I'm not sure if it's just me, but after being in Tel Aviv for four days I'm yet to spot a well dressed man. There are PLENTY of shops here for women, three big malls full too, but for some reason the men get the bad deal, the terrible deck, the short straw. There are virtually NO nice clothes shops for us fashion obsessed tourists! WHY???
Today I wore this (below). It's nothing fancy, a Marc by Marc Jacobs tee, River Island shorts (part of the Designer Forum collection) and Flossy shoes (you NEED to get some, soft as butter!). Now, I realise lime green shorts with tassels on are hard to swallow in the most accepting of cities, but I've never had so many stares! For a city that claims to be so liberal, you'll just have to accept me and my tassels!
The thing that gets me though is that my green shorts are from the good old British High Street. They're not designer. They're not couture. A thousand other people could be wearing them. But over here the high street for men is DI-A-BOLICAL. There's a handful of shops, all stocking the same striped polo shirts and check shorts. ERGHH. And you know what that mean... all the men look the same. No dressing to expressing (don't know if that makes sense, but it sounds amaze) over here.
HOWEVER, I'm pleased to say there is one diamond in the rough. Kedem Sasson (www.kedem-sasson.com) couldn't come soon enough! We stumbled across the shop on one of our mammouth hikes round the city, I actually let out a 'woop' when I saw there was real life men's clothes in the window. An even bigger one when I had a root through the rails.
Kedem combines peasant-style essentials with utterly modern designs. According to his website he was inspired to design due to "his wife's meager and unimaginative clothing options". He actually went on to design for plus size women, and looking through the pieces in his store in Tel Aviv, I can now see why his designs were so popular - a lot of draping and masses of fabric. And it's all so flattering! The dress with the buttons below is SO Grace Coddington (as is quite a lot of the stuff), quite oversized by quirky in equal messures.
Take a look at these pics. This is only some of the collection. I'm such a fan of individual pieces and this is exactly what you get with Kedem Sasson. The fisherman pants below were genius, and the new spring summer collection was all so versatile, featuring light fabrics and simple yet uber-relaxed inovative pieces. And that was just for the men!
The handsome shop assistant, head to toe in Sasson. Vest is a unique just for him from the designer.
