high-laced working shoes or rubber
boots in winter. Heads were covered with kaskets or the ""tember hat,
a floppy belKshaped head covering which in the 1950s became strongly
associated with the IsraeH born natives (Almog 1997: 433, n.HO; Kol
yisrael 1951; Raz 1996: 160)/ The typical female working clothes
included a straight lined, short-sleeved or sleeveless working dress, an
apron, and a head kerchief for mature women of the founding generation;
short trousers and a buttoned shirt for younger women. Hair was either
cut short or gathered or braided, not conspicuously groomed. Working
shoes and hoots were unisex {La-ishah 1950b; Figures 1 and 2}.''
Whereas the simplicity of working clothes could be attributed mainly
to their technical function, the aesthetic ideal of simplicity was also the
main feature of Kibbutz leisurewear, commonly known as the "Sahhath
clothes." These were usually newer and in better condition than the
working clothes hut maintained lines of austerity. The most prominent
feature in the Sabbath clothes among both male and female members
was the white shirt, sometimes embroidered but mostly unadorned.
Men wore it with dark trousers, adding a jacket or a cardigan in winter.
Elder women wore it with a dark skirt and younger women mostly with
dark trousers (Dvar hashavu'a 1951; Figures 3 and 5).^
Elder women often opted for a dress as their Sabbath attire. Sabbath
dresses were more tailored than working dresses, made of better
materials if possible; however, they were almost undecorated and their
simple cut resembled the 1940s style, though the hem was slightly
lower than the knee and the shoulders less boxy than in typical 1940s
patterns." It looks as if the female members of the Kibbutz founding
generation chose, perhaps unconsciously, to channel their anti fashion
into a stylistic "freeze" of the previous two decades. The 1930s and
1940s were the heyday of the Kibbutz, the days when the founders
were young, energetic, and hopeful. Yet apart from possible nostalgic
reasons, aesthetically the 1930s and 1940s styles were more suitable
for expressing ideals of modesty and simplicity than were the elegant,
feminine, and lavish styles of the 1950s. Thus, even the Sahhath dress
could maintain its role as anti-fashion, both by its anachronism and by
the particular choice of its inspirational period.
Writing about the "beautification" campaign in mid-1950s China,
Chen remarks that new fashions were suggested for the female
population as alternatives to be enjoyed during times of leisure, such as
the weekend, yet these fashions did not seek to replace or challenge the
utilitarian work outfit of trousers and blouse or the Mao jacket (Chen
2001: 153). Similarly, the Kibbutz Sahhath clothes neither replaced
nor challenged the centrality and symbolic importance of the working
clothes. Furthermore, working and Sabbath clothes were separated as
distinctly different categories: the former were given by the storehouse
whenever needed, while the latter were distributed according to a set
3 2 0 Anat Heiman
Laundry worker in Kibbutz
Kfar Giladi. June 1949. Israel!
Government Press Office,
Item no. 32856, picture code
D262-097.
"norm" or purchased by the members'' personal clothing allowance;
the former were unchanged and preserved uniformity and equality,
whereas the latter served a more aesthetic personal role. Shoes also
mirrored the strict division into work ing/Sabbath-wear that divided
clothes, with an additional third category: sandals, which remained the
common summer footwear' The preservation of working clothes as a
stable, egalitarian, and unique Kibbutz dress might have legitimized and
mitigated the "opening up" of the separated category of the Sabbath
clothes to further varieties and to some fashionable influences.
Kibbutz Dress in the 1950s: Utopian Equaiity, Anti Fashion, and Change 321.
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