L ifestyles /C ulture
Jews of Philly Fashion: Gabrielle Mandel
FASHION JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
It’s the newest edition of Jews
of Philly Fashion, introducing
you to the Chosen few who
dress our city. They might mix
wool and linen, but they’ve got
some strong opinions on mixing
stripes with florals. In this space,
we’ll talk to designers, sellers,
buyers, influencers, models and
more. This week, we spoke to
Gabrielle Mandel.

FASHION INDUSTRY success
stories don’t typically feature
the protagonist moving away
from New York, back home to
her parents, as an important step
forward. But Gabrielle Mandel
isn’t afraid to buck a trend, in her
career or in her designs.

“It’s really exciting to get to
create every day,” she said.

Mandel, 33, has worked
on and off for J. Crew, Sears
and Kmart, and now designs
fabrics for Anthropologie and
the Urban Outfitters brand. At
the same time, she designs art,
home goods and accessories for
her own brand, Supra Endura,
which also serves as a home for
her podcast, “Supra Endura:
Creative Conversations.”
Growing up in Elkins Park,
Mandel attended the now-de-
funct suburban campus of
Congregation Rodeph Shalom.

From a young age, clothing
design appealed to her, though
not as much as the idea of
My style is much more casual and laid-back
now.” GABRIELLE MANDEL
Gabrielle Mandel, a Philadelphia Fashion Incubator alum
Photo by Gabrielle Mandel
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becoming a movie director. It
was the influence of her grand-
mother Gilda — nicknamed
“The Logan Barbie” — that
helped steer her toward fashion
design, and Mandel graduated
from Syracuse University in
2009 ready to enter that world.

Off to New York City she went.

In the fashion capital of the
country, there was no shortage
of design work for Mandel. She
began thinking about what
starting her own brand would
look like and, in 2013, Supra
Endura was born, named for
a type of photographic paper
that Mandel had made frequent
use of in high school.

As Mandel became more
serious about expanding Supra
Endura, it became apparent
that doing so could be much
easier back in Philadelphia;
in 2014, with an acceptance
from the Philadelphia Fashion
Incubator in hand, Mandel
returned to her hometown.

While she learned more about
the business side of the industry
in that program, Mandel was
thinking about what she really
wanted Supra Endura to be. From
the beginning, she’d made her
designs with an eye toward social
consciousness; early products
sent a percentage of their profit
to Ocean Conservancy, and more
recent projects have raised money
for Philabundance and The Wistar
Institute. She’s designed original,
free-to-download posters in
support of Black Lives Matter and
get-out-the-vote efforts as well.

For Mandel, the overlap
between her life as a designer and
her life as a Jew is obvious. Giving
back through her work, she said,
is her connection to Jewish
values, but more than that, she
JEWISH EXPONENT
wants to be unabashedly Jewish
Probably “Love Is Blind.”
in her public-facing life.

Mandel spoke about “Love What item of clothing should
Is Blind,” the Delia’s catalog of more people be wearing?
the ’90s and more.

Whatever makes them feel
amazing. What’s the last book you read?
I am currently reading Jia What person’s style do you
Tolentino’s “Trick Mirror,” and admire?
love it.

My friend Pia Panaligan,
who is a stylist and creative
What clothing trend would
being at-large in Philadelphia.

you like to see make a
She has amazing style. She
comeback? mixes vintage and indepen-
Anything that the Delia’s dent brands and she always
catalog did in the ’90s.

puts together the best outfits.

What’s something you can’t
believe you used to wear?
“Going-out tops” that had
rhinestones on them. My
style is much more casual and
laid-back now.

B e s t ne i g hb orho o d i n
Philadelphia? I live in Southwest Philly
and I love it! I am a 15-minute
walk to Clark Park, and I love
the greenery and living in a
very diverse place.

What’s your go-to quarantine
meal? What talent would you most
I love making homemade like to have?
pizza. To be able to sing really well. l
What’s the worst thing you’ve jbernstein@jewishexponent.com;
watched in quarantine?
215-832-0740 JEWISHEXPONENT.COM