Drawn Together by Modesty

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.

It’s happening folks!! We’re drawing together in modesty. Eternity, a store that specializes in modest formalwear for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is offering a white bridal headscarf for Muslimahs. Take a look!

I feel so good now that my closet is cleaned out!

I had the good fortune to cross paths with the book titled It’s So You! Fitting Fashion to Your Life. Of course I was doubtful that there would be anything in the book that would benefit me—me who covers everything but my face and hands. If I hear the lovely advice, “If you’ve got it, flaunt it,” one more time, I’ll…I’ll…blog about it.

Well, good news. Mary Sheehan Warren did not suggest even one time to flaunt it. Her fashion advice is based on a beautiful premise which she puts like this:

“Each relationship (professional, casual, friendly, familial, and intimate) provides its own level of give and take. So, in the most superficial of these you are barely affected because you give very little away. (You don’t love what you don’t know.) For the most part, you are unmarked and unchanged.

A sexual relationship affects you in a far more pervasive way because you give your most intimate self. So if you are still wired the way you began, you are given in a wholly emotional way in response to that kind of give and take. (Sex and the Single Girl never really got into this stuff.)

How in the world is this related to your style? Dressing for success for your whole life means dressing with the confident knowledge of your true value. If we cannot take our sexuality for granted, our style shouldn’t either. Our style is about who we are and the kinds of relationships we have. If we shouldn’t give ourselves sexually to just anyone, our style must facilitate this. This quality, that is, the refinement that protects our sexuality from the eyes and minds of just anybody, is called modesty.

Try not to conjure up the image of a character from Little House on the Prairie! Modesty isn’t retro. It isn’t weird or even self-denying. It is a positive paradigm for fashion choices; not a strain of fashion removed from the mainstream.

It blends. It’s real and works for real women and promotes our material well-being as well as (and even more importantly) our dignity. It can be fashion-forward and will work in anyone’s personal style — even the trendiest.”

Well that was a pleasant surprise. I felt invigorated and kept reading the book with a sigh of relief.

That’s how I got my closet cleaned out. This book takes you through the hands-on process of figuring out the clothes that work best for your body shape (not size—that’s irrelevant), fashion personality, and skin tone. You don’t just read—you empty your closet, take your measurements, and hold up pink and orange to your face—among other things.

How very interesting that pink brings out the glow in my skin, and orange suits one of my friends the best. I would have thought that our skin tones were the same because our hair and skin look similar, but not so. She looks beautiful next to bright orange, and I look sick next to it!

Granted, I cannot take advantage of everything the author had to say. For example, I do not wear makeup every day like she advises. I’m trying to wean myself off makeup. But at least now I know that if I wear a headscarf in “light cool” colors, my skin will glow all on its own. And I won’t be wearing all of the lengths of skirts that are supposed to suit me (I only wear very long), but from amongst the skirts that are long enough for me, I can choose skirts in the cuts and prints that are supposed to suit me AND that fit my religious guidelines.

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.”

I didn’t go looking for another “eye-opening counter” on purpose, but, nonetheless, I did see another one that boggles the mind. It counts plastic bags consumed this year, it’s moving faster than the death counter, and it’s right on the home page of reusablebags.com. Please! Buy some reusable bags or bottles while you’re there!

I did, and I’ll disclose my order if it helps lend credibility to my plea:

1 x Reusable Produce Bag Set (kit) = $44.95
1 x ACME Bags™ - Recycled PET EarthTote Grocery Set, Paper Bag Brown () = $49.95

I wanted two stainless steel reusable bottles too, but they were out of stock. I want these because I’ve got a friend who’s directly involved with research that shows how chemicals leak out of plastic containers and into our food. She’s the one who first alerted me to the plastic problem. She and I both replaced our plastic food storage containers with glass ones. If you’re interested in the plastic problem, you can read about it at reusablebags.com.

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

These women (Orthodox Jews, Catholic nuns, Orthodox Christian nuns, and Muslims) cover their hair and bodies in obedience to God’s commands to do so.

I know there are exceptions to this statement (i.e., some religious women cover their hair and bodies for other reasons), but I’m not talking about the exceptions.

Insight

Just because Jewish and Muslim women have husbands, if they so choose, doesn’t mean that their husbands force them to cover their hair. They cover their hair for the same reason Christian nuns do—to obey God. The choice to wear a head covering is between a woman and God. Indeed, some Jewish and Muslim husbands don’t even like their wife to be covering her hair.

How would a head covering woman end up being married to a husband who doesn’t agree with her decision to cover? Because people change. Many, many women didn’t cover when they were first married, but through study of God’s word, they have either become aware of God’s command to cover or they knew of the command already and finally had the courage of conviction to obey it.

P.S.

There are also non-monastic, head covering Christian women who cover their hair and dress modestly in obedience to God’s command too. What I’ve said applies to them too.

This cartoon collage of hijab styles in Syria is so cool! I’ve been wanting to see something like this for a long time, and today I stumbled upon this one. A very good job to the creator and illustrator.

It would be neat to see one of these for many more areas of the world because it really helps to dispel the stereotypes of how women dress in other countries, especially countries that Westerners consider Muslim countries. Maybe I’ll ask the creator to make one illustrating Minnesota, U.S.A. where I live. Even here where most people aren’t Muslim, we have a variety of Muslims and hijab styles. Even for Iran where a headcovering and outer garment of sorts is required to be worn when outside, there is a huge range of looks. It would be neat to show that to the world.

Have you ever seen one of those world population clocks that count deaths? The first time I saw one, I was awestruck. I suffer from that human limitation of not really “getting it” until I see a picture. This fast-moving counter counting off deaths in “real time” gives me a picture! I’m saying to myself, “Really! THAT many people are dying in the world. How does the angel of death get around that fast?”

Ever since I saw my first population clock a year ago or so, I’ve been much more aware of my own impending death and the life after it—which has been a good thing.

I’d also like to see stats and counters for the ages of people when they died. That would be eye-opening too since I have a mental picture that most people die when they are much older.

Delmas and Esther Mae Gehman work their share of God’s earth in rural Pennsylvania. The Gehman’s store, Gehman’s Country Fabrics & More, just passed its two-year anniversary, which was in June 2007, and their Web site is ahead of the game. They’ve invested in a professionally designed Web site that affords its visitors an opportunity to shop for old-fashioned clothing and goods with up-to-date technology and service.

Seeing a need for modest clothing and fabric for such clothing, they opened their first store on eBay in 2005. Word-of-mouth grew their business. The Gehman’s marvel at how far and wide their customers now are. Aside from their popular easy-care, top-of-the-line quality fabrics, their most popular products are modest slips in sizes for girls through plus-sized women (even in maternity sizes)—each beautifully sewn by meticulous Old Order Mennonite seamstresses.

Their soaps, lotions, modest dresses, and modest dress patterns are also a big draw. They even sell a custom pattern for a Conservative Mennonite style cape dress. That means you may send them your measurements and they’ll make a pattern suited to just you. You then buy the pattern and sew your own dresses. What a great idea!