Tutorial Hijab Ala Paris

FashFaith's Picks of The Week... :)

To welcoming this Summer season, I prefer the casual style.

Maxi dress is always be a "good friend" in Summer.. It prevents the sunlight to "hit" your skin directly, especially if you wear the long-sleeved one, and, in the same time, gives you a breeze from its well-circulated air inside the dress.

Here are a few maxi dresses of my picks:

Splendid tee maxi dress

Lanston - Boyfriend maxi dress

Parker - Long pleated dress

When you choose to wear a maxi dress, make sure that it is not sheer. But if you pick the sheer one, wear an underdress inside the maxi dress, not leggings... because leggings still can give a silhouette of your body (read: legs).

And, wear an edgy outerwear (such as a jacket, blazer, cardigan, or even a cropped long-sleeved tee as an outer wear) if you wear a short-sleeved or sleeveless maxi dress.

So... Happy Summer days, Lovelies! :)

Creativity and Diversity in Muslim Fashion.

At Jakarta Fashion and Food Festival recently (May 23, 2012, in Hotel Harris, Kelapa Gading, Jakarta), four well-known Islamic fashion designers from Indonesia showing off their latest collections in a fashion show as part of the Festival's series. With the show's title "Into The Future", these four designers came up with their own uniqueness in concept and design.

Jeny Tjahyawati came up with her "water inspired" designs dominated by aquatic colour-palette, from blue to aqua green and its gradation. Tuty Adib came with her shiny "cosmic nuance" collection in "atmospheric lights colour-palette such as dark brown and purple, mixed with green, yellow and orange. Dian Pelangi with her signature "youngsters style" collection in tie dye motifs and soft/pastel colours; and, Nuniek Mawardi with her colourful "minimalism-futuristik" designs.

Here are a little peep from the show:

Jeny Tjahjawati's Aquaristic

Tuty Adib's Venus in Love

Dian Pelangi's Plastic Doll

Nuniek Mawardi's Life in Technicolor

Interesting right? As we know, there are lots of creativities that can be poured into "covered style" fashion... and then they create diversity in Muslimah Fashion.

So, we look forward for more creativities in Muslim Fashion :)

Within Islam's mandate for modesty, the styles are endless...

FashFaith's Pick

Beside other basic wardrobe items popular amongst Muslim women, such as tunics, long-sleeved tees, or maxidress/abayas; shirtdresses can become a chic alternative for your modest fashion's style.

According to wikipedia, a shirtdress (or sometimes called shirtwaist dresses) is

a style of dress which borrows details from a man's shirt. These can include a collar, a button front, or cuffed sleeves. Often, these dresses are made up in crisp fabrics like cotton or silk, much like a men's dress shirt would be.

As they are typically cut without a seam at the waist, these dresses often have a looser fit, usually relying on a belt to define the waist. Button fronts and a forgiving fit make this a flattering look for most body types.

In regard to my observation, the usual tunics and long sleeved tees mostly fall right below the waist or on to the hip, differ to shirtdresses that fall down below the hip and sometimes fall grazing the knees, also cover your thighs. It makes the shirtdress a better choice for Muslim women if they want more coverage while wearing a pair of jeans or pants.

A shirtdress also usually looks more flattering on most women and gives much more style than a typical tunic or long-sleeved tee. It gives a girly or feminine touch (from its A-line or skirt-look bottom's shape) that most tunics and tees can not give.

That's why I love the shirtdresses.. :)

A vintage shirtdress, late 1960s-early 1970s.

A 1950s vintage "shirtwaist" dress.

Below are some of my favorite shirtdresses:



4. Diane von Furstenberg - Cynthia shirtdress

(Outfit styling: Ashfi Qamara, via My Amethyst)

• You can wear either pants, jeans, or a skirt, underneath the shirtdress... then pop up your headscarf, and you are ready to go! ;) 

• Shirtdresses can be worn in many ways... You can wear a shirtdress as an outerwear with the buttons open over a sleeveless maxidress.. and then accessorized the look with a loose skinny-belt over the shirtdress, like this:

• Or wear a sleeveless shirtdress as a vest over your "tight" outfit to give you a modest look. 

Thakoon addition - Sleeveless print shirtdress.

• Or the opposite, wear it as a base-layer underneath your edgy outer wear such as a leather vest or edgy jacket like shown by the image below:

(Image source: teen.com)

A sleeveless shirtdress worn by Selena Gomez, and Ashley Greene worn the same shirtdress as a base-layer for her edgy jacket added with a scarf..

What do you think? Do you love shirtdresses, too?

During its first days' "launching", the ninja headdress, or so called: inner ninja, usually came with a velcro-strap, buttons, string tiebacks, or elastic rubber-crepe at the back functioned as the closing and for tightening up the neck area.

Even though this inner was a great innovation in Muslimah fashion (allowing you to be more creative with your headscarf-wrapping), the "old shape" seems to be not having a perfect coverage as it still has an opened part right at the upper of your back.

Backview of inner ninja (right image taken from jilbabcantikmurah.com).

So, when you wear a low neckline top and do a hijab styling that doesn't have much coverage at the back (such as a turban or braid-like headscarf wrapping), your upper back's skin will peek out and the back-look is not neat to be seen.. I've seen this happened to some Muslimahs, and unfortunately mostly they do not realize on this un-neat look.

I've ever said to my Muslim friend that we need a better design of inner ninja.. one thing that crossed my mind at that time was to do an over-lap closing at the back of inner ninja.

So, I'm very happy that finally someone/ones think about it  too and make a better design of inner ninja. Recently I found and photographed these new designs of inner ninja at a local store here in my town, and I also found them online...

Here are the new designs of inner ninja with a perfect coverage at the back..

1.) With a zip at the back.

2.) Shaped into a cropped tee.

The second design reminds me to the ResportOn sport hijab. As for the first design, it also can be found online at hijup.com:

(Image: courtesy of hijup.com)

Not only, they came up with a new closing at the back, these "new generation" of inner ninjas also came with many variation in looks... Some of them are:

'Wrap band snood' look (from Nengnong):
 

Crossed look with lace (from Rizky Shop):


Side-forehead pleated inner ninja (or, some people call it: slash hair inner ^_^):

Turban look (from Rayhana Kerudung):


And accessorized with jewel (from GrosirJilbabMurah and NadiraHouse):



So, what do you think of these inner ninjas? Which one is your favorite?

I personally would prefer the one with a zip at the back with a slash hair look.. ;) How about you?

Hijab styling tips (do-it-yourself):

FashFaith.com

You can make your own instant 'slash hair look' inner/headscarf from your usual inner/headscarf. Simply make small pleats from its cloth (on your preferred side of your forehead), then keep the pleats by tugging in a brooch;

Or, sew the pleats you make.. and then, on the top of the pleats, you can sew any accessories you want whether it's a bow, a crochet flower, or buttons, etc., or just keep it plain without accessories.

Have fun trying!