Dressed for ‘aliyah’ success: How a Chicago woman became a self-made fashion designer in Israel

Farin was raised in a Modern Orthodox, Zionist home in Chicago. Nevertheless, her family visits to Israel at age three and again at age 13 barely made an impression.

Farin recalls being deeply affected by the kindness of Israeli girls her age who graciously gave up their bedrooms so the small group of Americans could settle in comfortably.

Moreover, she says that “My soul just knew I was at home. I noticed that teenagers my age were much more mature [than American teenagers]. It was 2005, and the [disengagement from] Gush Katif [was in the news]. They sat and taught me things from the newspaper.

“I felt like this is what I want. It’s very spiritual. It’s a connection to the land. I felt a lot of meaning in Israel. Your neshama [soul] just knows. You just feel it... or you don’t.”

Her older siblings were married, so while Farin was in Israel, her parents were empty nesters. And empty nesters they remained when 15-year-old Farin called her parents and announced that she wanted to stay in Israel.

Naturally, her parents protested. “When you turn 18, you can move to Israel,” they countered. Ironically, she said that if they had agreed to her plan at the outset, she might not have stayed. “Because they said no, I was fighting [to stay in Israel] every single day.”

Farin, who struggled with learning difficulties and admits she was “really traumatized by school my whole life,” won the battle for self-determination and remained. With almost no knowledge of Hebrew, she cobbled together a life, attending the Mach Hach Ba’Aretz summer teen tour with Bnei Akiva, then enrolling at Ulpanat Amana for the rest of high school.

With no religious family in Israel, Farin spent Shabbatot and holidays with school friends, and the summer between her junior and senior year back home in Chicago.

“I once wrote in a school journal that I want my kids to go to school here. Israel is for the Jews. Anytime I went back to America, [I had] a very empty feeling,” she acknowledges.

After high school, Farin did a year of seminary at Machon Ora, the sister school of Machon Meir Yeshiva, and then worked as a madricha youth leader for a number of programs, such as the Naale Elite Academy high school in Israel program, Tiferet in Ramat Beit Shemesh, and Rabbi David Aaron’s Isralight program. She also completed a government-sponsored course in silversmithing.

While working as a madricha, her husband, Dave, was a madrich for Ohr Somayach. They had met at an event for gap year students at the Gush Etzion Heritage Center. “He said ‘Hello,’ and then told his friends, ‘See that girl over there? I’m going to marry her,’” she recounts.

“[Our relationship got] pretty serious pretty fast. We dated in the Old City [in Jerusalem] for many hours at a time. Within two and a half months, we were engaged, and we got married two months after that,” she says.

IN THE early years of their marriage, the couple settled in Jerusalem. “I was doing silversmithing, I took glassblowing, ceramics, and sewing classes, trying to figure out what I wanted to do.”

At 15, she had been selling her jewelry and crocheted hats to retail stores. So it followed that when she married and started making head-coverings for married Jewish women, she sold them the same way. She also added pop-up stores to her business model.

“Since I was 11, I knew I would be a fashion designer. I named my business Daniella Faye. I always imagined that would be a designer name. Originally, we sold out of the house, but that was taking over the dining room,” she explains.

One day, while her husband was in Ukraine, Farin walked from her home on King George Avenue, looking for a storefront to rent.

“I said, ‘Hashem [God], the first place I see, let it be the perfect place and the perfect store.’” The first empty storefront had a sign that read “For Rent by Owner.” Farin says, “It was the perfect size and price, so we took it, and I opened [my first store] on Hillel and King George.”

The time had come to move from designing head-coverings to designing clothes. The only problem? She had no experience in the manufacturing and business end – and no mentor. She freely admits that eight years ago, she had no idea what she was doing.

She learned everything the hard way, from buying a batch of poor-quality zippers that had to be replaced, to making mistakes in fabric selection, to nightmares dealing with overseas factories. However, she persevered and now, eight years later, Daniella Faye is a recognized brand in the modest clothing industry; and as the face of the company, Farin is all over social media.

Her business philosophy matches her own wardrobe needs. “I like to make women feel comfortable in their bodies at any size. I need to have things that are really comfortable for me, and everyone benefits from that. I want to make women feel beautiful in modest, affordable fashion of good quality,” she says. Farin estimates that 80% of her wardrobe consists of Daniella Faye clothes.

“My husband has always supported me with everything I did. He took over the back end of the business. He always encourages me and lets me do whatever I think is best for the business,” she says.

The couple now live in Efrat with their five children.

REFLECTING ON what made her aliyah a success, she relates, “Whatever you say [to yourself repeatedly], you’re going to [come to] believe. I have a learning disability and was traumatized but determined. If you’re willing to sacrifice to make it work, it just works. It might not be comfortable. It might be hard.”

What advice does a woman who came to Israel at 15 and stayed to build both a family and a business have for those considering aliyah?

“You go into it knowing that you’re here for the holiness. Once you die, you don’t have the material things anymore.”

For Farin, access to spirituality and the unity of the Jewish people are major factors in favor of making aliyah.

“You come knowing it might be hard, that it’s not as comfortable. It’s a lot harder here. It’s possible, if you have the mindset, [you’re] going to make it work.... For families used to being in America, it’s complicated, but it’s worth the investment for yourself and your family.

“I definitely felt more connected to Hashem here,” she affirms. “When I was learning [Torah] here, it clicked. I felt more spiritual being here. I’m pretty sure that a lot of Jews feel the spirituality of Jerusalem when they come.”

Farin recently completed a course with Naama Neiman, the mother of a fallen IDF soldier. “The main thing she teaches is love and acceptance of yourself as you are. Say you’re upset about something that didn’t go your way. Accept it. How do you know Hashem wanted it to happen that way? Because it did.

“I really had a lot of struggles in my life and career. I was never good at the technical stuff. I had a really hard time. I would always daven [pray] to Hashem. I was in really dark places, and I would just thank Hashem.

“Never give up. Always thank Hashem for everything. And put one foot in front of the other,” she advises.■