AlHediya.com is Back!
AlHediya.com is back in business with a reduced inventory. You can still order custom-sized abaya and jilbab though! Men’s thobes and girls’ school uniforms are there too. I’m glad to see them back! 
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“Being hyper-conscious of environmental, social, and labor rights and causes is in our mission statement and is a top priority for our company. The reason we’re getting off to such a slow start in our production is because we’ve had to turn down many attractive overseas manufacturing offers, and we’ve have had to save up enough money to make our clothes here in the U.S. We believe in fair labor practices and have no way of knowing what a contractor does overseas unless we go there ourselves. The clothing we’ve previously carried has been from other manufacturers/designers, but we are finally producing our own line here in the U.S. under fair labor practices and environmental law. Once we get our collections up and running we plan to donate proceeds to certain causes and organizations, use cloth tags, recycled paper for invoices, and other little ways to contribute to making a difference in the world.” —Mona Ebrahim, rebirth of chic
It’s time for the featured introduction of another online retail store for women’s modest and fashionable clothing—Indicana Selections owned by Fouzia Husainy of Canada.
April Deal at Indicana: “Enjoy an additional 10% off on all items in the store with a minimum purchase of $100.00 CAD. From the 10th of April 2009 to the 25th of April 2008. Enter coupon code “PROMO 10” at check out. Happy Shopping!”
Fouzia’s vision was to bring something unique and exotic to the North American modest clothing market. Being from India, she’s fascinated by the rich arts and crafts there. She’s enamored of the rich clothing in vibrant colors embellished with different kinds of embroidery, and so she has been inspired to bring some of this beauty to North America in her custom-designed clothing. People loved the first designs she had made and imported, so now a full-fledged business has grown out of her passion—Indicana. The name Indicana comes from India in Canada.
Even though her designs are all inspired by India, that doesn’t mean they are all similar—after all, India is a huge country. Each state in India excels at and prides itself in its unique form of embroidery. So by employing these different embroidery forms in her clothing, Fouzia offers fashion which embodies modesty and an interesting mix of cultures.
Some of Her Own Designs Are:
Georgette Chikan Work Hijabs
Chikan work is the oldest form of traditional hand embroidery in India passed on from the 18th century. It dates back to the Mogul era when Queen Nurjehan practiced it as a hobby. Her embroidery designs are now depicted on the Taj Mahal, the Agra fort, and many other historical monuments.
Plain, Solid Hijabs With Sparkles
silver thread stitched on georgette shaylas
The Ezee Sports Hijab
She had this style custom designed to help young hijabi girls who are active in sports. It’s a pin-free, one-piece hijab made of breathable, absorbent cotton spandex fabric with a white piping detail.
She also has unique shayla designs in beadwork, block print, and mirror work.
In Her Words
Q: When did you launch your web site?
A: “My daughter designed my first web site. Then after a year, in 2005, I had a static web site professionally designed to showcase our products and receive inquiries. Now I have my complete, dynamic, e-commerce website which is completely functional.”
Q: Were you in the same business BEFORE you launched your web site?
A: “Yes. But before I first imported myself, I was working for the Hudson Bay Company where I got the motivation and aspiration to have my own retail store.”
Q: Why did you get into the business you’re in?
A: “I had a great passion for designing and selling women’s clothing from an early age as much as I had an eye for fashion and interest in art and literature. After coming to Canada, when I found the niche for stylish and tastefully designed modest clothing, my interests were kindled and my vision materialised.”
Q: What has surprised you about the business you’re in?
A: “It needs lot of patience and hard work to make available in the market something new, unique, and exclusive which caters to the taste and requirements of your target customers. It’s surprising to see a lot of the common crowd looking for cheap stuff just to save a few bucks and not caring about the quality of the products I work so hard to uphold. There are others who want you to sell them gold for the price of silver.”
Q: You were expecting the customers your store targets. Who are some customers you weren’t expecting?
A: “I have lot of unexpected non-Muslim customers who love my designs. Also big companies who buy scarves in the wholesale from me.”
Q: What exciting products or projects do you have coming up?
A: “We will be inshallah launching our Spring collection 2009 of exclusive hijab and kurti designs. And we will soon be introducing fine quality mixed cotton bedsheet sets with different embroidery designs.”
Q: Is there anything else interesting you want to say?
A: “My passion for doing web pages for my own site led me to open a website designing & developing business by teaming up with my nephew in India and hiring expert designers and programmers to work for us. The company is called Noesys Technologies. We are working on different kinds of websites now—not just retail but also restaurant websites, law websites, news websites and various other dynamic & static websites. Our rates are very reasonable and the most competitive and our service is exceptional, alhamdulillah.”
Interview with Galia Peled, founder of Princess Modest Swimwear which launched in October of 2007
After having worked for twenty-two years as a midwife, Galia was looking for a creative way to have a lifestyle with regular hours and that included more family time. “Being a midwife really drove home the lesson that each and every woman has her own needs and style and ways of expression” she says. “The more sensitive I could be to her needs and the more space I could help her create to express herself, the happier she was with her birthing experience.”
