Tag Archives: hijab

Style

Modest Fashion Goes Mainstream: Macy’s Carries Verona Collection

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On the heels of luxury hijabs breaking into mainstream fashion news, we have the exciting news of the retailer Macy’s announcing that they will now carry modest fashion brand Verona Collection online. The modest fashion brand, founded by Lisa Vogl and Alaa Ammuss in 2015, has quickly grown into a powerhouse brand with a free-standing store in Florida.

Verona Collection is also a 2017 Macy’s Emerging Vendor success story from the Macy’s Workshop. “The Workshop at Macy’s is an exclusive retail vendor development program designed to give select high potential minority- and women-owned businesses the tools to better succeed and sustain growth in the retail industry.”

According to Huffington Post, the Verona Collection line at Macy’s e-commerce site will feature a variety of hijabs or headscarves, as well as modest tops, pants, dresses and abayas.

As a Muslim blogger who personally knows Lisa, I am THRILLED for her successes. For now, this line will only be carried on Macy’s website, but I hope this inspires Macy’s to start carrying this line in physical stores soon! What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.

 

Islam, Style

Hijab Trend: “Luxury” Hijabs

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Haute Hijab Luxury Collection Celestial Silver Hijab
Haute Hijab Luxury Collection Celestial Silver Hijab

Salaam my lovelies! In December, I had the pleasure of meeting Melanie Elturk who is the CEO of Haute Hijab to do an in-office customer interview in New York. I sat down with Alice (Customer Experience at Haute Hijab) and Melanie. It was a heartwarming experience filled with laughs and experiences that only hijabis can understand.

At the time, I was bemoaning how there was a lack of hijabs for special occasions like graduations, birthdays, weddings, and baby showers. I remember how Alice and Melanie glanced at each other with knowing smiles, but they stayed mum about the impending launch of the Haute Hijab Luxury Collection. Sorry, no exclusives here! For an exclusive on the Haute Hijab Luxury Collection line, please check out Pop Sugar Fashion.

Fast forward to this week, and now I know what those smiles were for! The line is just gorgeous. The pricing is definitely not for the faint of heart as it starts from $250 and goes up to $325. I love the intricate beading, crystals, and material and this goes into the price. According to Pop Sugar as told by Melanie:

The Muslim community is, number one, highly educated. And, as a result, pretty wealthy. Our specific customer base has a medium household income of $90K. She has a high educational degree: PhD or masters. We were hearing: ‘My husband is a doctor or I am a doctor, and we always have these formal affairs. I have nothing to wear. I look so frumpy, and I just pale in comparison to everyone who is there.’

But it did resonate a point. Why are there no hijabs that have the detail and quality as clothing does for special occasions? Why are hijabis wearing plain cotton hijabs with their wedding dresses or for their graduations? Shouldn’t there be a better option?

I will congratulate Melanie on producing a beautiful line with stunning marketing pieces such as a flawless teaser video, promotional images, and press. It is the first time I ever saw publications like Pop Sugar or Vogue feature a hijab line and I hope its a trend that won’t go away.

While this may be the first collection that is mass produced for a luxury line, I wanted to share some other brands who are rocking the luxury hijab trend on a smaller scale. Take a look and let me know if I miss any!

Framed People

Framed People Cotton Feathers Hijab in Gray

Framed People is a San Francisco based hijab line that features luxuriously designed hijabs with feathers and other whimsical details.

Framed People is a hijab line that is dedicated to sourcing ethically produced fabrics that are unique, stylish, and comfortable. Their Feather Hijab features cotton feathers versus feathers from an animal which means your conscience can be at rest. For a special occasion, I would recommend the Chif Chif Piping hijab with its beautiful metallic piping. The hijabs range in pricing from $20-$40.

Inayah

INAYAH-BRIDAL1091

This is the LINE I turn to for a hijab that makes me feel special. The heft of the material, the stitching at the edges, all of it is detailed and these hijabs last forever. I just wish they had a little more embellishment. The hijabs range in pricing from $5.99-$45

Vela Scarves

Vela Scarves Platinum Flower Petal Hijab from the Resort Collection

Vela Scarves Platinum Flower Petal Hijab from the Resort Collection

Vela Scarves is a line based in Los Angeles by Marwa Atik. We have known about Marwa’s easy California style for a while and even featured her on a Follow Friday post back in 2013!

