Orthodox and elegant
Designer fills two niches - with headwear for bald women and observant, married Jews
ANNE RACKHAM
Associate Editor
For many Arizona women, hats are a fashion option worn occasionally to a formal function or to create a distinctive look, or with a casual outfit on a summerday to shade the eyes.
But for other women - Orthodox, observant Jews and women with hair loss (whether due to disease, cancer treatment or aging) - head gear is an absolute necessity.
Enter Isa Designs, a San Diego-based company that produces a wide variety of headwear for women who must cover their entire head and hair - from snoods, the traditional, snug-fitting head wraps and hair pouches worn by Orthodox women, to pony caps, sporty baseball-style caps with ponytails attached to the back.
The line was designed by Isa Lefkowitz, an Orthodox Jew who just got married herself about six months ago. Lefkowitz, 33, says that when she first became religious in 1989, she believed that if and when she married, she would have difficulty following the mitzvah, commandment, for married women to cover their entire head and hair when in the presence of any man other than their husband.
"I was learning the laws, and I thought, 'I'll do everything except this one mitzvah,' " she recalls. That was mainly because the snoods she saw Orthodox women wearing lacked style.
Years later, she borrowed a snood from her rabbi's wife and redesigned it, creating an elegant, appliqued snood. The rabbi's wife loved it, as did her friends.
"One snood led to another, and finally I had shows in San Diego, and I had shows in L.A.," she says.
She has gradually added to her line - creating hats and caps and even yarmulkes with hair extensions - for both the Orthodox and for people who are bald due to disease, aging or cancer treatment. Her line includes 40 styles of headwear and hair extensions in 21 shades. Prices range from $18 (for a "Color My World" snood) to $102 (for a suede "Cool Country" cap with human-hair ponytail).
"As long as you cover your own hair (according to the mitzvah), you can wear anything you want - wigs, hair extensions," she explains. "When I go home, and it's just me and my husband, I take it off. No other man (sees me) in my natural state. It really makes a difference in the marriage.
"I love this mitzvah. I don't have to do anything (to my hair). I used to use mousse and all that."
Meanwhile, Lefkowitz may be performing a good-deed mitzvah by making life a lot easier for bald women.
"For people who are sick, (often times) losing their hair is the worst part of the disease," she says. "They love having a ponytail."
Lefkowitz was already making snoods and other headwear for Orthodox women when she first got the idea to sell her goods to cancer patients. She was volunteering at a hospital and "noticed that women with hair loss have the same requirement as Orthodox women - to cover their whole head," she says.
After cancer patients "went wild" for her headwear, Lefkowitz was asked to set up a booth at a San Diego hotel during the Republican National Convention last year. That led to press attention, and business exploded.
"I want to go into Nordstrom's, Macy's. I want to sell in Israel," she says. "I already work with Canada, and I work with the American Cancer Society."
For a free catalog, call (800) 252-8991.
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