She believes that as women we need that space in everything we do, not just in the monumental times like giving birth. Galia adds, “Many women today want an active life style that includes exercise and fun. Yet they are not willing to compromise their principles of sense of self-respect and dignity as they feel the bikini cultures require them to do.” So she started Princess Modest Swimwear based on a strong belief that women need options so as not to compromise their principals or give up on an active life style.
Q: Who were some customers you didn’t expect?
A: “I expected my modest swimsuits would cater to religious women from all religions. It has been thrilling for me as a Jewish Israeli woman to receive letters of support and orders for our bathing suits from Muslim women throughout the world. An unexpected customer is a non-religious feminist who believes in the premise of this product.”
Q: What exciting products or projects do you have coming up?
A: “At the present time, we offer modest, fashionable swimwear. Our suits look like a dress, but in the water they feel like bathing suits. We have three different styles and will be offering new colors this season. We will also be offering an extra small size for petite women and pre-teens, as well as 4XL and 5XL for larger-size ladies. This season we are planning on releasing matching head coverings for our suits. In the future we hope to expand our line to include modest activewear for all kinds of sports and activities aside from swimming.”
A few weeks ago, I mentioned 411hijabs.com in the blog about my bazaar selling experience. I have also been wanting to promote them specifically for their awesomely low wholesale headscarf prices. If you don’t want to import yourself, these are absolutely the lowest wholesale prices you will find online shipping from the U.S.
$3.00-$5.00 per scarves of every style! Al Amiras, Kuwaitis, shaylas (wraps), and squares; the low prices make it very easy to sell at an attractive price and still make a profit
They also sell underscarves and girls’ hijab. It seems they hope to sell hijab pins, arm sleeves, and gloves in the future too, and their sister store, 411abaya.com, is soon to debut wholesale abaya.
The minimum purchase is only 3 dozen, so they make it very easy to buy a small number of scarves for:
Julie and Abdul run a tight ship at 411hijabs.com. Their sales, inventory, and order tracking system is top-notch, and they almost never take a vacation or a day off, so your service needs are met in a timely manner. Get on their mailing list because they have free shipping promotions and discounts all the time.
AlHediya.com is back in business with a reduced inventory. You can still order custom-sized abaya and jilbab though! Men’s thobes and girls’ school uniforms are there too. I’m glad to see them back!
blog: DeZines by Zahra
I may finally announce my good friend’s new business! I’ve been wondering for years when someone would start a biz selling Islamic clothing patterns. Then all within the last year and a half, Joyce/Zahra, a 60-yo widow and mother of a grown daughter, becomes a Muslim, meets me and becomes my friend, tries to find Islamic clothing patterns to sew herself some clothes, and finds a hole in the Islamic clothing market. With my encouragement, she has decided to quit complaining and do something about it. (This idea had better fly or it will be my fault. 
)
Her patterns are not available for sale yet, although her launch date is fast approaching. She has in production an open-front abaya, a closed-front abaya, a 6-gore skirt, and various designs of LONG SHIRTS. The #1 request for patterns has been long shirts, so she’s answering the call. She is always taking requests for future pattern designs, so click on over to her blog to leave requests. And be sure to sign up for her newsletter so you may be notified of her launch date.
I told her, and she agrees, that she absolutely has to offer petite, tall, and plus sizes because people needing those sizes don’t find much ready-made clothing. She will also offer a girls’ line of patterns, and, insha’allah, if I can convince her, a maternity line as well. If she listens to me, I won’t allow her to launch the biz ’til she has petite, tall, and plus sized patterns ready for sale too because we ladies of those sizes are tired of not being catered to! (It helps that she’s petite and I’m tall. )
If you have even an inkling that you will be buying a pattern or two when they are up for sale, leave a comment on her blog or reply to one of the newsletter e-mails and tell her! She’s being cautious and producing only a small number of each pattern to start with, and I think the demand will be much larger.
So what else do you want patterns for? My suggestions are below:
Interview with Sara Wolf, founder and CEO of HydroChic® which launched in the Spring of 2007, based in Teaneck, New Jersey
Sara has a story that many of us have—we need something and cannot find it. In her case, she was looking for modest swimwear that was feminine, fashionable, and functional, and she couldn’t find it. Hundreds of us, if not thousands of us, have had this need, but Sara took the extra step that most of us don’t—she decided to make a business of it and help others who want to be modest and active, too.
She tells us, “We have a vision for our water line. We would love to see HydroChic become a normal alternative in women’s waterwear and see this more modest line take its rightful place on the shelf alongside the tankini and bikini. In this way, we hope to offer women another real option for water activities!”
Question: What is one of your best-selling products?
“Our sporty ¾-sleeve rashguard has been a super hit!”
Question: What has surprised you about the business you are in?
“I am surprised at how rewarding it has been. We didn’t expect such an overwhelming response as we have received.”
Congratulations and best wishes to HydroChic!
