When Greg Azorsky and his family took a trip to Israel nearly five years ago, it led to serendipity early this year that resulted in a collaboration between him and Israeli fashion designer Elisha Abargel.
Azorsky is a graphic designer and owns Recognition Plus, an awards, promotional products and custom apparel company in Independence. He lives in Leawood and is a member of Congregation Beth Shalom.
During their trip to Israel nearly five years ago, the Azorskys took a tour of Bauhaus architecture in Tel Aviv, he said. The city has more than 4,000 Bauhaus-style buildings in an area called the White City, primarily built in the 1930s. UNESCO designated the area as a world heritage site, according to Bauhaus Center Tel Aviv (bauhaus-center.com).
Azorsky took a lot of photos on the tour. Later, as part of a class he took at the Kansas City Art Institute, he created a poster from one of his photos.
“On a whim, I emailed (the center) with the image,” Azorsky said, and he had the poster printed and sent one to the center.
A few weeks later, in the fall of 2015, the center sold one of the posters. It has since sold more than 350 copies of that poster and another created by Azorsky.
He and his wife went to Israel again, in March of this year. He went to a silkscreen printer in Tel Aviv and had 100 copies of each poster printed, signed them and embossed them with his artist’s mark and then sold them to the center. He has more copies for sale through his website.
During this year’s trip to Israel, they went to a museum that had a special exhibit about the Israeli fashion industry from the 1930s to the present. Abargel’s work was in the exhibit, and Azorsky learned about him through it.
Then came the serendipity.
“We were walking down our hotel’s street and passed boutiques of women’s clothing,” he said. “They caught my eye because of colors and designs.”
Azorsky knocked on the door of one of the boutiques. It was Abargel’s shop, and he answered the door.
“My wife tried on clothes and he and I talked about why we were there,” Azorsky said. “I showed him some pictures of my artwork. He says, ‘I think maybe we should collaborate.’ I said ‘Yeah, that’d be great.’ Since that point, we have been communicating.”
That communication led to a plan that Abargel would come to the United States in early August and make his first visit to the Kansas City area. He and Azorsky will have a fashion show Aug. 5 and Aug. 6 at Azorsky’s house. Abargel will design women’s scarves, tops and skirts with Azorsky’s designs, which will be available for people to try on and buy, along with dresses designed solely by Abargel. The show will be free to attend and open to the public. Azorsky also will send invitations and probably promote the show on social media.
If the show is successful, the two will consider holding a bigger event sometime this fall or next spring.
According to his website, Abargel “is inspired by the energy of Tel Aviv, its colors, the sun and the blue skies and sea of the Mediterranean.” His designs “are a mix between tailored fashion and sportswear made for the dynamic, vibrant and creative woman.”
In an interview with The Chronicle, Abargel said his design process involved creating his own prints by first drawing them by hand on paper and then placing them on the garments, what he called an “engineered print” that created “a seamless look using the digital print technique.”
Abargel is 34. He has done other collaborations in his work, most recently with the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and The German Friends of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (TAMAD).
“The project began from a drawing created by an Arab child and Jewish child who participated in the Art Road to Peace project at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, funded by TAMAD,” he said. “This initiative highlights how one meeting between two children can grow into something larger which has a significant impact on the children who will attend the Art Road to Peace projects in the future and underline the importance of friendship and collaboration.
“I’m showing my work in New York City and Miami very often,” he said. “I never thought I will go Kansas, so I’m really looking forward to meeting the women in Kansas and showing them my work.”
Abargel said that since childhood, he “loved fashion and I knew that this is what I need to do.” Fashion designing presents many challenges, but the positive nature of it keeps his interest in it alive.
“Making clothes that women love and find interesting and fresh with a lot of joy — this is one of my favorites, using colors, creating the prints, making the cuts, putting all that together and making it work — it’s a really great feeling. And above all, dressing women with my clothes and seeing it on an actual person is an amazing feeling.”
Azorsky is 56. He received a degree in accounting from the University of Texas in Austin, a law degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas and a certificate in graphic design from the Kansas City Art Institute.
He started Recognition Plus in 2004. From 1994 until the present, he has also owned Audio-Videographics Inc. in the same building. He had a show of his artwork in March and April this year at the Epsten Gallery.
Azorsky hopes the show with Abargel will give Kansas City’s Jewish community, and the community generally, a good introduction to Tel Aviv’s fashion industry. The collaboration with Abargel is important to him because “it gives me an opportunity to take my designs and put them into another medium that I had never contemplated.”
“This is like a whole other level, based on who he is and what he does.”
Leawood fashion show
What: A show featuring women’s scarves, tops and skirts by Israeli fashion designer Elisha Abargel in collaboration with Kansas City-area graphic designer Greg Azorsky, and dresses designed solely by Abargel; free and open to the public; clothing can be tried on and purchased
When: Aug. 5 and Aug. 6, 2019
Where: Azorsky’s home, 4401 W. 126th Terrace, Leawood, Kansas, 66209
More information: 913-269-8237 or
Visit kc-cool.com and elisha-abargel.com/elisha to see examples of Azorsky’s and Abargel’s work.