The inspiration for Fancy Hand Fans revealed itself one hot summer’s day by Sharon Jerusalmy and her daughter Rachel. “We were sitting in a coffee shop in Tel Aviv, fanning ourselves with the menu… not a very elegant way to cool off we thought” say Sharon, “and then we decided to do something about it. We’ve always loved the hand fan and could never understand why, in a country with our hot climate, the fan isn’t a normal part of our daily lives. In fact good quality, fashionable fans just don’t exist in Israel or even in many other countries.”
The basic idea was to revive the hand fan as a “cool” accessory for the people of the city. Sharon and Rachel that didn’t have fashion design background, researched the fan itself, it’s history, the culture, the different designs and materials used. Then they checked out the fashion trends for Summer 2010 and sat down to create designs reflecting the urban chic of today’s street fashion. “We named the collection Urban Romance and gave an exotic name to each of the designs. (Gothic Rose, Pink Peace, Zip it, Jungle Fever…).”
During our design process they came across the language of the fan, which was used in early 19th century in Europe as a form of silent communication. This was too cool to be ignored, so they adapted the traditional fan language to suit today’s modern lifestyle (I’m single, kiss me, buy me a drink, I’m shy but willing, etc). That’s basically how Fancy Hand Fans was created – from a cup of coffee in a hot summer day to a trendy fashion accessory.
Each fan, made of cherry wood and cotton, is sold in an organza pouch together with a brochure illustrating Fancy’s unique urban edition of the language of the fan. The line of designer hand fans received a huge buzz, the fans are sold in more than 30 fashion boutiques and gift shops throughout Israel, and if you don’t live in Israel, you can get the fans on their Facebook shop.
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