The fashion designer Doreen Frankfurt is closing down the production plant she established in 1983

The fashion designer Doreen Frankfurt, one of the leading and veterans in Israel, owner of the chain of stores and the brand "Doreen Frankfurt", is closing down after 40 years of activity the production plant she established in 1983 on Shoken Street in Tel Aviv and produced the fashion items designed by her. It is also closing the chain of stores, with the exception of the flagship store on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv and the online website, which will continue to operate.
Frankfurt will open a studio in Florentine, where, with the help of a small team, she will design collections on a limited scale - compared to the wide variety she has produced so far. The production will be done by external parties under the "Dorin Frankfurt Studio" brand.
Frankfurt opened her first store in 1985 on Dizengoff Street, when she returned from fashion studies in Paris, and was a great success. She was later joined by partner Margit Segal. For all its years of operation, Frankfurt insisted on manufacturing in Israel despite the high costs, compared to importing fashion from China and the East.
In an interview a year ago, she said: "If I had thought financially, I might be in a different place today, but it was important to me to produce Blue and White and keep the production in Israel and provide a living, because that's how I was brought up."
She has previously designed clothes for the best Israeli artists, including Shalom Hanoch, Jordana Arzi, Ofra Haza, the Tislam band and also for movies.
During the corona virus, which severely affected sales, it had to close several stores and was left with seven branches, some of which were closed recently and the rest will be closed until this January, with the exception of the Dizengoff store and the website.
It should be noted that independent designers find it difficult to survive in Israel because their expenses are higher than the big fashion chains. For example, their rents in shopping malls are higher than the big fashion chains such as Fox or Zara which receive discounts from the shopping malls.
Also the competition with the international fashion chains that produce mass fashion at cheap prices and obtaining financing from the banks makes it difficult. The designer Sigal Dekal had to close her chain of stores and started designing for the Crazy Line company. lower costs.
Frankfurt told Ynet that "My partner Margit and I are 71 years old. Women my age stopped working altogether. We chose to turn to a new path adapted to the changes that have taken place in recent years and to our contemporary lifestyle. It's time for me to fulfill more dreams. I will teach and mentor fashion students at WICHO Haifa." In the coming months I will detail the new way of designing collections - building unique capsules and a small number of collaborations with Israeli brands. In order to fulfill the new dreams and focus on creation, we are moving from the production floor to the studio in Florentine."