Israel’s most daring designer makes a dramatic entrance

THE BRIDE who wears Zahavit Tshuba i s no o r di nary g i r l sashaying down t he a i s l e . F or one thing, this bride is wearing separates, though they are as removed from a jumper and skirt as finest smoked salmon from fish fingers. For another, she may well be sporting bare shoulders topped with floating lace epaulettes, jewelled elbow pads or huge pearls in place of shoulder straps. Whatever the ensemble, it will be extraordinary.

Tshuba is a sensation, from Manhattan to Moscow and Melbourne, as well as at home in Tel Aviv, but only this year will Brits be able to buy her designs at home (many have previously flown out to Israel to be fitted for one of her dresses). The designer is the star turn at Les Trois Soeurs, the Canary Wharf bridal boutique so exclusive and private that, when you have an appointment there, the boutique will be closed to all other clients for the duration of your visit.

“We saw Zahavit’s collection in New York and completely fell in love with it,” says Sophie Muskett of Les Trois Soeurs, which specialises in exclusive four-figure creations you’re guaranteed to see nowhere else. The gowns, which come in near the top of the range at £5,000 on average are “demi-couture” says Sophie — “they’re made to measure and can be customised to suit the bride”.

That is where the separates come in — Tshuba, who learned her technical skills from her parents, makes bodices and skirts that can be mixed and matched, putting them together as she sees fit for the catwalk but leaving the bride to choose her own pairing.

The final outfit might also include a hand-made cape and veil secured with a jewelled headband, although the dress — which might well incorporate epaulettes or elbow pads mounted on invisible mesh so they appear to float on bare arms — is always the dramatic focus.

Israel, where Tshuba worked with her parents in a textile factory, was only the starting point for her extraordinary design journey, which continued in the markets of eastern Europe and India (where she started collecting fabrics) and came to its apotheosis in New York. “My mother moved there and became a bridal designer and, as I by then had a job as a flight attendant, I’d fly there to help her,” she explains.

This roaming remit was the start of another passion — buying pieces of vintage lace and other fabrics, inspiring a desire to pair the old with the new in her designs. She also worked for Tel Aviv’s diamond exchange — yet all this varied work experience was leading her in one direction only.

“I knew for sure that I wanted to make my living in fashion but then I got married and had two sons, so it was only six years ago I opened my business,” she says.

Originally specialising in evening wear, because she so adored extravagant silk, lace and exquisite beadwork, Tshuba soon decided to restrict herself to bridal wear.

“It’s more challenging to design a superspecial dress just for one day,” she explains, remembering how difficult she f o u n d t h e search for her own outfit before she got into the bridal business.

He r o wn g o wn “didn’t start life as a wedding dress; it came from an eveningwear shop in Tel Aviv, because I was so frustrated with the bridal boutiques, where nothing seemed original or special enough. My designs, on the other hand, are strictly for the bride who dares to be different.”

Some of her fabrics are made for her in Russia — they love her in Moscow, where she puts on an annual trunk show which then continues to NiemanMarcus in Dallas, Los Angeles and Australia.

Lucky Londoners can expect to see their own trunk shows fromnowon,butin the meantime it’s worth the Tube ride to Canary Wharf just to sigh over the Ts hubas i n t h e s h o p window. The Zahavit Tshuba look