Beautiful and Islamic: the new look on the catwalk

Jerome Taylor witnesses a fusion of fashion with traditional Muslim dress

Friday, 2 July 2010

Hana Tajima adjusts a headscarf at a photo shoot for her
fashion label Maysaa (Photo: Courtesy of Susannah Ireland)

Perched on a stool in a cavernous warehouse in north London, a model with bright blue eye make-up carefully adjusts her top as a photographer works the light around her. She is dressed in a beautiful, sleek, black satin shirt, topped off with a simple, unadorned hood.

As the photographer lifts up his camera, the model brings the hood up to cover the back half of her head. “That’s it,” he says, as the flash fires. “Beautiful.”

Welcome to the world inhabited by the “Hijabistas”, a trendy set of up and coming Muslim fashion designers who are doing their bit to forge an indigenous British Islamic identity. Until relatively recently, young Muslim women who wanted to dress according to Islamic rules of modesty (hijab) had pretty limited options. They could either adopt the type of immigrant clothing worn by their parents, or try to cobble something together from high street chains, where modesty isn’t exactly seen as a best seller, especially in the summer.

Read the rest of the article here.

Two of my favorite designers are here! :) They both are featured on The Independent's Fashion News. Hana Tajima-Simpson from the brand "Maysaa" and Sarah Elenany from the brand "Elenany". I'm a big fan of their designs. How proud I'm of them. They have brought muslim women's pride and dignity through their designs.

Quoted from the above article, Tahmina Saleem, co-founder of Inspire, a consultancy which helps Muslim women become vocal members of their communities, says:

"the Hijabistas are simply doing what Islam has always done, integrate and assimilate with the culture around it."

Yes, I think that's true. Regards to the Islamic Fashion Festival in Jakarta recently, and to the recent article on LA Times about Hijab Style in America, you can see that Islamic wears have been infused, integrated, and assimilated with the local/traditional culture.

So, whether it's in Uk, America, or Indonesia, "the Hijabs" have their own identity...

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