Tel Aviv Design Week – Dafna Bar-el

Today on Marry Me Ink, I get to introduce you to Tel Aviv based hair and make-up artist wonder Dafna Bar-el. As well as being a fab hair and make-up artist, she’s recently started to create her own line of wedding dresses. It all starting over the Tel Aviv fashion week a few months ago and I get to share her fab story with you!

I’m Dafna Bar-el and I’m a makeup and hair stylist from Tel Aviv in Israel, working mostly with brides. I specialise in vintage and alternative looks, and recently started designing bridal wear.

The room in the photos was actually designed as part of Tel Aviv’s design week. 12 interior designers were asked to design one bedroom inside an old train station compound in south Tel Aviv. This room was designed by Interior designer Gila Korach (which happens to be my boyfriend’s mom).

With gothic ambiance, a dark forest wallpaper, a broken mirrored wall, messy velvet bed covers and scattered bridal accessories, the room gave the viewers an intriguing and uneasy feeling of a wedding night gone wrong.

Immediately I knew I had to do a shoot there before it was taken apart a few days later. The styling was already figured out in my head since i previously fantasized about doing a bridal shoot with a Goth feel to it, with my newly designed dresses.

I also used accessories that completed the gleam look – A wild tulle petticoat, black Mary Jane heels, skull necklace and a head piece made of black roses. I chose to model for this shoot myself because I identify with these types of aesthetics and it was fun to portray those dark empty expressions. In collaboration with photographer Ofir Abe, we managed to have the photoshoot on time and capture the images before you.