Clothing, fashion and nation building in the Land of Israel

Project Information

IDCLOTHING

Grant agreement ID: 795309

DOI

10.3030/795309

Project closed

EC signature date 10 April 2018

Start date 14 January 2019

End date 13 January 2021

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 170 509,20

EU contribution

€ 170 509,20

Coordinated by

THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM
Israel

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - IDCLOTHING (Clothing, fashion and nation building in the Land of Israel)

Reporting period: 2019-01-14 to 2021-01-13

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Despite its rich scholarship, research on nation building has paid little attention to the role of cultural practices and aesthetic perceptions. Taking “Eretz Israel” (the “Land of Israel”) as a highly suitable case study, this project explores the history of migration through clothing, fashion and ideals of beauty, and contends that examining these cultural practices brings to the fore the agency of vastly different migrant groups, thus adding a personal dimension to the history of nation building. By looking at Eastern European and German Jewish immigrants as the two largest diaspora groups from the 1880s until the foundation of the Israeli state in 1948, the project investigates how clothing became fashion and to what extent and to what purpose a consensual mode of dress emerged within a heterogeneous migrant society that was influenced simultaneously by the local Arab population, the Ottoman and British occupying authorities, and the socio-cultural and political practices of the countries of origin. With an unprecedented focus on gender, visual materials and the development of a common mode of aesthetic perception and sense of fashion within a community, the project offers a highly original perspective on the emergence of a nation and national identities.

The project has a strong and timely social relevance. In times of mass immigration, economic exploitation and mobility in a global dimension, it contributes to an understanding of aesthetic perceptions, dress and beauty ideals as an expression of power relations, cultural hybridity, integration and exclusion. By underlining the historical role of Europeans as immigrants and the constructed character of national identities, it promotes a perception of migration and diversity as cultural enrichment. It aims at promoting tolerance and openness in times in which nationalist and right wing groups propagate an image of immigrants as a threat to ‘national identities’.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Using comparative case studies of Eastern European and German immigrants to Eretz Israel from the 1880s until 1948, the project has analysed the complex factors that led to the emergence and enforcement of specific clothing ideals in the course of the nation building process. The case studies, representing examples of different European migrant groups and individuals and primary sources, were presented in the form of research papers given at conferences, public talks and publications (published and forthcoming). For each of these case studies, I explored to what extent ‘mere’ clothing was defined as ‘fashion’ or ‘anti-fashion’ in the course of nation building and in how far a consensual mode of dress emerged in the pre-state Jewish community. In assessing how certain ways of dressing were communicated and enforced by groups and individuals, I examined changes in clothing habits and ideals in the context of the immigrants’ origin and motivations and transnational links and references, such as the emergence of transnational socialist aesthetics and capitalist mass culture.

The research has shown that a consensual mode of dress did not emerge, and that dress ideals, habits and related practices were highly heterogenous. They alternated between the habits of the countries and social backgrounds of origin and, to different extents, the Zionist aim to forge a new national Jewish culture that should also find its expression in a new way of dressing. For all groups and individuals considered clothing mattered. It mattered on the individual level as a way of expressing and experimenting with certain feeling of self-belonging and identification and at the collective level because it was always visible to others. The research has shown that dress - both expressed in ideals and practices - was a means of forging and experimenting with identities between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’, represented in the European diaspora and the new Jewish homeland.

To different extents, dress ideals and their purpose were made explicit and communicated. Depending on the time period, these took form different forms, from written forms to visual sources such as photographs and print. The extent to which the different migrant groups were able to enforce their ideals depended on several factors: the development of photographic practices and print media; the political power relations both in the pre-state Jewish community in Eretz Israel and at the transnational level; the means of communication and their transnational networks.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The project and related research activities have made an original contribution to a number of research fields:
• Nation building: The field has only paid marginal attention to aesthetic perceptions and cultural practices. This study adds a subtle but highly personal and crucial dimension to research into power struggles and processes of negotiation in nation building. Regarding Zionism in Eretz Israel, it adds a transnational dimension to investigations into the enforcement of clothing ideals as an expression of political aspirations.
• History of (Jewish) migration: By focusing on European immigrants and their transnational references to clothing habits and ideals, the project sheds new light on processes of integration and rejection as expressed in clothing. The study will offer an approach for comparative research on other regions with large-scale migration movements (Jewish and non-Jewish), e.g. to the United States or Latin America.
• Fashion history: While existing studies have focussed on national fashion industries, this project went further by looking at the processes of definition and the dynamics behind the emergence of a fashion sphere. It explored the question how ‘mere’ clothing becomes fashion and integrates private and political photo collections as primary sources into a field that has neglected these sources in favour of official fashion photography. The project furthermore highlights the role of men and women whose role in defining and influencing clothing ideals has previously been underestimated.
• Methodology: Through the training received during the secondments, the project developed a methodology to analyse private migrants’ family photo albums in the light of changing clothing ideals in an emerging nation. An approach that explores how different migrant groups dressed up photographs to express multiple identities, makes an important contribution to historical studies, where the integration and regular use of visual primary sources remains rare.
With this, the project also has a strong and timely social relevance. In times of mass immigration, economic exploitation and mobility in a global dimension, it contributes to an understanding of aesthetic perceptions, dress and beauty ideals as an expression of power relations, cultural hybridity, integration and exclusion. By underlining the historical role of Europeans as immigrants and the constructed character of national identities, it promoted a perception of migration and diversity as cultural enrichment. It aims at promoting tolerance and openness in times in which nationalist and right-wing groups propagate an image of immigrants as a threat to ‘national identities’. The results of the projects will therefore be made accessible to a broader public (see below).

HaShomer, around 1913. Pinchas Lavon Institute, Avraham Soskin Photo Collection. Sign. P -51055.