Published: 29 November 2022
Last updated: 5 March 2024
Michael Dadon still regards himself as religious but his kippah and payot are now staple pieces in the vibrant outfits he flaunts on his TikTok.
The 18-year-old fashion influencer grew up in a Haredi home in Bnei Brak. No longer Haredi, he now has close to 10,000 followers on TikTok, where he creates colourful outfits that are a far cry from the black uniform which he grew up in.
When Dadon was growing up in a very religious environment, it was hard for him to express himself.
"There is a lot of judgment in the Haredi world towards what people wear. When we were allowed to dress how we wanted, I would really go all out, and I felt like I was expressing myself through clothes,” he says.
Clothes were a way he could break out of the strictures of his upbringing.
"They focus on such shallow things; it caused me not to want to be associated with the Haredi public. There was a teacher who would comment on my kipah not having a ribbon. It was a large black velvet kipah, just without a ribbon around it … They would comment on shoelaces that were white because everything was supposed to be black.”
Dadon is a centrepiece in the exhibition of photographer Tair Adato, titled The Rest Is Still Unwritten, which is part of the photography festival PHOTO IS:RAEL.
The Rest is Still Unwritten follows Dadon between his family life in Bnei Brak and among his friends and Tel Aviv nightlife as he tries to balance his traditional upbringing with his attraction to the modern world.
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Haredi-educated teen becomes TikTok fashion influencer (Ynet)
Photo: Michael Dadon (centre) on the beach (Tair Adato)
