Meet the Artist, Hagar Alembik

Since completing her studies at the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design’s Fashion Department in the late 1980s, Alembik has been one of the most prominent fashion designers, defining local couture through her work: a combination of soft, flowing fabrics appropriate for the local climate with an eclectic color and texture scheme reminiscent of urban street style. In recent years she has marketed her work successfully around the world, enjoying good fortune after a difficult period that took place when she was pushed out by Hagara, the brand she’d previously founded.

Hagar raised her daughter as a single mother. Hagar started her fashion education at 30, raising her single daughter Lee while going to school. “I was the oldest student in class. Everyone was in their early 20s and I already had a 2nd grader at home, Lee would join me for a full school day in Shenkar right after she finished her school. It was quite an experience for both of us.“

Hagar’s father, Emanuel HaZofe, was a well known sculpture who took his daughter around the world to absorb and learn art. Today, Hagar’s designs sculpt onto the woman’s body, just as her father’s sculptures became an integral part of her local landscape. Her molding and workings of fabric are a reflection of sculpting as much as her father’s chiseled metal.

“I only realized I wanted to become a fashion designer at a relatively older age. I was already a mother by then. This was always clear to me and it was only during my studies in Shenkar that I realized just how much it truly meant to me” Says Hagar “Only after we were given fabrics to work with and asked to dream of how to shape it into some silhouette, into clothes, only then it started really burning in me.”

Q&A with Hagar and our Private Alembika FB Group

We asked our bustling Private Alembika Women Facebook Group for any burning questions they had for Hagar and Alembika’s new Fall 2025 launch. Here are Hagar’s answers

Gigi Mitrovic and Nancy Wheeler each wanted to know, what (or who) inspires you the most while designing your collection?

Hagar: Always the women in my life and my customers are my biggest inspiration.

Gigi (left) is a Punto Pants Princess. Nancy (right) is an Urban Collection Fan all the way.

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Carol Dietz: Do you sketch out your fabric patterns or do you see the fabric first and then design the outfit? 

Hagar: The fabric is where I start. It’s my first inspiration. They are my passion, from there I move into sketching. 

#alembikawoman Carol is seen here in styles from Alembika’s Essentials and Crinkle collections as well as creative, sustainably made jewelry from Jianhui London.

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Diane Baron: Your fabrics are incredible. Do you participate in the design and creation of them? If not, where do you find them?

Hagar: I source the fabrics in Italy, Turkey and Asia. I do not design the fabric but I create our own prints that the fabric suppliers make for us exclusively.

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Love to Hagar from a few more of her FB Group fans!

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