abdulhakeem
25-11-06, 08:26 PM
November 25, 2006
Associated Press
Brooke Samad's contribution to high fashion may not be as well known as Diane von Furstenberg's wrap dress or a Vera Wang wedding gown.
But her long skirts with kick pleats and her kimono and Nehru jackets are allowing Muslim women who want to dress modestly to be fashionable at the same time.
A year and a half ago, Samad, 27, created Marabo, a clothing line that she designs and sews herself in her small studio located in her home along the central New Jersey shore. The clothing line is geared toward Muslim women like herself who have had a difficult time finding suitably modest clothing at the mall or in catalogs.
"There's not a lot of options, and it's a hassle," Samad said. She said her customers, "want to look put together. They want to look professional. And to top it all off, they want to look modest ... I don't think that there's anything un-Islamic about that."
The words Islam and fashion are not usually mentioned in the same sentence, and when they are, many people think of the burqa, a floor-length garment that covers a woman's entire body, including her face.
But that certainly is not the standard of dress for every Muslim woman, and especially not in the United States, where Muslim women often wear a combination of contemporary-yet-conservative clothing.
Growing up, Samad was always interested in sewing and clothes, but following her parents' wishes for a well-rounded education, she went to New York University and studied politics. But clothing kept her interest and, after taking some evening fashion classes, she decided to go back to school full-time at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology, where she graduated in 2004.
While she said she appreciates the beauty of many high fashion lines, she wanted to put her skills to work on clothes she could wear herself.
"For me, it wasn't fun, the idea of designing stuff that I couldn't wear myself," Samad said.
Ishraq Zraikat, the New York fashion editor for the Jordan-based magazine Skin, said designers catering to Muslim women are few and far between. She said one of the problems is that there are so many interpretations of what is appropriate for Muslim women to wear.
"You can easily be scrutinized if your style is not considered Islamic enough," Zraikat said.
Samad said she has only had two bad reactions to her clothing line — both from men who felt she was making fashion more important than religion. But she said the reaction from customers, even women who dress very conservatively, has been overwhelmingly positive.
"I haven't had a single woman complain, and that's what matters to me most," Samad said.
With her shining black hair and large brown eyes, Samad looks as if she could be from the Middle East, but she was born and raised in the United States to a Sicilian-American mother and Jewish father of Eastern European descent.
She converted to Islam in 2000 when she became engaged to a Muslim man of Pakistani descent that she met in high school. "For me, Islam, it just really fit, and it stuck, and it just really integrated into my life," Samad said.
Unlike many Muslim women, Samad does not wear a headscarf. She said while she believes that it is something that is required by the faith, she worried about the reaction from her family — as well as how she would be received after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — were she to begin covering her head. "I'm definitely not against the head covering, and maybe some day I would wear it," Samad said.
Samad sells her clothes through her Web site, conventions or through house parties, where a customer gathers a large group of friends and Samad brings her collection to them to peruse. "
Her best-selling item is an ankle-length denim skirt with, what Samad describes as a "fakeout slit," that puts a pleat where the slit is located so women can move without showing their calves.
Her line includes blouson sleeves that puff slightly around the forearm before gathering at the wrist. Many of her design choices are based off her own experiences looking for particular, trendy items. For example, wanting an empire-waist shirt but only finding ones with short sleeves, Samad made her own.
For Azza Jamal, a 22-year-old junior high school teacher in Chicago, the Marabo clothing line is appealing. She saw Samad's booth at a convention
in Chicago, where she promptly purchased a denim skirt, changed into the skirt in the bathroom and then went back to buy the skirt in another color.
"When we do go shopping, we feel like we don't exist," Jamal said. "Sometimes, you go out there and you think 'Does nobody wear skirts anymore? Does nobody wear long sleeves anymore?' It's frustrating ... So she fixed exactly what we think is wrong."
