and noted that folk dress should emerge gradually and naturally and
cannot be imposed artificially. One year later, a male member ofthe same
Kibbutz wrote that it was difficult to consolidate a uniform agricultural
national folk dress in Israel's dynamic immigrant society, but he hoped
that in time "our stability and rootedness would be reflected in our
dress." However, since the foundation of tbe state, "Americanism and
snobbery" and contagious evil petit-bourgeois attitudes have spread
even into Kibbutzim. Therefore, in order to keep the pioneering spirit
and the unique Kibbutz lifestyle, "our dress should be simple, modest
and comfortable (less eager to follow journal-dictated fashion).""
Indeed, the basic guidelines of Kibbutz anti-fashion and its antibourgeois
tones were maintained to a certain degree even among the
highest ranks. Unlike some Israeli delegates, who openly flaunted
expensive clothes which they bought when abroad (Rozin 2002: 101),
Kibbutz members who served as Israeli emissaries, parliament members,
and cabinet ministers "dressed down" even in formal events. They
reluctantly consented to wear black suits and starched white shirts
332 Ana? Helman
(maintaining the typical colors of Kibbutz Sabbath clothes), but flatly
refused to wear ties, which they regarded as the ultimate trademark of
bourgeois culture. They had to explain to their foreign hosts and guests
that this informality was a long-time custom of theirs and in no way a
sign of disrespect: even in the opening ceremony of the newly founded
Israeli parliament they wore no ties (Bankover 1975: 133).'*'
Kibbutz sartorial culture was going through some changes in the
1950s and fashion was apparent alongside growing material comfort,
increasing heterogeneity, and gradual modifications in the collectivistic
framework. Those Israelis who wanted to manifest pioneering national
ideals, especially members of youth movements, wore apparels that
somewhat resembled Kibbutz Sabbath clothes (Almog 1997: 317,
324-8; Raz 1996: 160-1), thus making Kibbutz style less exclusive. Yet
Kibbutz anti-fashion still managed to serve both its external purpose of
setting the group apart by a distinctive took, and its internal purposes
of accommodating the Kibbutz work-orientated lifestyle, expressing
and confirming its basic ideals, and maintaining a certain amount of
equality and uniformity among its members.
Whereas Kibbutz members were internally arguing whether change
was desirable or not and to what degree, it seems as if non-Kibbutz
Israelis hoped and expected Kibbutz members to retain their unique
dressing style. The Kibbutz male native was strongly and favorably
associated with modest clothes and resistance to pretentious elegance
{Tafrit 1949). In the early 1950s, when clothes were rationed as part
of Israel's postwar austerity policy, the editor of a women's periodical
demanded that more clothing coupons be distributed to urban women
and workers, who supposedly "needed" more clothes than agricultural
laborers and female Kibbutz members {Ha-ishah bamedinah 1950).
Glamorous dress was explicitly and exclusively associated with "the
urban girl" {Ha'olam hazeh 1955). The beauty advisor of a women's
magazine was addressed in 1950 by a young Kibbutz female member,
who announced that she does not regret leaving the easy life of the
city for the life of hard work in the Kibbutz, but asked what to do
about her skin, which was seriously damaged by the sun. The advisor
replied that since makeup was "unsuitable for your surroundings," only
facial cream and massaging the face with her hands should be applied
(L?-ishah 1950a). The modesty and simplicity of Kibbutz dress was
approved of, and supported by, Israeli society at large.
Even the right-wing revisionists, who objected to the Kibbutzim on
ideological and political grounds, criticized the moral and material
transformation from Kibbutz modesty to urban luxury.
