There are words that probably come to every Brandeisian's mind when he or she thinks or hears about Jews. What common words do you think of? Torah? Talmud? Rabbi? Kosher? Fish? There are also several occupations or fields that popular opinion believes are dominated by Jews. The media. The banks. Hollywood. Fair enough. Whether or not these stereotypes are true is, although an important question, not the topic of this week's column. This week we are investigating the history of Jews in fashion.Some designers have ambiguously Jewish last names, like Calvin Klein or Marc Jacobs. Others have names that could have only come from French nobility (Ralph Lauren or Este Lauder) or German aristocracy (Diane von Furstenberg). Well, the explanation for this is simple; Ralph Lauren was Ralph Lifschitz; Estee Lauder, Esther Mentzer; and Diane von Furstenberg, Diane Halfin.

If I told you that Kenneth Cole and Marc Ecko and Donna Karan and Michael Kors were all Jewish, would you freak out? Possibly, but you shouldn't, because the Jewish tradition in fashion is nothing new. In fact, it started in the 19th century with a man by the name of Levi Strauss.

Strauss' story is one you might have heard before, because he's relatively famous. The father of blue jeans, he moved to California during the Gold Rush and set up shop with his brother-in-law. A century-and-a-half later, Levi's is a very widespread and popular brand of jeans, and will continue to be far into the future. They are also one of the most versatile brands, with price and quality ranging from the practical and everyday to the luxurious and ecologically friendly.

Today the fashion world is dominated by Jews, whose visions sometimes lead to somewhat non-Jewish creations. For example, Lauren, the pronunciation of whose last name is an ongoing debate, isn't from wealthy old-money family origins. But something deeply inspirational that he once said will probably stick with me forever: "People ask how can a Jewish kid from the Bronx do preppy clothes? Does it have to do with class and money? It has to do with dreams."

Some would argue that Lauren has "betrayed" his Jewish heritage by changing his last name and designing clothing that appears to cater to the needs of waspish yacht owners. My best bet is that people who believe this are jealous of Lauren's success and continued status as one of the most popular and influential designers of our time.

And just like him are so many different designers who have tried reaching different markets. Ecko and Karan have both used a sexy urban rawness to sell their products, Jacobs has used punk and sloppy snob appeal and Kors (especially with the introduction of his monogram collection) is always featuring beautiful jet-setters in his ads.

Once, someone asked Jonathan Safran Foer if he is a "Jewish writer." Admittedly, I think that's a really stupid question: He's Jewish and he's been published (twice), so I think that makes him a Jewish writer. But what this person was really asking was, "does he exude a certain pride about being Jewish or writing about Jewish issues?"

In a similar way, I think that every Jewish designer is a Jewish designer in both senses of the label: They are halachically Jewish and they are proud to be successful in an industry and a country that has afforded them the opportunity. Many of them are immigrants or children of immigrants, and they all got to their seats at the top of the fashion food chain through smarts and hard work. Naturally, I think that fashion designer should be added to the collectively unconscious list of professions mastered by the Jewry.