“It’s paradoxical,” Saeedah Haque mused, reviewing her time interning at London Style Week, “to be in an area where imaginative clothes is being commemorated yet feel out of location due to the fact that of your clothes.” She had actually constantly been interested in style and deeply enthusiastic about human rights, the young British-born Muslim lady studied company and location at university, making standard degrees familiar to her Bangladeshi immigrant moms and dads. Upon finishing, she landed a 9-to-5 in the humanitarian sector that ultimately left her unfinished. It wasn’t till after she saw the growing existence of South Asian designers online– who accepted their cultures while imbuing political declarations into their innovative works– that Saeedah felt motivated to check out a profession in style. In hopes of finding out more about the market, she started pursuing style internships and quickly discovered herself at London Fashion Week.
In the middle of the status and allure of one of the “Big Four” (the others being New York, Milan, and Paris Fashion Weeks), Saeedah felt out of location. She saw she dressed conservatively compared to the designers she consulted with, her head decorated with a hijab. For 3 years, this sense of displacement remained before Saeedah boldly decided to develop her eponymous label, Saeedah Haquefacing South Asian and Muslim underrepresentation in the fashion business through her “unapologetically modest” styles.
Ever since, Saeedah’s productions, most significantly her ingenious “hoodie abaya,” a modern analysis of the conventional garment used by Muslim ladies, have actually gone viral. Merging impacts from London’s edgy streetwear scene and gritty hip-hop culture, her pieces have actually mesmerized audiences all over the world. On TikTokwhere she’s shared her work, Saeedah has actually accumulated more than 200K fans, 6M likes, and remarks from celebs like American singer-songwriter KehlaniBritish MC and rap artist Dizzee Rascal, and British rap artist AJ Tracey, among others. She even captured the attention of Nike, leading to the release of a restricted Nike By You collection. More remarkably, the 5 initial collections she’s dropped on her online shop have actually offered out within minutes of going live.
For Saeedah Haque, both the individual and the label, style goes beyond simple clothes; it serves as a medium for storytelling, cultural identities, and political assertions. In a society swarming with the ruthless analysis of females’s bodies and options– consisting of school gown codes, victim blaming, mommy shaming, and hijab restrictions– Saeedah acknowledges the development of style as an effective tool for recovering firm. Through her welcome of unapologetic modesty in style, as seen with the hoodie abaya, Saeedah pushes ladies, and particularly Muslim females, to assert their autonomy in a world that typically looks for to police their flexibilities.
Maturing in London, Saeedah typically had a hard time to dress herself in such a way that reconciled her individual design (young, modest, and comfy streetwear) with her faith– however that was more due to the fact that of a basic absence of alternatives than Islamic guidelines of modesty. As Saeedah discussed, modesty in Islam is fluid; it’s not as much about using a particular garment as it is satisfying a particular tenet. Regardless of its typical association with females’s headscarves in the West, the term “hijab” really equates to “barrier” in English and usually refers to covering one’s hair, whether it be with a ballcap or headscarf. Regrettably for Saeedah, a lot of modest garments she came throughout in London appeared more fit for older females. “I think that’s since it looked like more older individuals were observing the hijab in a rigorous method,” she hypothesized.
This misunderstanding around Islamic guidelines of modesty likewise comes from the conflation of Islam and Arab culture in the West (a conflation typically sustained by anti-Islamic belief and Orientalism). In the East, where Islam is more common, nations analyze Islamic clothes through their own spiritual histories, cultural looks, and political contexts.
Elizabeth Bucara teacher of faith at Northeastern University, observed this when investigating Muslim females’s style in Iran, Indonesia, and Turkey– 3 Muslim-majority and non-Arab nations. Their unique designs, she asserted,”[push] back versus the concept that what counts as correct Islamic clothes is determined by the Arab world and after that simply embraced in other areas,” hence withstanding the concept of a homogenized Islam.
