Aug
16
Deborah Feldman: Fashion, the Old-Fashioned way: A rambling reflection on the trends of Hasidism
When I got married at the age of seventeen I knew very little about my prospective husband, but if there was anything I could be sure of, it was that he knew how to dress. At the wedding he wore a shtreimel as tall as two beer bottles stacked on top of each other. It was fashionable to wear a shtreimel that was high and made of very dark, stiff, and shiny fur. Also, I noticed that his satin coat had a minimalist design, much more current than the busy floral patterns that had been stylish a few years ago. Even his shiny leather dress shoes ended in a square toe, when the round one had only recently gone out of fashion. To an outsider, he would have looked just like any other Hasid. But in my world he was a “fein shmeker,” someone who liked the finer things in life…
i thought this was fascinating. you should go read the whole post right now, you’ll probably like it too
