I got this article from the sister over at Hijab Style…Jazak’Allah khair!

Making the Hijab Work

Johana Bhuiyan wears a long white skirt. Her hair and neck are wrapped in a pink and white hijab falling over a long sleeved white shirt. Shell-pink shoes finish the look. “A few years year ago it would take me ages to put together an outfit,” confesses Bhuiyan, 16, from Queens. “Now it takes a few moments.”

Baggy jeans and loose shirts are old news for Muslim girls like Bhuiyan who, are mixing the Islamic dress code with in vogue. The element of élan and savoir-faire cannot be missed.

Ausma Khan, editor of Muslim Girl, a magazine for Muslim teens in the United States and Canada, says, “In America we’re seeing an evolution where the governing principle of modesty remains the same, but at the same time it is incorporating contemporary styles of dressing.”

This fusion is bringing more Muslim girls within the fold of the Islamic dress code rather than westernizing them. Colorful hijabs, printed skirts, full dresses, knee length outfits with jeans and wide-legged pants are part of the ensemble. One easy way of achieving variation is wearing clothes in layers — a shapely and shear garment over concealing material.

Balancing the religion and fashion equation is a challenge. “It gets complicated mixing Islamic tradition and western fashion when you come from religious families,” says Bushra Chaudhary.

After spending years in school wearing an “Islamic uniform” the 20- year- old makes a big effort to look good in college despite strong opposition at home. “You get sick of standing out and just want to blend in and look good,” she says.

Chaudhary, who loves shopping at Union Square Park, admits that dressing up for Muslim girls involves being creative everyday. “Since there is nothing being designed specifically for us the key is to mix and match.”

Khan, whose magazine devotes many pages to fashion, notes that this demand is not met by supply. “There is an untapped market for girls who don’t want to look like versions of Britney Spears but at the same time want to dress well,” she says. “The designers have not caught on yet.”

One designer with foresight is Cindy van den Bremen who operates out of the Netherlands. In 2001, she launched a hijab range to match sports needs and solve the problems that bulky hijabs caused Muslim girls in the gym.

After eight years, Capsters have become an international brand selling online and in stores across Europe, Canada, US, Middle East, Indonesia and Malaysia. “To be honest, there have been more requests for wholesale than I could handle,” she says.

Last summer, Bremen, launched a new collection of hijabs in three different lines: sports, casual and exclusive. The summer collection featured fresh designs, materials and colors for daily wear and high fashion. “We have a panel of local Muslim residents that we work with, who react on our new designs and ideas,” she says.

Bremen’s sports hijabs sell like hot cakes in Wahidur Rehman’s Hijab Store in East London. Although, Rehman’s online business comes mostly from the United States. He attributes the high sales to many new-age American converts to Islam. “It comes easy to them to wear new designs because they are not entrenched in tradition.”

It isn’t easy for designers and young girls to find the balance between the trendy and tradition. The problems are necklines, skirt lengths and the tightness of fits. “Modesty” is the test.

How modesty is interpreted varies but a common denominator for the hardliners and the liberal religious leaders is that the Islamic code prohibits the exposing of skin, except the hands and face, and the accentuation of any curves.

“We don’t want Muslim women to look ugly,” says Imam Tarek Youssef Saleh from Brooklyn, who has written extensively on the subject. “It is allowed for women to look beautiful as long as her intention is not to look attractive in public or to seduce men.” This is a perplexing guideline for many girls.

Aheda Zanetti, 39, who designed the Burqini, the first full-coverage swimsuit for Muslim women, insists that everyone attracts attentions. “Modesty lies in how you deal with the attention.”

For the Lebanese Australian designer, Muslim women can try new things and still be true to their faith. “We get 13 million hits on our website every month,” she says, referring to the interent traffic checking out the Burqini.

At the same time, Bhuiyan feels that there is an inherent contradiction in living by the Islamic code and dressing fashionably. She even foresees covering her face when she becomes more confident in her religious identity. But, not anytime soon. “Right now I want to balance my religion with everything else,” she says.

Young Bhuiyan organized a fashion show in Long Island to to encourage young Muslim girls to wear the hijab. “So many Muslim girls associate the hijab with traditional Islamic clothes or with loose jeans or maternity type clothes,” she says. “There are cool ways of wearing the hijab.”

Rehman is on a similar mission in his Hijab Store. “I wanted to combine the modern and modest and bring them into the fold of dressing in an Islamic way,” he says.

Now, the women who come to buy his sports and graffiti scribbled hijabs are not old fashioned women looking to modernize. “They are women who would never have considered wearing a hijab before,” says the young store manager.

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