As a London local, Saeedah’s analysis of the abaya draws motivation from the raw essence of the city’s streetwear and hip-hop scenes, the minimalism of Skims garments, and the performance of ladies’s athletic uniforms. Saeedah, who typically uses comfortable hoodies and fitness instructors, explained the hoodie abaya as “among those things [she’s] required [her] entire life however might never ever discover.” She developed its shape– total with a generously-sized hoodie– to focus on convenience and ease of motion, especially with females professional athletes in mind. Influenced by Kim Kardashian‘s Skims handbook, she pictured her line to be anchored by flexible staples best for blending and matching. While the hoodie abaya functions as a foundation of the Saeedah Haque label, it likewise signifies a more comprehensive motion towards improving and incorporating abayas, in addition to stylish modest style, into Western culture.
In tribute to hip-hop, Saeedah included embroidered expressions onto the cuff of each hoodie abaya, a subtle yet considerable information in her styles. Each collection release includes a various message. The inaugural drop bore the expression, “No cash in the tomb,” a creative play on lyrics from Drake and Rick Ross’s “Money in the Grave” (” When I pass away, put my cash in the tomb”) and an Islamic hadith stating the insignificance of wealth in the afterlife (” When an individual passes away, all his deeds pertain to an end other than 3: continuous charity, advantageous understanding, and an exemplary kid who will wish him”). This method not just functions as a poignant reflection however likewise showcases Saeedah’s innovative style and uniqueness as a designer.
More poetically, Saeedah’s analysis of the abaya shows her diverse identity– a London-born child of Bangladeshi immigrants, a style enthusiast, a devout Muslim female in the West, and an impassioned human rights supporter. Both her individuality and her label emerge from a confluence of cultures; a distinct point, like Cartesian collaborates in a multidimensional (or, if it’s exact to state, intersectional) area. “They would never ever actually utilize a French terry,” Saeedah discussed of standard abayas when reviewing the products she explore in her styles; a casual remark that exhibits the mix of her Islamic faith and London childhood.
That’s why, in part, Saeedah didn’t produce the hoodie abaya specifically for Muslim females– something she’s regularly inquired about on social networks. As she states on TikTok, you do not need to be Muslim to take pleasure in modesty. Due to the fact that her training instilled in her the significance of remaining real to both her individual design and her worths, Saeedah champs the concept that modest style is for everybody. She likewise thinks that social networks has actually played a critical function in not just empowering varied designers like herself however likewise in making modest style available to young customers.
When Saeedah established her label in her bed room, she had an Instagram account and a nonexistent network in the fashion business. In her mind, the latter significant her greatest drawback. Towards the end of 2020, while scrolling through Instagram, she came throughout a post calling for applications for an incubation program by the VFiles Foundationa not-for-profit company that buys upcoming creatives driving systemic modification. Saeedah composed it off. (” I didn’t believe I ‘d get it,” she admitted.) 30 minutes before the due date, she impulsively chose to attempt.
Eventually, her approval into the program showed to be her burglarize the fashion business. VFiles offered her with important resources: financing, a function in Vogue, brand name reliability, a runway program, and expert mentorship (consisting of one enthusiastically helpful coach from Tom Ford). Saeedah even fulfilled Fear of God creator Jerry Lorenzo– who saw the worth in her vision– when he and Justin Bieber partnered with VFiles for a Function pop-up“For them to have such a substantial network and all of this experience and understanding, and after that to see my concept and believe it might actually go someplace, in spite of not being Muslim or from my neighborhood, it was actually verifying,” Saeedah mentioned.
VFiles likewise provided Saeedah a platform to specify the identity of her label. When it came time to produce a digital project showcasing her collection’s wearability, Saeedah turned to her pal Iqra Ismaila British-born Somali soccer gamer commemorated for her management on and off the field. As captain of Somalia’s very first females’s nationwide soccer group and the creator of Hilltop WFC (a club committed to empowering marginalized gamers in London), Iqra embodies durability for Muslim ladies professional athletes worldwide, happily using a hijab– a sign of her steady dedication to her faith and sport, even in environments where it’s typically considered “risky” or prohibited. For Saeedah, Iqra embodies the principles of her label: unapologetic modesty. With that in mind, Saeedah developed her digital project to display Muslim ladies who pick to use the hijab as unquestionably capable and unrestricted in their pursuits.
