As she explains it: People need time for themselves. Time to develop. In the 1980s, the Italians invented the
slow food movement to combat fast food. The idea was to say, 'Excuse me, I am eating now,'
but it went beyond food. It became a way of life, which I find very congenial,
because if you don't notice the way
and just keep running and running, the road will end before you feel it."
'Where Am I in This Story?'
Haaretz,
By Aviva Lori
Thu., December 25, 2008 Kislev 28, 5769
lana Efrati's
clothing store, on the northern section of Dizengoff Street
in Tel Aviv always looks closed. That, at least, is the impression one gets.
But if you are persistent, and make an appointment, you should be able to meet
with the fashion designer within a month or two for a preliminary talk, which
might end with a purchase. When her longtime clients want a new item of her
design they call her in Italy,
and Efrati flies to Israel to meet with them, one at a
time, in the depths of the boutique. It's
local haute couture, very discreet, very European.
...Five years ago, at the height of her career and of the
economic boom, she abruptly dropped everything and went off to realize another
fantasy. She and her partner, Shlomi Rosenboim, bought a ruined estate in the central Italian
region of Umbria, south of Tuscany, and together with their daughter, Or,
settled at the farthest point on the road that leads to Petroro,
a village with three streets, one small square and two grocery stores - the end
of the world even by Israeli standards. Since the move, she has lived her life
in two realms: Italy and Israel.
Soft dream and hard reality. Designing fashions in Tel
Aviv and growing vegetables, olives and grapes in Umbria....
Not writing a book
Efrati is not
yet writing a book. She is too busy discovering new types of tomatoes and other
delights. "Self-withdrawal" is the word she uses for the long road
she took from the heart of urbanity to a remote rural existence. "In 2001
I asked myself what I want to do now," she relates. "The ability to
ask questions is a privilege, and both of us [she and her partner] were engaged
in some sort of search. We travel a great deal, both because of my work and
because we like to travel. What was most fascinating for us was to become acquainted
with new worlds. I had a dream like that from childhood - to live in many
places. And then it started to knock on my door."
Many people have a dream like that, but few are able to make it
come true.
"Almost everyone can do it. It's
a personal thing. I am ready to make an effort for it. I agree that it is
definitely not simple. You have a career, succeed, you are known, you have
customers, and then you get up and go. But I told myself that I have to free
myself and not become a slave to myself. The path I was following had a certain
rhythm to it, and from that rhythm I started to ask myself: 'Where am I in this story?'
"When it started to jab, it was like a wire that gets into
your head and spins and sometimes grabs you and sometimes disappears. I asked
myself how long I had to go on doing what I was doing. Some people never ask, they keep at it until they are 80. Not me. I find the
dynamics of thinking like this fascinating and stimulating. True, it's not easy to go to a new place, learn a language and
customs, but that is exactly what does it for me. For me, having new and
unexpected experiences is like parachuting into an unknown place."
Efrati and Rosenboim landed in Umbria..in Italy
because we were there at least five times a year - that's
where I buy my textiles.... I personally am more enthusiastic about Umbria than about Tuscany,
because I prefer places or things that are less in vogue."
After contacting local real-estate agents, the couple searched
intensively in the area of the medieval city of Todi. "It was
a process that took a few years," Efrati says.
"Getting there is also interesting. You meet people, see places. We looked
at dozens of homes, most of which we disqualified for all kinds of
reasons." They combed the area hill by hill, looking
at a long series of crumbling ruins, until one day they stopped and said: This
is it. "We were on top of a hill and we saw something, a place of light
and nature and air to breathe, and it happened to be available."
The 20-dunam (5-acre) estate was formerly a farm, and it
possesses a central stone house and another structure that was a sty. After
World War II, many Italian farmers left the rural regions to look for work in
the cities. Their homes and fields were forsaken. Efrati's villa, too, was abandoned and in ruins.
"We renovated from the foundation," she says. "We had more or
less only the stone walls. We restored everything as it had been, according to
the lines of the building. It took a few years, all done by local workers."
What do you actually do there?
"It's hard to
explain. Sometimes I am just idle. People need time for themselves. Time to develop. In the 1980s, the Italians invented the
slow food movement to combat fast food. The idea was to say, 'Excuse me, I am eating now,'
but it went beyond food. It became a way of life, which I find very congenial,
because if you don't notice the way
and just keep running and running, the road will end before you feel it."