__
On the Net:
http://www.maraboonline.com (http://www.maraboonline.com/)
http://www.skin-online.com (http://www.skin-online.com/)
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/25/america/NA_GEN_US_Muslim_Fashion.php
Associated Press
Brooke Samad's contribution to high fashion may not be as well known as Diane von Furstenberg's wrap dress or a Vera Wang wedding gown.
But her long skirts with kick pleats and her kimono and Nehru jackets are allowing Muslim women who want to dress modestly to be fashionable at the same time.
A year and a half ago, Samad, 27, created Marabo, a clothing line that she designs and sews herself in her small studio located in her home along the central New Jersey shore. The clothing line is geared toward Muslim women like herself who have had a difficult time finding suitably modest clothing at the mall or in catalogs.
"There's not a lot of options, and it's a hassle," Samad said. She said her customers, "want to look put together. They want to look professional. And to top it all off, they want to look modest ... I don't think that there's anything un-Islamic about that."
The words Islam and fashion are not usually mentioned in the same sentence, and when they are, many people think of the burqa, a floor-length garment that covers a woman's entire body, including her face.
But that certainly is not the standard of dress for every Muslim woman, and especially not in the United States, where Muslim women often wear a combination of contemporary-yet-conservative clothing.
Growing up, Samad was always interested in sewing and clothes, but following her parents' wishes for a well-rounded education, she went to New York University and studied politics. But clothing kept her interest and, after taking some evening fashion classes, she decided to go back to school full-time at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology, where she graduated in 2004.
While she said she appreciates the beauty of many high fashion lines, she wanted to put her skills to work on clothes she could wear herself.
"For me, it wasn't fun, the idea of designing stuff that I couldn't wear myself," Samad said.
Ishraq Zraikat, the New York fashion editor for the Jordan-based magazine Skin, said designers catering to Muslim women are few and far between. She said one of the problems is that there are so many interpretations of what is appropriate for Muslim women to wear.
"You can easily be scrutinized if your style is not considered Islamic enough," Zraikat said.
Samad said she has only had two bad reactions to her clothing line — both from men who felt she was making fashion more important than religion. But she said the reaction from customers, even women who dress very conservatively, has been overwhelmingly positive.
"I haven't had a single woman complain, and that's what matters to me most," Samad said.
With her shining black hair and large brown eyes, Samad looks as if she could be from the Middle East, but she was born and raised in the United States to a Sicilian-American mother and Jewish father of Eastern European descent.
She converted to Islam in 2000 when she became engaged to a Muslim man of Pakistani descent that she met in high school. "For me, Islam, it just really fit, and it stuck, and it just really integrated into my life," Samad said.
Unlike many Muslim women, Samad does not wear a headscarf. She said while she believes that it is something that is required by the faith, she worried about the reaction from her family — as well as how she would be received after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — were she to begin covering her head. "I'm definitely not against the head covering, and maybe some day I would wear it," Samad said.
Samad sells her clothes through her Web site, conventions or through house parties, where a customer gathers a large group of friends and Samad brings her collection to them to peruse. "
Her best-selling item is an ankle-length denim skirt with, what Samad describes as a "fakeout slit," that puts a pleat where the slit is located so women can move without showing their calves.
Her line includes blouson sleeves that puff slightly around the forearm before gathering at the wrist. Many of her design choices are based off her own experiences looking for particular, trendy items. For example, wanting an empire-waist shirt but only finding ones with short sleeves, Samad made her own.
For Azza Jamal, a 22-year-old junior high school teacher in Chicago, the Marabo clothing line is appealing. She saw Samad's booth at a convention
in Chicago, where she promptly purchased a denim skirt, changed into the skirt in the bathroom and then went back to buy the skirt in another color.
"When we do go shopping, we feel like we don't exist," Jamal said. "Sometimes, you go out there and you think 'Does nobody wear skirts anymore? Does nobody wear long sleeves anymore?' It's frustrating ... So she fixed exactly what we think is wrong."
__
On the Net:
http://www.maraboonline.com (http://www.maraboonline.com/)
http://www.skin-online.com (http://www.skin-online.com/)
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/25/america/NA_GEN_US_Muslim_Fashion.php