After her experience with VFiles, Saeedah understood precisely how she wished to promote her hoodie abaya. Leaning into the garment’s hip-hop and streetwear looks, she selected raw, underground visuals and got her buddies for the shoot. By avoiding excessively curated images, Saeedah intended to place the hoodie abaya as a natural addition to streetwear style– embodying convenience, boldness, and uniqueness. Eventually, she desired it to resonate with females in alternative scenes worldwide, from London to Brooklyn. “It’s truly about having something really cool and important that individuals can choose and adjust to what they’re currently using,” Saeedah stated. “I do not desire them to use my clothing and seem like they’re on their modesty journey or unlike themselves.”
Beyond promoting her label, Saeedah leverages social networks to record her journey as a designer. On TikTok, she shares informative “Easter eggs” that notify her last styles and naturally inform audiences about Islam. “The garment is a lot more than a piece of clothes; it’s part of my identity,” she worried. This blurring of lines in between Saeedah Haque, the individual, and Saeedah Haque, the label, is hence natural. In authentically revealing herself and her spirituality, Saeedah asserts her company and voice without awaiting external recognition. Her social networks existence by nature recovers the story surrounding Muslim ladies and their hijab options, promoting for an authentic understanding of Islam in the West instead of simple appropriation.
Usually, when Islam does accomplish presence in the West, it’s misshaped by anti-Islamic or Orientalist beliefs and removed of its political truths. From meditation and yoga (” Namast’ ay in bed”) to Ayurvedic medication and turmeric (” golden”) lattes, the Western commodification of Eastern practices is absolutely nothing brand-new or unusual. Saeedah even mentioned the rebranding of resting on the flooring and consuming with one’s hands– Eastern practices initially considered uncivilized or unclean– as minimalist and sustainable over the last few years.
In the fashion business, this is viewed as designers progressively include Islamic impacts into their collections without acknowledging them. In 2018, British way of life and culture publication Dazed even released a viewpoint piece called, “Is the fashion business fetishising the hijab?” after significant brand names– consisting of Alexander Wang, Calvin Klein, Versace, Lanvin, Dior, Chanel, Balenciaga, Marc Jacobs, and Gucci– provided “head coverings of numerous designs” at their AW18 reveals that were just referred to as “sculptural headpieces” and “hooded headscarves,” disregarding “any possible Islamic roots or referrals.”
American style design Bella Hadid, who is Muslim and of Palestinian and Dutch descent, has likewise spoken up about the progressively noticeable Islamic impact in the fashion business and the synchronised discrimination Muslim females deal with in style. In 2022, she composed in the caption of an Instagram post: “Although various kinds of the hijab and head coverings are beginning to make a look in style, let’s still keep in mind the day-to-day battle, abuse, and discrimination Muslim females deal with regularly due to the fact that of their faith and what they mean.”
“At the end of the day, style is a type of storytelling. We speak about Muslim underrepresentation in movie or television, however I do not believe Muslim representation in style is discussed enough,” Saeedah commented. “The gratitude for the garment exists; the gratitude for the imagination and the concepts exists. The gratitude for the neighborhood is not always there, and that’s actually essential. If we take a look at the political context, there are really typical ladies and females suffering due to the fact that they pick to use particular garments. That’s something the fashion business requires to be held responsible for. It’s clothes; everybody ought to be complimentary to use whatever they like. If they wish to cover or not cover themselves– it must be an option. A great deal of individuals believe style isn’t political or that they do not have a say in politics. If we might begin that discussion, it would make a distinction– not simply in the political landscape however in the neighborhoods and the customers.”
After observing a stunning variety of legal disagreements that included difficult gown codes, Stanford legal scholar and teacher of law Richard Thompson Fordwho teaches work discrimination and civil liberties law, started looking into historic style laws. In 2021, he released his findings as a book called Gown Code: How the Laws of Fashion Made History In it, Richard argues that individuals have actually traditionally utilized gown codes to implement political control and social hierarchies. As an outcome, style has actually long worked as a tool in social advocacy to challenge standards by presenting brand-new political designs and discreetly asserting social status. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, individuals withstood “sumptuary laws” that determined clothes based social status.
