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On the Fashion Frontier: A Lady, a Label, a Land
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10876 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
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7 / 1986 |
1,159 Words |
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Rachel Sheli
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The beaches of the world are witnessing a renaissance. The sleek, covered look is replacing the bare bikini as women define themselves in a more feminine yet sophisticated mode. This new approach is exemplified by the house of Gottex, an internationally known swimwear innovator, whose theme this year is the return to romance, evidenced in floral prints, the lavish use of gold, and a color palette of vibrant pastels. Traditional English country patterns and painterly geometrics are some of the inspirations at work here.
Winter 1956 in Israel was a time of drought. It was an economically difficult time for the small nation still in the first decade of its independence, and disastrous for a couple who had emigrated from Eastern Europe in 1949, having survived the Holocaust. With two young daughters and very little cash, they settled in the Promised Land and began as best they could in the only busiess they knew-manufacturing raincoats.
But even in a normal year, the Mideast climate is predominantly arid, and for Armin Gottlieb and his wife Leah, it was a constant struggle. Leah Gottlieb, now sixty-eight, remembers those days only too well.
"Our lives in Hungary had been completely destroyed," she says, "and in Israel, even without the drought, there is constant turmoil. I looked around me one day to see what is real, what is always there. In Tel Aviv, the answer is obvious. Sea and sky, and sunshine."
Even if one is not familiar with the name Gottex (an abbreviation of Gottlieb Textiles, which now circles the globe), a quick glance at these pages will tell even the most land locked and fashion-oblivious reader how Leah Gottlieb translated the answers to her questions into concrete expression. In so doing, she transformed an industry, enriched a nation's economy, and became the head of a thriving enterprise, which does $40 million a year business. Her label is the undisputed, innovative leader in fashion swimwear worldwide, and her creations cover some of the planet's most celebrated figures.
The queens of England and Spain, Elizabeth and Sophia, and the queens of Hollywood, another Elizabeth (Taylor) and another Sophia (Loren), are all Gottex devotees. So are Brooke Shields, who appears in many of the company's ads, the Princess of Wales, and Nancy Kissinger. An Israeli woman, shopping in Switzerland years ago, asked in an exclusive shop for the best swimsuits in stock, and was amazed to be told that what she had thought was a homegrown product for local consumption was considered by Europeans to be the best, not only in the shop but also in the entire world.
I was told this story in Santo Domingo, when the Israeli spotted one of the four Gottex suits that made up the major part of my Carribbean weeks wardrobe.
Gottex sends approximately a million pieces of swimwear and related fasions out of Israel every year, making it one of the biggest exporters in a country whose trade consists mainly of importing. In addition to bringing in U.S. and other welcome foreign currency, the company employs about 700 people in its three factories. In the face of shrinking markets and increased competition in many industries worldwide, Gottex has shown a consistent 20 percent increase in growth every year for the past
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