Informed Speculations on Non-Male Political Dress

With Ophir el-Boher

About Ophir:

Ophir El-Boher is a designer, artist, scholar, and educator focused on the environmental-social impacts of fashion. She creates innovative models for sustainable studio practice, extending the concept of upcycling. Inspired by natural and cultural systems, Ophir uses clothing as her medium to address contemporary issues. Fashion history informs her design, which relies on deconstruction. Her style questions ideas of beauty, through a humoristic use of color, pattern, and detail. Diverse cultural experiences and disciplines inform her questioning and retelling of cultural narratives. Her research investigates wearable objects' values and ethics. Applying systems-thinking and participatory-design, her work critiques and responds to fashion’s costs on humans and landscapes. Through writing, public speaking, and teaching, Ophir promotes paradigm shifts for fashion's role by providing creative alternatives to satisfy materialistic needs and desires; skill-learning, fashion-hacking, and DIY as active resistance to consumerism. Implementing collaboration and communication, Ophir aims to lead a sea change — she believes that, if done correctly, fashion can excite positive change. Ophir holds a B.Ed in Interdisciplinary-Design and Secondary-Education from Kibbutzim College and an MFA in Collaborative Design from PNCA. Her lectures have won several contests and her work has been showcased in fashion shows, art galleries, and publications worldwide.