Possibly more familiar for Americans, Black civil liberties activists in the 1950s– ’60s showed in their “Sunday Best”– suggested to imitate the white middle class– to assert their self-respect and need regard. “There were laws in the United States sometimes that needed Black individuals and servants to wear clothes that was thought about proper to their status, which was the most affordable status,” Richardinformed Stanford News. “For Black individuals to wear a way that was classy and improved was an obstacle to that kind of class structure which’s likewise part of what was happening with the Sunday finest clothes in the civil liberties battle.”
By the 1970s– ’80s, The Black Panthers embraced a quasi-military design, acknowledging the value of aesthetic appeals in political modification and selecting a Minister of Culture. This awareness resulted in the introduction of the “Black is gorgeous” motion, which intentionally attended to the political elements of racial aesthetic appeals and built a brand-new Black visual, improving dominating appeal requirements to accept the Black neighborhood instead of replicate white visual appeals.
In the West today, the usage of gown codes as a method of political control discovers its most glaringly apparent symptom in France. Over current years, the country has actually dealt with installing criticism for its out of proportion concentrate on Muslim females, hindering the combination of Muslim neighborhoods, when imposing spiritual limitations under laïcitéits nonreligious concept developed in 1905. While secularism usually represents the separation of church and state, France’s laïcité intends to lessen, if not straight-out forbid, spiritual expression in public areas. This position has actually stimulated controversial disputes and legal fights worrying Muslim trainees’ rights to use hijabs in public schools because the late 1980s– a reflection of the increasing presence of the nation’s growing Muslim population.
In 2004, France prohibited obvious spiritual signs in public schools, preparing for subsequent limitations under laïcité. The nation’s subsequent restrictions on burqa and niqabs in public areas in 2010, followed by restrictions on abayas and qamis in public schools in 2023, were validated by security issues and efforts to fight viewed “proselytism” and “communitarianism.”
To keep in mind, the 2004 restriction of obvious spiritual signs consisted of not just hijabs however likewisebig Christian crosses, Jewish yarmulkes, and Sikh turbans. Oddly, little crosses and the Star of David are still allowed to be used in public schools.
Regardless of being lawfully challenged as inequitable, these restrictions have actually been promoted by France’s State Council, with the French soccer federation likewise imposing a restriction on hijabs throughout competitors in 2023. As a repercussion, Muslim females should face challenging problems in between sticking to their faiths and taking part in specific sports. This is even more highlighted by the current restriction on French professional athletes using hijabs at the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics. (In action, the International Olympic Committee specified that professional athletes from other nations can use hijabs according to their particular sports federations’ guidelines.)
The international spotlight fell on Iranian rock climber Elnaz Rekabi in 2022 after she took part in a worldwide competitors in South Korea without using a hijab– a compulsory requirement for Iranian females professional athletes in nationwide and global competitors. Less than a month previously, the awful death of Mahsa Amini while in custody of Iran’s morality authorities, apparently for incorrectly using the hijab, stimulated extensive demonstrations within Iran and globally for females’s rights.
Upon her go back to Iran, Elnaz provided an apology to state media, under what numerous think to be pressure, and apparently dealt with home arrest. Later on, reports from pro-reform media source IranWire mentioned that her home had actually been damaged. Whether determined by concepts of secularism, counter-terrorism issues, or authoritarian programs, the outfit of Muslim ladies stays a centerpiece of worldwide examination and policy, highlighting the naturally politicized nature of style.
While designers like Saeedah or professional athletes like Iqra and Elnaz show that using a hijab does not restrict Muslim females, the option to use it or not use it plainly does. Even the world’s biggest provider of athletic shoes and clothing, Nike, discovered itself involved in debate upon revealing the release of the Pro Hijab in 2017. The statement included images of figure skater Zahra Lari, triathlete Manal Rostom, and Olympic weightlifter Amna Al Haddad– all from the United Arab Emirates– as spokespeople for the item.
