Profile: Inbal Hefer – Only Natural Design Competitions

Inbal Hefer

Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art

I was born and raised in a small community in the Galilee, in northern Israel — a quiet, rural environment that sparked my imagination and fostered my passion for creativity from an early age. Surrounded by nature and a strong sense of community, I found joy in self-expression through art in all its forms. My love for drawing emerged at the age of three and grew over the years through continued exploration. I took part in a gifted art program, studied dance, and experimented with various artistic mediums. When I was ten, my grandmother introduced me to knitting and Burda magazines, opening a whole new world of creativity and igniting my passion for fashion. At seventeen, I received my first sewing machine — and from that moment on, I began creating garments and expressing my ideas through fabric and form. In 2021, I began studying Fashion Design at Shenkar College. I am currently in my fourth and final year, developing my graduation project . I am deeply passionate about exploring materials, textures, and colors as tools for storytelling. Fashion, for me, is a visual language — one that allows me to express complex ideas, emotions, and identities. Through design, I bring abstract concepts to life and connect with others in meaningful ways.

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Urban Fields

Category: Apparel

Competitions: Fashion Competition 2025

My starting point is the fable of the Town Mouse and the Country Mouse. Through this lens, I explore the story of my grandparents’ immigration from Morocco to Israel in the 1950s—a time of transition from the cosmopolitan urbanity of Casablanca to the rural landscape of the Galilee. This cultural, geographical, and rhythmic tension continues to shape my own journey, from the scenery of my childhood in the Galilee to my adult life in Jaffa. Through five looks for women and men, I draw a connection between 1950s tailoring and local workwear. The collection incorporates natural materials such as straw and leather, ornamental elements from Moroccan culture, patchwork techniques, and knitting techniques—a personal homage to my grandmother, who taught me to knit. This collection explores personal identity as an open space—one that allows multiple origins to coexist and interweave into a new, layered design language, both urban and rural, rooted in the identity of my family. This is one outfit out of five in the collection. This outfit includes a pair of trousers and a polo-style top made from patchworked leather, joined with zigzag stitching and raffia crochet, where the raffia is hand-crocheted directly into the leather after perforation. The patchwork design is inspired by the geometric floor tiles typical of Jaffa, the city where I currently live. Combined with the natural texture of raffia, evoking rural landscapes, this look reflects a personal dialogue between urban life and nature—a layered expression of my identity.