Can Veiled Women Successfully Indulge in Fashion?

Stylish leggings, crop tops, latest swimsuit styles and all sorts of on trend attire make it hard for women who wear the hijab to be part of the fashion world, to be on trend and to dress nicely.

That is a belief many people hold; yet, trends are changing, and the growing fashion success stories of women who wear the hijab are proving otherwise.

The hijab is a veil worn by Muslim girls that covers the head, neck and chest. A girl who wears the hijab must cover all body parts except for her hands and face with cloth that is not see-through or tight.

As mainstream fashion industries are beginning to adapt to conservative styles through bohemian cloth lines, boyfriend pants and more, common grounds are being created and unlike many believe, the future of hijab fashion is finding itself in a good place.

“Anyone can design revealing clothes,” Farah Emara, an Egyptian hijab Instagram blogger and student at the American University in Cairo said. “It takes a stylistic eye to be able to cover the whole body with fabric and make it look good.”

Emara started posting pictures of her hijab style about a year ago to give other girls who wear Hijab confidence in the way they dress and look. Within less than a year, she had gained 21 thousand followers on her Instagram page, and received modeling offers from world known brands including a modeling offer from the cosmetics brand, Garnier.

When Marc Jacobs, an esteemed fashion icon says that “young girls need to learn that sexiness isn’t about being naked”, that sends a message to girls all over the world that being sexy is achieved through being somewhat modest, Emara said.

In Kuwait, Ascia and her husband Ahmed, started their own fashion blog named “Hybrid in a Headpiece”. The name Hybrid came from both their mixed heritages, and Headpiece came from Ascia’s Hijab. Their success brought along modeling requests from popular stores, including a modeling request for Ascia by Calvin Klein, a famous American fashion house, and by Promod, a well-known French fashion store.

Their Instagram page, which has 1.1 million followers, and mainly

focuses on Ascia and her unique and hip hijab style, was featured on Huffington Post in late 2013 as one of the best new Instagram pages in the fashion world. The article is called “Ascia and Ahmed Are Couple Bloggers with Double the Style to Love.”

Outside the Arab world, success stories from the fashion arena of veiled women, are booming as well.

In Turkey, 24 year-old Hulya Aslan, created a magazine named Ala, directed at portraying modest Fashion and hijab attire. Within a year, the magazine shook the Turkish fashion world, gained many subscribers, and became referred to as the “Vogue of the Veil” in Turkish media.

The success of the magazine was recognized in a story written by the New York Times titled: “A Fashion Magazine Unshy about Baring a Bit of Piety”.

Yasmine, also known as “Yaz the Spaz” is another Turkish – half Cuban – girl who has successfully managed to expose hijab attire under a positive light. Her Instagram page has 99 thousand followers and her Facebook page has 608 thousand followers.

Through her “Outfit of the Day” posts and through pictures of her everyday outfits at the gym, at outings, and at fancy occasions, Yasmine has shown that style can be a part of a veiled girl’s daily routine as a whole.

“When we wear our hijabs, we must feel comfortable, beautiful, and confident,” Yasmine said on her fashion blog.

From the Arab World all the way to Cuba, achievements of veiled women in the fashion Industry continue to expand their horizons. One of the greatest of these achievements to date comes from the West.

Melanie El Turk, a born American, started wearing the veil at the age of 13. She launched her own brand called “Haute Hijab” in 2010. The brand became a high-end brand all over the world and became the first Muslim company to sell vintage scarves as hijabs to customers.

Although women who wear hijab may find difficulty in wearing leggings, bikinis and all that cool stuff, many of them have successfully created hijab trends, styles and brands that are quickly gaining diverse audiences.

Whether veiled fashion and mainstream trends merge or whether each adapts to different conservative styles, it is foreseen that the growing trends in veiled fashion are going to be strong and worthy competitors to growing mainstream trends in the near future. So who said veiled women can’t successfully indulge in the fashion world?

“Through its portrayal of a unique and different kind of beauty, hijab modest fashion is going to boom and take its place all over the world,” Emara said.