: Hadas Parush)
Tel Aviv is full of one-stop shops for cheap Purim costumes, but for anyone on the market for a quality costume - as well as a personal experience - it's a little bit harder.
This might mean walking the main streets a little slower than usual, taking a second glance at that doll with the bright red dress to consider where it came from and who made it, and perhaps taking a chance and walking down that alleyway. Between the cement building walls, there might be a garden blooming with one-of-a-kind costumes, and one woman tending to each.
From a young age, Rozental would sit on her mother’s lap and watch while she sewed outfits and costumes for a living. Batia's eye for fashion was stitched together with every fancy dress from memories of her mother.
In a backyard off King George Street, those dresses hang on display, alongside dozens of different, hand-made costumes for rent and for sale. With the constant help of two seamstresses who work closely with Rozental, her design fantasies become a reality and allow appreciating customers to make belief every year.
Cinema Fashion produces about 100 costumes every season, with customers ranging from hi-tech companies who find her on the Internet, to random passers-by looking for something different.
Rozental describes this time of year as an emotion whirlpool. Not only was she born around Purim, but she also attends her mother’s memorial around the same time. Lily Rozental passed away seven years ago, just a few days after the colorful holiday.
When the family gathers for the memorial every year, Rozental is always grateful as she believes that even though her mother was on her deathbed, she waited for Rozental to finish her work and get through the holiday, before she passed away.