BIG JEWISH ENERGY

The single most confrontational garment walking the Leman Ballroom on September 10 is a tote bag. It is printed on both sides with the words From The River To The Sea. It costs twenty nine dollars and ninety nine cents, and it is sold by a Jewish woman named Anya Farber, on a store whose tagline is Proudly, Unapologetically Supporting Israel. This is what reclamation looks like when it is priced, stocked and shipped rather than argued about. Zionist AF is roughly a hundred and fifty products deep, and the range is deliberately, almost comically domestic. Women's, men's, youth, kids and infant apparel. Swimwear. Hoodies and college sweatshirts. Snapback hats. Tote bags, phone cases, shoes, home decor. There is a Big Jewish Energy tee from twenty four ninety nine. There is a Certified Kosher boxer brief. There is an infant bodysuit reading Safta and Sabba's Little Balagan, and another with the line It's in my DNA. There is a Queen Warrior tote and an Am Yisrael Chai snapback. The palette is the flag: blue and white, over and over. And there is the item that best captures the house voice, a pair of men's swim shorts and a matching tee bearing the word Bahatzlifuckingchah. It is b'hatzlacha, the ordinary Hebrew wish for good luck, with an English profanity inserted into the middle of it. That single coinage tells you the entire brand thesis. This is not devotional merchandise and it is not diaspora nostalgia. It is code switching as a fashion strategy, Hebrew and English collapsed into each other with the volume turned up, in exactly the register a twenty six year old actually speaks in. The commercial structure is print on demand rather than atelier, and it would be dishonest to describe it otherwise on a runway that also contains hand stitched python and Italian merino. That is precisely why it belongs. Nothing else on the bill is available in an infant size. Nothing else is designed to be worn to a barbecue by a family of five, on a Sunday, in a suburb, which is where the overwhelming majority of people actually perform their identity. The house maintains a nonprofit partners category, which includes Grilling for Israel, and the proceeds model is the stated reason the store exists. Farber herself keeps a low profile as a founder, running the brand from a personal account and a podcast rather than a press strategy, which is consistent with the aesthetic. The clothes are the argument, and the argument is not subtle. There is a version of this show that stayed safe: gowns, crystals, tasteful heritage, a respectful nod to a difficult two years. The presence of a store selling a reclaimed slogan on a tote bag, next to a baby onesie, next to a snapback, is what keeps the night from becoming that. It is the least precious thing in a room full of precious things, and on a runway premised on the freedom to remain visibly Jewish in public, it is arguably the most literal interpretation of the brief anyone brought. Twenty five dollars for a phone ca