Minu vanaema vanad ja efektsed kapid, läbipääs vanasse keskaegsesse Tallinna linna - My grandmother's old and impressive closets, a passage to the old medieval city of Tallinn.

Artist statement

Jeshiva Mendel is a young and aspiring fashion designer and stylist based in The Netherlands. Through her experimental method, she brings opposites together in a surprising way. She combines the contemporary with mediëval elements (folklore) in her work. Through her intriguing design choices, she captures the beauty of valuable moments, happiness and sensible memories from her life. Jeshvia's premise always developed with her personal life cycle, which moves through time and evolves more and more with everything that inspires and happens to her.

“Daring to dig into my identity and my past. Going back in time to a special place in my heart, a strong sense of security in which I get to know fashion in a new way and give it a new meaning”.

Ambitions

In the upcoming years, I see myself exploring life in the fashion world. I really want to get to know people within the fashion profession and gain more learning experience. So I plan to do many internships with the ultimate goal of starting my own fashion (styling) label, making my own designs, and lending my work to other artists, curators, museums, and other stylists like me. In doing so, I plan to start a collaborative fashion brand together with my brother. In the future, I am also open to a master's degree abroad, possibly in Fashion Styling.

Learned during the studies

During my years at the academy, I mainly discovered my style. Both in terms of design and my personal style. In addition, I have also learned to dig deep into my own identity and in this way tried to find out what distinguishes me from others and which aspects I can use to convey this. I have learned to always look critically at my own work and at others to form a strong opinion.

In addition, in my third year of study, I went on an exchange to Tallinn, Estonia. Here I learned by far the most about the fashion field and everything around it. I learned a lot about living abroad on your own for a longer period of time, being vulnerable, and being very open about yourself and your work to others. Learning and adopting another culture and also incorporating this into the way of designing and your way of living, learning, and communicating. I met a lot of people there, made new friends, and made contacts from all over the world. I think this was a very good and important exercise for after graduating shortly. I also believe that this period has made me feel a lot stronger when it comes to presenting myself and my work (abroad, not in my mother tongue).
I am very grateful to the academy in the Netherlands and Estonia for giving me the opportunity.