THE STORY BEHIND...

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Hey there,

My name is Shirin,
I live in Pardes Hannah with Shai and our two lovely children Noah and Nur-yam, a small town in Israel, where I was born and raised.
I'm a nostalgic person.
I remember myself drawing constantly when I was a child and creating from whatever came to hand.
My first encounter with a sewing machine was when I was six years old, with my grandmother, and ever since then, it has been a passion.
As a child, I would invent patterns, and make bags and dolls and clothes.
With time, I became an avid collector of all kinds of different tools and raw materials,
paper, wood, screws, thread, textures, patterns, colors…
My hands are my studio. I live for art. It's my oxygen.

When I create I feel the silence and connect to my true self.
I love being outdoors whenever possible.
As a child, I loved visiting my grandmother’s kibbutz by the sea, where I rode my bike wherever I wanted. That's where I first felt independence.

At the age of sixteen, I moved to Tel Aviv alone, where I was exposed to fashion. I sewed bags out of old jeans and distributed them in top designer shops. But I had little sense of business and soon set out on a long journey around the world, absorbing different cultures.

Besides my fashion and kids world “TATA”, I always continue to draw and paint and make prints. To date, I’ve had several solo exhibitions of my silkscreen prints and art. This creative vein will always continue for me and it nourishes the TATA side of my work.

The difference, the space between my work in fine art and creating fashion and toy design balances me. Just to explain this a little: when I am drawing I enter a dynamic yet quiet, breathing space. In Tata, there are moments like these as well, but it's mostly pre-planned – design; creating a pattern; selecting a fabric; matching color; planning a collection.

When my son Noah was born, I remembered how both my grandmothers used to give me handmade toys and clothes, and I found myself sewing his clothes and crafting his toys. I always felt that a handmade gift is the best.

Back to nostalgia…. when asked as a kid, "what would you like to do when you grow up"? I always answered: be a grandmother!! And so it happened, now that my first official business has opened, of course, its name had to be "Tata"! – my children’s nickname for their own grandmother.

And now I create clothes and gifts for the grandchildren of the world.

I try to stick to these principles:

• Be as ecological as I possibly can.
• Design and make quality products to last, quality control of fabric, and sewing.

• Use natural materials and minimize waste.
For example, I sew clothes, and the remnants from those clothes are used for dolls and stuffed toy animals, and the rest of the waste material is used for décor door-stoppers. Besides this, I collect quality remnants from top fashion and upholstery businesses whose leftovers would otherwise be wasted.

• work with local people. Some are grandmothers and others are special needs communities (this is a focus towards which I am working).

My hope is to create a sense of both nostalgia and simplicity, so the clothes will be as comfortable as I used to feel in the clothes that my mother used to get me. And I hope that these dolls and clothes will make you feel that you have bought a one-of-a-kind product for your child or your grandchild.

Thanks for your interest.
I’m here for you,

Shirin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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