When fashion designer Nili Lotan traveled to her native Israel from New York for a 10-day visit last year, she was caught by surprise when war with Lebanon broke out. Upon her return, she struggled with finding a way to represent the conflict in her collection. “I was thinking about putting something in the line that would reflect it,” she said. “Every artist uses his own design sensibility.”

The result was a statement that became one of the season’s hottest prints: machine guns repeated in a pattern against a solid background. The stark black-and-white print — used for dresses, shorts, and scarves — combines rock ‘n’ roll cool with a political statement.

Her sales reps — accustomed to her usual fare of black, white, or muted pieces in flattering, designoriented cuts — were cautious at first. And to ease the minds of retailers, she sent out a letter of explanation to the boutique owners who sell her pieces. But the motif became such a hit that the designer has replicated it on colors, including red, light blue, and navy for spring. Another print features a repeated oil rig. “It’s a very personal thing. It’s my expression for peace,” Ms. Lotan, 49, who served in the Israeli Air Force, said.

Even post-Virginia Tech, the print is still going strong. “The gun motif and the oil rig motif were a way to express my awareness and concern to the political issues I grew up with and the political situation in the Middle East,” the designer said.

The pieces now adorn her TriBeCa retail shop, a cool, inviting space that clearly communicates her aesthetic. Open since September, the store is equal parts gallery space and fashion showroom. Garments are hung as individual works; one example each, with additional sizes tucked away. On the walls are paintings by Luca Lazar, a TriBeCa artist. A bookcase is filled with volumes on fashion, art, and design.

Ms. Lotan came to New York in the 1980s, after studying at the Shenkar School of Engineering and Design in Tel Aviv. Her career took off quickly, and along the way she learned what it would take to run her own business. At Adrienne Vittadini, she learned how to make it in Manhattan. “There I learned how to survive in the business — how to survive as a woman in a competitive environment with all the politics,” she said.

After that, it was on to Liz Claiborne, where she eventually headed up the design team at Liz & Co. “Liz Claiborne taught me how to treat people, how to create a workplace with respect,” she said.

Then she went on to Nautica and later Ralph Lauren, where the company’s emphasis on design encouraged her own sensibility. Today, she brings all the lessons learned from the mega-brands to her own label, which caters to sophisticated women with modern tastes. Her eponymous brand — now almost four years old — is distributed in New York at stores including Barneys and Scoop, as well as several stores in Los Angeles and 15 cities in Europe. Opening her own store was the next step. “It was a natural thing to do. I had never been in retail,” she said. “I always wanted to make it a space for the meeting of fashion and art.”

The retail space offers both fashion and art, and the space below combines them, too. Through a clear, plastic cutaway in the floor, shoppers can look down into Ms. Lotan’s studio where she sketches her designs and oversees employees as they produce samples.

Her collections are produced in Midtown’s garment district, which means her factories are only a few subway stops away. “I can react very fast, in two or three weeks,” she said. While that makes her business model run smoothly, what makes the clothing fly out of the store is the seriousness behind the design. Ms. Lotan puts much of herself into the clothes — and into the business: Stop by anytime and she’s likely to be present. She also puts her thinking on the line. On the walls of her shop is the text of her design philosophy:

“Fashion is about change and evolution that is based on one’s personal references and point of view. We express ourselves creatively through the clothes we propose and wear. I believe in individual expression through contrast and contradiction. Therefore, I would like to offer variations of styles and textures that may be eclectically combined to reflect a woman’s personal style, mood or attitude.”

In both her shop and her prints, Ms. Lotan is very much keeping to her philosophy.

Nili Lotan, 188 Duane St., between Greenwich and Hudson streets, 212-431-7713.