Making olive oil for the first time
"For most people," she continues, "their
identity is work, and it was for me, too. But today I feel that it's fine to do other things. It's
enriching. I now read a great deal. In Tel Aviv I never had time to finish a
book. I walk in the forest to look at flowers; every month there are new flowers.
Afterward the forest fills up with animals. To live in nature is an experience
that is still thrilling for me. I work in the garden. We planted olive trees
and took care of them from the start, and this year we made olive oil for the
first time. We went to an olive press and placed the oil in a container so it
could rest a little. Later we will bottle it.
"It's a
powerful experience to move from the city to nature. When I worked, I created
clothes that were suitable for a steady climate, where there is always air
conditioning and people have no idea what is really happening outside. Here I
rediscovered what I knew as a girl. The seasons of the year.
My vegetable patch is a philosophy of life, a biological organic method. It is
a whole doctrine. What to plant, when, what goes with what, because I do not
want to spray. This is clean farming. We eat only what we grow in season. In
the summer we eat tomatoes, afterward cucumbers and zucchini. Now there is
lettuce and cabbage and broccoli, and soon I will plant garlic and onion. It is
a riveting experience. Like stitching clothes."
And if at the end of the day you feel like having an espresso
at the corner cafe, what do you do?
"I have a machine in the house."
A villa in Tuscany or Umbria is not only for
the very rich, Efrati says. "Every apartment in
Tel Aviv is more expensive than what I paid." However, she is not willing
to disclose the cost of the estate (estimates are between $150,000 and
$200,000).
"Renovations are also within reach. It depends on you. I
did something very authentic, attentive to the sources, based on the way of
life of poor Italians."
The villa has guest rooms, which in the meantime are only for
friends. In the future this might become a source of income. Next year they will
start to harvest grapes and make wine, initially for their own consumption. Efrati's
daughter is studying modern history at the University of Bologna.
Shlomi, a marketing man by profession, continues to
do consulting, sometimes via telecommuting and sometimes flying to Israel
to meet clients face to face. "The idea was to lower the gear. He also
likes doing things around the house. We do many things together."
At first Efrati was going to
liquidate the business. "People, clients for years, heard about it and
told me that I must on no account shut down. I don't
work in Italy.
I only buy raw materials, attend exhibitions and prepare knit clothes patterns,
but I make the clothes in my workshop in Israel. I give the seamstresses
instructions, communicate with my clients by e-mail and come to meetings that I
have set up." ...
Craft roots
Ilana Efrati, 51, was born in the Dan neighborhood of Tel Aviv to
parents who were both artisans. Her father was an iron craftsman who worked for
Israeli military industries; her mother was involved with textiles for the Kitan company. "Things were
always being made at home," she says. "I thank them both for that;
these are roots that are drawn from them....
She studied art and painting at a branch of the WIZO schools
network, and intended to become a graphic designer.... "I am an
autodidact. I don't like being
taught. It was the same in high school - I studied only what I liked. Nothing else. Instead, I read books. Between us, not
everything that was taught in high school was important to know."
She left her work in graphics and started to look around. That
brought her to the world of textiles. Twenty-five years ago, Efrati opened an atelier on Tel Aviv's
Ruppin
Street, and decided to move into the big time
straight off....Two years later, Efrati opened the
shop on fashionable Dizengoff Street. She was the
first in the area, but was followed by Tovale, Comme il
Faut, Gershon Bram, Raziela, Yaron Minkovsky, Hagara and others. The
area had the magical atmosphere of an elite army unit and a flavor of overseas,
which was also felt in the prices. .....
Why are your colors so gloomy? "I set myself
limits and that means that I have to try harder to find solutions within the
boundaries I set. I am interested in nuances and see no reason to go wild in
order to achieve something. As a matter of fact, in the summer I use blue and
white, but not garish colors. I do not want my garment to dominate you so that
you disappear within it, because afterward people remember the woman who wore
the floral dress and not the person. That is Italian chic. It deals with the
details and the nuances but using quieter colors. Gray, for example, is a color
with many interesting hues. I would never work with red, yellow or green. The
shades on the margins interest me far more. There is a great deal of room in
the margins and I feel fine there, so why should I move to the middle?"
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