Since then, she has grown her hijab line to be a rare combination of high fashion and modesty and it shows. Marwa pores over countless materials and handpicks all of her hijab embellishments. Look at the detail on the Flower Petal Hijab from the Vela Scarves Resort Collection!

According to Vela Scarves, this is the Vela Girl: “She’s fun, modest, intellectual, and is deeply involved in the community. She is well-versed on the latest trends but knows how to make them suit her. The Vela girl knows her decision to be veiled does not fit the mold, but she embraces the opportunity to make her distinction beautiful.”

Some popular Vela Scarves girls are Noor Tagouri who wore this bespoke Vela Scarves hijab featured below for her wedding festivities and Neelam Hakeem who was recently seen dropping lines on P. Diddy’s Instagram.

Noor-Tagouri-_shabster

Vela Scarves range in price from $10.00-$72.95.

Hijab Couture

Hijab Couture is an online boutique based in Houston, Texas which provides custom designed hijabs, headpieces, and veils for weddings or special occasions. It is a boutique by Affaf Nusratullah who not only designs and makes each piece by hand, but she is a makeup artist as well! What a talent mA. Her pricing ranges from $49-$200+.

Hijab Couture 1

Beauty, Islam, Life, Style

Diversity in Modest Fashion?

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Modanisa Offers A Look Into the Lack of Diversity in Modest Fashion
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Salaam my lovelies! I hope that you kicked off the New Year with some new resolutions. I started with one of my own: to keep on blogging. Here is why:

The recent Dubai Fashion Week sponsored by Turkish modest fashion line Modanisa was exciting, but also puzzling. Hijabi fashion blogger Manal aka Chinutay shared how she was disappointed to see that there was a lack of diversity on the runway and among the modest fashion influencers asked to attend the show. Here is what she had to say:

“First off, what was obvious was not who was flown out but who wasn’t! I myself (apologies if I missed any influencer), was the only black woman to be flown out and participate out of MANY beautiful influential black women. Whilst there, I’ve had our sisters (WOC who live in Dubai and purchased tickets) come up to me anbd ask me what was very apparent…’Where are all the other black bloggers/influencers?'”

The struggle for diversity in the Muslim fashion world is very real. It seems that the ideal Muslim fashion blogger is thin, light-skinned and very much like an actual fashion blogger with a hijab on top of her head. While these bloggers work very hard to create beautiful content, there are so many more of us who attempt to shed light on the fact that Muslims are a billion-plus deep population with so many more faces and bodies.

For me, it has always been a struggle to find modest fashion clothing that will actually fit and flatter a curvy body type. Admit it, how many of you even follow a plus-size or curvy modest fashon blogger? Yet, we have countless women who wear hijab that fall into this category! How important is it to see a valid representation of the runway of what the actual Muslim population looks like?

This is why I am starting back up on blogging. We NEED diversity. We need more women of color modest fashion influencers. We need more body positivity in the Muslim fashion world. This is my personal truth and I hope that it speaks to your personal truth too. For far too long, we have been silent, but I hope that my blog inspires you to embrace who you are too. I hope that you embrace my personal journey and start your own to love yourself the way that you were made.

Love to you all.

Beauty, Islam, Style

Follow Friday: Noor Tagouri

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Noor Tagouri

Noor Tagouri aspires to be the first hijabi news anchor on a major US network

Salaams my lovelies! Jumah mubarak to you all. As you know, I typically do a Follow Friday blog post on a hijabi’s Instagram account that I adore. Well I know I have blogged about Noor Tagouri before, but her Instagram account just begs to be followed. Why is that, you ask? She is a globe trotting, fearless example of a hijabi who is trying to show the best side of our faith to others. Whether she is studying domestic violence in Italy, or going on speaking engagements, Noor Tagouri’s Instagram account can serve as a inspiration to empower other hijabis to be active in their communities.