Interview with Terry Cormier, owner and operator of Al-Farah.com which launched in 2005 and is based Anaheim, California
After converting to Islam in 2002, Terry wasn’t happy with the clothing options available to her so she decided to manufacture her own line of modern Islamic clothing. She began in 2004 working on the business, launched the web site in 2005, and thereafter opened a retail store in her area of Anaheim, California in 2006 due to great demand for her clothing.
Since then, Terry has found it very rewarding to help others dress according to their modest beliefs. As a matter of fact, she has found that quite a few modestly dressing Christians are buying her clothes, in addition to her Muslim customers, because they cannot find modest clothing they like either. Terry is always glad to help any woman of any faith who dresses modestly to feel good. She says, “I have met so many wonderful people who have shown an immense amount of kindness and sisterhood. It all just makes me love Islam even more, alhamdulilah [Praise be to God]”.
Question: What’s one of your best-selling products?
“One of our best selling items has always been our Cotton-Spandex Blouses. They come in a large range of colors and sizes and are a real versatile wardrobe essential.”
Question: What exciting products or projects do you have coming up?
“We are currently working to expand our line to offer more variety and include a larger selection of plus sizes.”
Terry proudly manufactures and carries long, modest shirts and tunics, long skirts, modest pantsuits and skirt suits for work, shayla-style hijab, and more.
Since she does most of her own manufacturing, she would love to hear any suggestions and/or comments that could help her make the clothes you need.
Interview with Hamza Zakaria, owner of IslamOrient.com which launched in March 2006 and is based in London
Brother Hamza comes from a very unique family of converts to Islam. “My family all reverted to Islam one by one, from my older brother, to me, then my two sisters and mum, grandfather, and then finally my father. Alhumdulillah!!!”
Being a tailor by trade and being a Chinese convert to Islam, Brother Hamza is uniquely situated to bring Islamic clothing with Oriental-inspired designs to the market. He is especially motivated to help some of the younger generation of Muslims to come back to wearing Islamic clothing.
It pleases him as well to be involved with one of the best occupations (tailoring) that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his progeny) mentions.
Brother Hamza hopes to complement what’s already in the market for modern Islamic clothing by offering larger sizes and styles suitable for both the younger generation and the older generation. For women, he offers clothing in color so they can accessorize the black Islamic clothing that’s so prevalent in the market.
Q: Who are some of the customers you weren’t expecting?
“We’ve had many customers we weren’t expecting—like some non-Muslims who loved and bought our Islamic clothing. They loved our clothing range; they say our designs are beautiful, yet kept simple and modern.”
“Also, what we are most happy with is that sisters who have never worn Islamic clothing before (because they never found any Islamic clothing that they feel or have the confidence to wear regarding the style, sizing, and material used) bought and started wearing Islamic clothing for the first time. Alhamdulillah, when they came across our clothing range, they loved our elegant and sophisticated designs and our use of modern fabric, such as linen. They loved the many colors we have available and our available sizing.”
Q: What’s one of your best-selling products?
“One of the best selling products is our popular Chinese Islamic clothing which we try to keep modern but with a Chinese elegance.”
Q: What exciting products do you have in the works?
“We are designing more unique designs for our clothing range, and also we will be launching Islamic t-shirts for the brothers with an Oriental theme.”
Denise Al-Shammari has kindly agreed to let me post a goodbye letter from her to her customers. She has been running the Islamic clothing store at AlHediya.com for ten years. Her store was one of the the first Islamic clothing stores I added to Modest Clothing Directory. I will always remember her store as #12. Twelve is the unique number (primary key) my database system assigned to her store entry because hers was the twelfth store I entered into the database. I entered ten Christian stores first, then World of Islam, and then AlHediya.com.
Most of the stores I added in 1999 are out of business now, so it has been a great feat for her to have lasted as long as she did.
I will be particularly bummed about the closing because I order all the abaya, hijab, and prayer garments for my “new Muslim convert gift packs” from her. I don’t relish the thought of trying to find a new supplier. 
I loved getting her bulging plastic mailing bags in the mail filled with stuff to give away.
Here is her letter:
Assalamu alaikum Dara,
Thanks for the support and kind words.
We have found that over the past couple of years, with small Islamic clothing sites opening up all over the Internet, that our customer base has continually gotten smaller and smaller. I assume it is because customers, especially those in the U.S., would rather get their orders delivered fast, from U.S. vendors, regardless of the quality of the clothing. So, we would rather close the business now than watch it continue to decline. That makes us really sad.
We have really enjoyed serving our customers over the past 10 years. The profits allowed us to contribute to some very worthwhile causes and we met some wonderful people.
We were hoping that, by letting our customers know so far in advance about our closing, this would give them a chance to stock up on their favorite items. I think that we are still about the only site that offers such variety and flexibility in our abaya, jilbob and suit lines.
We will miss you all and thank each and every one of you for a terrific decade. Take care and may Allah bless us all!
Denise Al-Shammari
http://www.alhediya.com
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Modesty is a positive paradigm for fashion choices; not a strain of fashion removed from the mainstream.
— Mary Sheehan Warren
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And this world’s life is naught but a play and an idle sport and certainly the abode of the hereafter is better for those who guard (against evil); do you not then understand?
— God
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