Meet the 19-Year-Old Israeli Designer Making Gorgeously Grown–Up Clothes

Maya Reik Designer
Photo: Merav Ben Loulou / Courtesy of Marei 1998

Glancing at Maya Reik’s Instagram feed—with its elegant black-and-white portraits, Art Deco influences, and close-ups of intricately embroidered silk kimonos—you’d never guess that the sophisticated, well-traveled woman behind the page is a 19-year-old high school dropout. The self-taught Israeli designer, born and raised in the coastal village of Beit Yanai, founded her Tel Aviv-based line, Marei 1998, less than two years ago, and since then has designed two collections; assembled a bicontinental team; set up production at the same Italian factories that work with The Row, Gucci, and Stella McCartney; and presented during Milan fashion week—accomplishments that would be impressive even for someone twice her age.

Reik remembers her first trip to Rome, at age six, as the moment she knew she wanted to be a fashion designer. “I have this image of myself standing in front of the mirror wearing a huge fur coat that was much too big for me,” she recalls, noting that the memory later inspired the oversized cream-colored fur coat from her latest collection. So devoted was she to her dream, in fact, that she dropped out of high school at 14. “I was just not a school girl,” she says. “I couldn’t sit or listen; I was always in my own mind.” While most of her classmates finished school and prepared for the army (a two or three year military service is mandatory for all Israelis), Reik opted to enroll in drawing and fashion history courses at Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art, which counts fellow Israeli designers Alber Elbaz and Inbal Dror as graduates, and took sewing classes in Tel Aviv’s famous textile market. “All of the team that works with me are twice my age and more, so I learn a lot from them in everyday work,” says Reik, who does all of her own sketches. “I think I’m very independent.”

That contrarian approach extends to her classic-modernist design sensibility—an unusually subdued approach for a media-savvy Gen Z-er. A love of European cities and 1920s icons like Louise Brooks and Tamara de Lempicka translates into cashmere and velvet dusters in shades of gray and cream, silk wrap dresses that transition from day to night, and elegant robes trimmed with fur. “Not everyone gets it. A lot of people give me weird looks,” Reik says of wearing her clothes. “It’s not so typical to Israel, the furs or the big kimonos. You don’t really see it here.” Because of the country’s intense heat and casual social environment, style in Israel today, Reik explains, tends to be very informal. And while many contemporary Tel Aviv designers favor skin-revealing cut-outs and sheer panels, Reik draws a subconscious influence, she explains, from more traditional Israeli dress: modesty.

After presenting her line at the Grand Hotel et de Milan in February, Marei is launching her second collection for Fall 2017—and opening up to a global audience—with a Moda Operandi trunk show, running from April 6 through April 18. Standout pieces from the assortment, which reflects influences from Reik’s travels to Japan, Paris, and Milan, include a patterned suit inspired by the light-and-shadow effects of classic French molding, effortlessly luxurious black velvet separates, and robes fashioned from Japanese silk.

Reik’s dream for Marei, she says, is “to grow slowly and carefully,” expanding sales to the U.S., Europe, and Asia, and to open a store in New York within the next year. At the rate she’s going, anything seems possible.

Marei 1998’s Fall 2017 trunk show runs from April 6–18 at modaoperandi.com.