She is also beautiful too mashallah! However, she is not just a pretty face. What really strikes me is the beauty of her actions. You can really see her trying to understand where others are coming from. I feel like this is an essential quality of news anchors. If you look at the most popular news personalities, it is not their looks that make them successful, it is their ability to relate with the people that they are interviewing to get them to open up about their lives. I think Noor Tagouri will follow in those footsteps and really shine as a news anchor inshallah.

Her Instagram account is @ntagouri. Make sure to follow her for your own daily dose of community activism.

For scenes in my own daily life on food, fashion, and family, feel free to follow me @hijabilife too.

Islam, Style

Meet The Brand: Sixteenrscarves

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Nancy Hoque is a trailblazer looking to empower hijabis worldwide with her brand Sixteenrscarves.

Nancy Hoque is a trailblazer looking to empower hijabis worldwide with her brand Sixteenrscarves.

When I first started wearing hijab in 1994 in New York City, I have to say we did not have any options for hijabis other than a plain black triangle hijab. It was a very challenging time for a hijabi to have any sense of style, let alone think about hijab style or hijab fashion as a stand alone concept. I remember having to make the trek from Queens to Brooklyn to even find a hijab that had any color in it or wait until the Muslim Day Parade came around in the late spring. I am so glad that times have changed and we have wonderful designers who have taken the time from their lives to help enhance the wardrobes of hijabis every where!

One such designer is Nancy Hoque, the whiz behind the hijab brand Sixteenrscarves. If you are a hijabi who doesn’t follow the pack (but which hijabi really does?) then this is the brand for you. Her designs are artistic, yet very wearable. Considering the ethnic mix here in the Bay Area, I can see a hijabi hipster totally rocking a scarf from her brand in the Mission right here in San Francisco. I got to meet with Nancy and ask her a few questions to get to know the woman behind the brand. She is just a lovely woman mashallah and I can’t wait to see what she has in store for us lucky hijabis next. Here is my interview with Nancy. Read on for more about the brand, how she got her start as a designer, and what every hijabi should have:

1) What does the name sixteenrscarves stand for?
I used to live on the corner of 16th and R street in Washington DC. Thats where sixteenR came from.

2) How did you get into design and modest fashion?
When I started wearing a headscarf and even before that, I always tried to dress modest and have it look cool at the same time. I’ve always been into the arts, sketching almost everyday, painting, creating crafts. I would flip through fashion magazines and be inspired by the different ways women can dress. Of course the way Muslim women approach dressing is very different from how we see dressing presented in the mainstream fashion world. That aspect of this “under ground” modest fashion movement which has been underway with Muslim women the last 5 years is what inspired me to start designing and create sixteenR.

3) What is the most important piece of advice about design that you have received?
Knowing what type of material you use for a scarf is really important. Whether or not it is easy to wrap or not.

4) If you could collaborate with any designer who would it be and why?
This is a really hard question because I love too many designers! I would collaborate with Prada, because I love their creativity on how they present their clothes. They look into the past and take certain design elements, but their designs end up looking into the future. I also love Diane Von Furstenburg. Her story and stance on feminism is very inspiring and would totally be awesome to work with.

5) What are your top 3 essentials that every hijabi should own?
1. Under scarf. Either a headband or inner scarf.
2. A hair band to tie the hair.
3. A lot of self-confidence

6) If you could dress anyone, who would it be and why? (could be someone who is not alive)
I would love to do a photoshoot with Yuna Zarai and style her. I would also love to dress Ibtihaj Muhammad or Nour Tagouri.

7) What part of our faith that inspires you the most?
The part where it teaches you to be confident with your faith despite what others may think or say. The part that encourages to connect with your Muslim sisters and be a part of the community and to contribute.

8) You’re not only a fabulous designer, but a mom too. How do you balance work and family?be
Time management and going to bed really late. 🙂 My family supports me and gives me time to work. Otherwise it would be impossible to do. I am blessed allhumdulilah.

9) What is one thing your fans may not know about you?
I’ve lived in 5 different cities, in 3 different states, in 2 different countries the last 5 years.

10) What beauty product do you swear by?
Black pencil eyeliner.