Some slammed Nike for supporting “the injustice of females,” others applauded the brand name for supporting “equality, variety, and approval in politically tense times.” Advocates of the release within the Muslim neighborhood still promptly pointed out that Muslim-owned brand names have actually long provided athletic hijabs. Iranian triathlete Shirin Gerami commented“My response was, ‘Oh, that’s absolutely nothing brand-new, the sports hijab has actually been around for years.'”
Nike isn’t the very first Western brand name to provide a sports hijab, it’s certainly the biggest. In spite of speculation that the billion-dollar brand name forayed into the modest activewear market as a money grab amidst political environments, Nike has actually likewise handled analysis and political reaction for its position on hijabs in sports. It’s even given that launched the Pro Hijab 2.0 and the Swim Hijab. For Saeedah, Nike’s recommendation of Muslim females’s existence in sports through these items signified a development in representation. It wasn’t simply about accommodating an existing market however about producing area and exposure. As quickly as Nike revealed the Pro Hijab, Saeedah lost no time at all checking out the brand name’s site. “I simply keep in mind clicking the menu and hovering over ‘Women.’ There were alternatives for football, swimsuit, and modest,” she stated. “I keep in mind clicking the modest area, and there was Ibtihaj Muhammad.” Because minute, she seemed like she was lastly being seen.
Saeedah at first “pitched” her concept for the hoodie abaya to Nike by messaging people connected with the brand name on LinkedIn. Due to the brand name’s worldwide impact, she thought Nike might improve understandings of Islamic clothes, potentially even prevailing over French laïcité restrictions. If Nike slapped its trademarked Swoosh on a maxi gown (a term utilized interchangeably with abaya in the Middle East), she questioned, would it, too, be prohibited? Would it reduce the effects of any cultural and spiritual undertones? While Saeedah didn’t at first hear back from anybody at Nike, she continued to pursue her vision separately. She developed the hoodie abayas herself, introduced her eponymous brand name, and dropped 5 sold-out collections through her online store.
Through her brand name’s online platform and social networks existence, Saeedah shared her journey transparently, even revealing her belief to her fans that Nike might have been the perfect partner for her endeavor. Throughout that time, her TikTok and Instagram platforms got a combined 331.3 K fans, a lot of whom continued to tag Nike in their remarks. By the summer season of 2023, Nike reacted. In August that year, the brand name dropped the Nike By You x Saeedah Haque Limited CollectionThe collection included Swoosh-bearing Islamic clothes, consisting of abayas and niqabs cut from DriFit jerseys like Saeedah had actually constantly visualized. And in a probably full-circle minute, Nike hosted a panel in London including Saeedah and Iqra to accompany the drop.
In reviewing her experience, Saeedah credits the viral success and worldwide resonance of her label to the credibility of her journey as a designer. From the start, she acknowledged that the significance of her label lay in recovering the story surrounding Muslim females and option. As a self-taught British Bangladeshi Muslim female from North London, Saeedah embodies the unapologetic modesty at the heart of her label, specifically while browsing the Western fashion business. At style occasions, she’s typically discovered herself with dignity describing her cultural standards, such as not shaking hands with males who aren’t household, to associates. “There are lots of methods of revealing regard? Putting your turn over your chest or bowing– there are numerous various cultural methods we can welcome each other,” she mentioned.
By effortlessly linking her culture into the material of style areas, Saeedah emphasizes her identity and culture as much as she does her ingenious styles. In this cooperative synthesis, Saeedah Haque, the individual, undoubtedly begets Saeedah Haque, the label. While Saeedah values the growing network she has actually cultivated within the fashion business and the awards from celebs, she discovers the messages from girls in her neighborhood to be the most significant. Whether it be professional athletes looking for garments like hers or previous gamers motivated to go back to their sports, these messages verify her overarching objective in life. “It indicates I’m making development,” Saeedah resolutely verified. “We’re not there yet, however we’re on the ideal course.”
For more from Saeedah, visit her site to take a look at her label and the hoodie abaya hereBe sure to follow her on TikTok here and Instagram here