Barzilai responded to Vasilevitsky’s criticism by writing: “Slowly, slowly; I’m looking out for us, darling.”The day after Barzilai’s turn on the runway, the bathing suit she wore was available on the Bananhot website in sizes XL, XXL and XXXL. But many say that simply wasn’t enough.“There was no effort made, there were spelling errors, they just took photos behind the scenes of the fashion show instead of a real photo shoot like the other bathing suits on the site,” said Judy Abramson, a US-born student, freelance model and body-positivity activist. “There was no effort put into it, and that was the only bathing suit you can find up to an XXL. A lot of the plus-size community here felt that it was very hypocritical.”Every other bathing suit on the Bananhot website goes up to a size large, which Abramson said is in reality more like a medium in the United States. While Barzilai was not the only plus-size woman to walk in the Bananhot runway show, none of the other designs that were modeled are sold above a size large. Bananhot said last week it is producing a new line of bathing suits with Barzilai, but did not give a timeline for their sale.AT THE initiative of Motty Reif, the producer behind Tel Aviv Fashion Week, several other shows also included plus-size models on the runway. But that doesn’t mean the brands offer clothing in larger sizes on their websites, making it all the more disappointing for plus-size fashion aficionados. That includes model Nataly Dadon’s swimwear line, Rinikini – which also only sells styles in small, medium and large – and Biliblond, which has some styles in a size XL, which the company corresponds to a size 42.
In some respects, Israel has made significant strides, by Western standards, in addressing unrealistic beauty norms. In 2012, the Knesset passed a law banning the use of models with a body mass index, or BMI, below 18.5, and requiring advertisers to state if models’ pictures have been digitally altered. At the time Israel was the first country in the world to pass such a law, though many in the fashion industry said it has never been enforced.Regardless, fashion-forward Israeli women have long had a hard time finding styles that showcase instead of conceal their bodies.“Besides for maybe two designers, the options here are mostly very baggy and very unflattering,” said Abramson. “For years there was the view that people above a certain size all had one body type.” In the average store, she said, you can’t find anything over a size 42, which is a 10/12 in the US. During the more than seven years Abramson has lived in Israel, she said, there has been “absolutely no” progress in the mainstream plus-size fashion world.Retema, which sells sizes from 42-50, opened last year, and is considered groundbreaking in the Israeli fashion industry.“Retema believes in the new femininity – strong and diverse – which inspired the phrase ‘fem-bold,’ one of the leading values of the brand,” the company said in a statement last week. “Retema believes that all of us deserve equal fashion rights, and all of us deserve to dress beautifully and fell perfect.”
