Summer 19
Assalamu alaikum!
Welcome to issue #2. It's been quite a while since our first issue. Since then we've had our anniversary as well as been searching for inspiration and creativity to make this issue the best that it can be. This summer must-read features a ton of exciting topics from the current eye trends to shopping sustainably. Thank you for the overwhelming love and support we've received since we put our first issue. We feel blessed and thankful to each and every one of you that took the time to read our magazine. Don't forget to check out more content on our website at sakinamagazine.com. We'll see you all on the next issue in sha Allah. With love, Naima Bashir Naima Ali Nura Alin
Copyright © 2019, SAKINA Magazine All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted or distributed in any format without the prior written consent of the publisher. Views expressed are those of the respective contributors and are not necessarily shared by SAKINA.
Text by Naima B
In three words, who is Nejma? A low-key but a resilient dreamer.
What takes up too much of your time? University and work but also reading and watching/listening to random stuff. There’s an overload of information going on at times which can be a bit much, ya girl is still figuring out how to best filter the unneeded vs the needed.
What shows are you into? A mix of suspense and realism. I feel like newer shows have the scary factor and cliffhangers down but I leave the comedies to the golden days. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is still my most favourite of all time, together with Def Comedy/Poetry Jam.
What would be your ideal way to spend the weekend? I love get-togethers that involve food! And going to new places, so be it exploring a new part of town or just hanging at a house filled with people I love and enjoy spending time with.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE PIECE OF CLOTHING YOU OWN / OWNED? My baggy T-shirts. I have a whole chest of drawers dedicated to my T-shirts found on sale from the men’s section in the sizes L-XXXL and they’re color coordinated through every level. That’s how serious I am about my carefully curated tees.
You've been blogging throughout the years about beauty, travel, fashion, good food. What do you love the most about blogging? And what motivates to keep blogging? The fact that it’s a documentation of my life that I can just whip up whenever my memory fails me. The pictures are what I love most, I grew up with a big part of my immediate family near and my parents always had a camera/camcorder on their hands which resulted in 5 massive photo albums filled with our history growing up. It’s something I go back to every now and then and look through in awe. So this is my photo album through the years and whatever I was going through written, for me to remember and go back to. I’m a sucker for nostalgia to say the least. What's your personal favourite blogs to follow? It’s definitely not as much as before since people nowadays prefer other outlets such as IG rather than traditional blogging. But apart from friends’ blogs, I used to read third-local, a blog by the Ugandan Lamic Kirabo (active on IG now) and Shahd Batal. Angelica Blick is probably my favorite Swedish blogger though. I like her travel pictures a lot. Have you met anyone interesting on your blogging journey?
Yes, of course. I feel like you’re bound to have interesting encounters on digital platforms especially when you share events from your personal life. The internet is awesome in the way that you can connect with people you otherwise wouldn’t have had the chance to get to know.
BOLD EYES
@ShahdBatal
@Honeydon.t
My is
needed
TIPS ON SUSTAINABLE SHOPPING 01
02
03
04 05 06 07
08
FEATURE
THE CREATIVITY ISSUE
BOSS LADIES
HIDAYAH& NARIMAN JOURNEY BEHIND STARTING CHIFFON&CO
THE JOURNEY BEHIND STARTING CHIFFON&CO In three words how would you describe each other? Nariman: Hidayah is an energetic, creative optimist , one beautiful crazy open minded creature that I love working with even though she loves sleeping. When she is focused she works her ass off intelligently and is overall my best copywriter, very good at expressing herself in words and has some great social skills. I love how we keep eachother motivated and push our vision to actionable levels. Hidayah: The range of adjectives I can describe Nariman with are endless. The main adjectives I feel she exhibits are analytical, creative and driven. It is because she is ruthless with details but also puts importance on the wholesome picture. Digital and fashion trends are no stranger to her because she keeps herself updated at all times, which helps our business keep a competitive edge. I love how she always sends me ideas and inspiration at different times of the day because it keeps me inspired as well. The most amazing thing is that her ideas do not remain as ideas. They develop into real tangible things, it really shows how driven she is.
Tell us about Chiffon&co, where did the idea behind the brand come from? Have you always had an interest in clothing? What inspired or motivated you to start? The idea came after I resigned from a job that was not to my liking. I started thinking about what I wanted to do for living. As social responsibility has always been something close to my heart, it was only right that I started a company with the same values. I have a formal degree that focuses on operations within retail. Starting a business for me is not just about profiting. It is also about giving back to society. And being a Muslim women, I wanted to start a modest fashion company, to contribute to more muslim creators/creatives in the fashion world.
We want society and the fashion world to be for everyone - even for us Muslims, and we believe it is important that there are companies that represent all target groups to make them feel inclusive in society. Since Nariman and I shared the same values and she has a background in marketing and, technical and analytical skills. I knew that we would be a perfect team. Due to our differences complementing us and therefore making us a many-sided duo. What is Chiffon&co's core values? We want to provide the driven Muslim woman who is intrested in fashion to find clothing without compromizing on her values. We want her to feel like she has a given place in the world. What has been the most fun about starting your online boutique? Being creative. We set our own limitations, we are our own bosses and each other's supporters in business. We have fun! Sharing knowledge is key. It is fun applying our skills and seeing the result of our work. It keeps us motivated to take it further! Among it all, we’d like to thank our family and friends for all their support in our entrepreneur-journey. Our newborn startup has just begun. What has been the most challenging? And how have you overcome it? For us, the most challenging thing has been to juggle our company while working and studying full-time. We have struggled and worked a lot after school/work to be able to have time to work on our web shop. We live in a world where you want to try to catch up with as much as possible but the most important thing is that you should enjoy what you do otherwise we would not have the energy. As the company represents our values, what we do feels right and rewarding. Entrepreneurship must go hand-in-hand with the fact that you can create change and benefit, and we feel passionate about what we do, which is our fuel.
