[wvns] Europe Discovers Muslim Fashion
Europe Discovers Muslim Fashion
IslamOnline.net & News Agencies
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1177155960006&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout
PARIS/ROTTERDAM — Reconciling their faith with the dictates of
fashion, style-conscious young Muslim women across Europe are leaving
their mark on Europe's urban street culture and influencing mainstream
fashion.
"H&M and all the French stores have taken our fashion," Mahika, a
24-year-old Muslim from Paris, told Reuters on Wednesday, April 25,
referring to the famed Swedish clothing company Hennes & Mauritz.
In a country which fiercely upholds its secular identity and which
banned hijab in schools, modest Muslim clothing does not have to be
fashion-lacking.
"Popular styles this year have beadwork and the color is orange," said
Ouslghozi Jkrom, displaying her store's array of bright colored
dresses and hair veils.
A generation of young hijab-clad Muslims has influenced Europe's
fashion industry as the runways now discover a trend of mixing long
dresses with jeans, and layering sweaters and tops.
"It's not just Muslims who are buying our jeans now," said Susanna
Cavalli, chief of product development for the Italian company Al Quds.
With a baggy cut and multiple pockets, the company's new line of jeans
was mainly tailored to cater to Muslims who want to stay comfortable
while praying.
But Cavalli says Al Quds jeans are becoming popular among non-Muslims too.
"It's a good fashion product, first of all. That means the spectrum of
our audience is growing."
Fashion-Conscious
"It's not just Muslims who are buying our jeans now," Cavalli said.
Daughters of migrants to Europe have brought their own culture to
urban streets and swayed the mainstream fashion.
They say the trend has made their life in the West much easier as they
do not have to struggle to get dressed properly.
"I find it very easy to dress. You find all kinds of things in town,"
said Bushra Sayed, a 20-year-old Muslim student who lives in Holland's
Rotterdam.
"It is about combinations and it has got easier since you see the
influence of our fashion in general fashion."
Wearing her dark brown hijab, blue shirt and knee-length skirt over
jeans, she believes religion and fashion need to be mutually
exclusive.
"I am a Muslim but I am also a person who is interested in fashion and
I want to combine all these things."
She is always determined to incorporate brash modernity into her
wardrobe while adhering to the tenets of her faith.
"For me it is important to cover my body, except the hands, feet and
face. And within that I can wear whatever I want, but it should not be
too tight and short.
"My mother, friends, and relatives are very enthusiastic and I did not
have to fight at all for my own style."
Bushra is one of five women who put together MSLM, a new glossy
fashion magazine for style-conscious young Muslims.
The magazine, launched in April in Dutch, French and English, offers
fashion tips for fashion-enthusiast Muslim girls.
The women have also organized a fashion exhibition in Rotterdam
alongside the magazine, displaying outfits made by Dutch designers
with Islamic dress codes in mind.
One dummy in the exhibition wears a black halter-neck dress, while its
back, arms and legs are concealed by a black-lace cat suit worn
beneath.
"These girls can't live without Zara, H&M and Mango," said Natasa
Heydra, a Rotterdam gallery curator who is among the editorial team of
MSLM.
She added that injecting fashion into a traditional Muslim wardrobe
does not have to be like walking a fine line.
"There is a basic set of rules and within these rules it is about
choice and about modesty."
===
THE NEW SWIMSUIT ISSUE
Laura Fitzpatrick
Time
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1645145,00.html
Mecca Laa Laa wears a 'Burqini' on her first surf lifesaving patrol at
North Cronulla Beach in Sydney, Australia on February 4, 2007.
Matt King / Getty
Article ToolsPrintEmailReprintsSphereAddThisRSS Move over, Tankini.
Since the full-coverage swimsuit dubbed the Burqini (as in burqa plus
bikini) hit the international market in January, devout Muslim women
have been snapping them up. The polyester suits were designed to
accord with Islamic laws that require women to dress modestly and to
eliminate the risk of drowning when the yards of fabric used in
traditional burqas get soaked. Now, however, non-Muslim beachgoers are
getting into the full-covered swim. Whether women are worried about
health, weight or the tolls of age, the Burqini offers a comfortable
alternative to a skimpy two-piece or clingy maillot.
The demure suits, pioneered by two Muslim women on opposite sides of
the globe, are like lightweight, loose, hooded wet suits and hide
everything but the face, hands and feet. Australian retailer Aheda
Zanetti, 38, says she was inspired to design her Burqini after
watching young Muslim girls struggle to play netball in bulky layers.
Her competitor, California microbiologist Shereen Sabet, 36, came up
with her full-coverage Splashgear suits after searching in vain for
Islam-appropriate scuba gear. The UV-resistant, stretchy swimsuits
start at $90 and have found upwards of 6,000 buyers--most of them
online--in locations as varied as Malaysia, South Africa, Mexico,
Ireland and the U.S. "I'm a very small business with a product the
whole world wants," says Zanetti.
Conservative Christians, cancer patients, burn victims and senior
citizens, among others, have shown surprising interest. Joanne
Martinez, 37, of San Clemente, Calif., bought a Hawaiian-print
ensemble to stave off chills during late-night dips. Her mother Norma
Suarez, 69, got a suit because her medications make her skin
sun-sensitive. "We're both hooked," says Martinez. Meanwhile, Kathleen
Petroff, 59, of Helendale, Calif., bought her Splashgear suit for a
snorkeling trip, after weight gain from multiple-sclerosis treatment
made her old suit unappealing. If not for Sabet's design, she says, "I
would have missed swimming with the dolphins."
Anne Cole, the designer whose 1997 invention of the tankini was a
landmark for conservative swimwear, lauds the reasoning behind the
modest suits. "A woman should, above all, find a suit she can feel
comfortable and be herself in," she says. But the new swimsuits have
drawn criticism from both East and West. "This is like playing a game
with Allah," asserted a poster on the website ShiaChat, complaining
that the stretchy fabric reveals curves. Zanetti's design has also
brought out anti-Muslim sentiment since she's become a high-profile
member of the Islamic community. She has been called a terrorist
online; she says she has even received a death threat.
Some feminists charge that burqas in any form are offensive to women.
"Clearly you're not considered a full human being if you're mandated
to cover yourself head to toe in this tent," says Taina Bien-Aimé,
executive director of Equality Now, the international women's-rights
watchdog. Sabet responds that Muslim men too have a dress code: the
Koran forbids them to wear saffron or silk or expose skin from navel
to knee. But Imam Mohamed Magid, who heads a moderate mosque in
Sterling, Va., calls debate over Islamic clothing misdirected. "I wish
there was more talk about women as leaders rather than talk about
whether nail polish is acceptable in Islam," he says. "We need to move
forward."
Still, in this bare-it-all age of the string bikini, when young girls
take wardrobe cues from Paris Hilton and body-image pressure is
intense, the Burqini swimsuit is making a statement. And that's the
point, the designers say: the suits allow women, Muslim or not, to
choose comfort over conformity. "I know it sounds like an oxymoron,"
says Sabet. "But this is really about freedom."
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