What would you say makes you different from other hijab brands? We speak lifestyle, modern, Scandinavian. We speak confidence, courage, identity, create awareness of cultural / social responsibility. We want our customers to feel all of these and so much more. For this issue, our theme is relationships and we are curious as to how its been working as friends on your business? Do you find it difficult to separate friendship from the business? What benefits have you found from knowing each other since being young? We notice that we are passionate about the fact that we always get C&C talk when we are seen. We are like new parents who were a couple before but have got C&C as baby, haha. So talking about our company is always included when we see each other but we try to squeeze moments from time-to-time where we just hang out as ordinary friends! The best thing about knowing each other for so long is that we feel trust and understanding for one other. It has really added that we have so good cooperation today, we trust each other's reviews and back each other when needed. One thing we love about Chiffon&Co is how you incorporate Scandinavian minimalistic design and follow a neutral color palette. What inspires you? Office, street, elegance, modesty, attitude, social awareness. What do you hope to achieve in the future? Continue to have the same drive and desire to change as now. Always be a company that sticks to our values and who listens to our target group. We want to eventually start selling modest fashion clothes that appeal to our target group, our only criterion sounds simple but can be a bit tricky. It is to only produce garments that we ourselves would have in the closet.
Be sure to check out @chiffonandco on instagram. Visit www.chiffonandco.com to shop their beautiful hijabs, now shipping to all Nordic countries.
STYLE
without
Show
Modest fashion gives Muslim women free agency to dress within their rights. As appearance style is a metaphor for identity, throughout the years we have seen an exclusion of women who wanted to dress according to their own comfort. There is a common misapprehension with how women, especially Muslim women, should dress. They are either seen as too complicated for other designers to cater to or told they can not dress well “covered up”. From high street stores displaying short skirts, crop tops, maxi dresses with slits, modest fashion is challenging conventions by showing women, whether they are Muslim or not, can still look chic, striking and trendy in clothing that doesn’t accentuate their body. The fight against the misconception allows women to make a fashion statement by getting creative and investing in loose clothing that will startle the fashion scene. As we're in the summer season, brands are putting out more maxi skirts and dressses.
Modest wear is described as having a “degree of awareness when it comes to covering up parts of your body. The aim was not to take over from brands catering to people who chose to wear revealing outfits, but rather include women who want to express their individuality. Lack of modest wear led to Muslim fashion designers creating their own clothing lines and online stores. Hana Tajima, a British-Japanese designer who works with Uniqlo, is creating “contemporary functional designs which are both culturally sensitive and extremely versatile in garnering international attention”. Modest fashion online stores have made it easier to reach a global reach. There are many online stores that cater to women such as Modanisa, Inayah, iiLA and more. Each store is using their own initiative and creating their own fashion lines that ship worldwide for women who can not find modest wear in their own local area, thus making technology an important tool in the art of expression.
Modest fashion was showcased in London’s Modest Fashion Week in both 2017 and 2018. The shows have been viewed as a tremendous success with the casting rising model Halima Aden who became the first hijabi to make the cover of Allure magazine and many modest fashion designers making their mark in the industry. Despite modest wear being seen as a “niche” aspect of the fashion industry, London’s Modest Fashion Week showed that it is just as important as any other mainstream fashion show. People from the Middle East to other parts of the world flew to London to experience this historic occasion. As modest fashion is already flourishing in Middle Eastern countries, it is incredible to finally see big brands embrace clothing that a certain demographic desperately wished that they would cater for. Going out to high streets and finding modest manner clothing has become easier in recent years. It seems as if mainstream brands finally see the value in the “Muslim dollar” and that could be thanked for the role social media played in increases modest fashion’s value in the world.
In regards to Modest Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week also incorporated modest fashion into their runways by debuting an abaya only collection made by Indonesian designer Vivi Zubedi. The inclusivity in major runway shows such New York Fashion Week further increases the conversation on the importance of empowering all women.
"The aim was not to take over from brands catering to people who chose to wear revealing outfits, but rather include women who want to express their individuality." One’s comfort means self-expression. Fashion is a way of representing yourself because when you look good, you feel good. The past few years have displayed the importance of diversity in the fashion industry. Now modest fashion designers whose aim has always been to cater to and empower women who dress modestly, are now competing with mainstream brands who finally understand the importance of modest fashion. As we move forward, we can only hope more brands make their modest fashion collections permanent and create clothes for different occasions and not just holidays in the Muslim calendar. This would give women who dress conservatively to look chic all year round and most importantly have style without show.
4
this summer
By Naima Ali
It may be hard to believe especially when you’re socially anxious but believe me, no one does. I can guarantee everyone else is too busy worrying about themselves. Whether you’re at the beach or the park, no one is watching you.
If you pretend to feel comfortable in your body, it’ll show on the outside. The more you do that, the more likely it is for you to really believe it and thus no longer have to put on the act. It’s worth a try, right?
Now’s the time to have fun and soak in the sun. Summer break only comes once a year so it’s important to enjoy it especially after a long year of work/school/university. I’ve always felt guilty about wasting my summer worrying about things that never mattered when I looked back at it. Surround yourself with family and friends and I promise it’ll get easier.
Get rid of old clothes - the ones that no longer fit and invest in new clothes. Buy something that’ll make you feel beautiful and confident this summer because now’s the time to do it.