Olivia Palermo

Modest Day Wear

For day wear go for her choice of wide leg jeans or soft tailored wide leg trousers (rather those super skinny leggings). Team it with a soft shirt, loose sweater or a simple t-shirt. Even if it’s not long sleeved you can do like she does and cover it over with a lightweight jacket or pretty cardigan. If you’re not a trousers sort of person go for a long skirt take a look at my artists impression here.

Maxi Dress Glamour

For a special occasion, or those times when you want to feel fancy the quickest course to modest elegance is with a maxi dress or abaya. With an abaya you can dress it up with a statement cropped jacket (something with structure). For the maxi dress choose a simple blazer or bolero. The base should be pretty simple, Palermo tends to start with a simple elegant base and builds it up with the accessories. I’m not talking lots of bling, just one key necklace or bracelet and of course a beautiful bag.

Style Analysis

In terms of her style, she loves draping with jersey or chiffon. In the evening she adds sparkle with… well sparkle, sequins or satin- but it’s never top to toe, just accenting the outfit. She does go for bold prints but doesn’t really mix them, instead, if she goes bold with the print she minimizes the accessories and tones down the extras. The key is in the detailing, little things like bows, belts, texture and fringing details make the look interesting without being a slave to trends.

In a sentence: Keep a simple basic outfit, experiment with statement jackets and jewellery and top it off with a big funky bag.

Hadith of the Day

“Exchange gifts, and mutual love arises: shake hands, and enmity will fall away.” Ibn Asakir

The Content of Character, Collected by Shaykh Al-Amin Ali Mazuri

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Feminine Abayas

Sleek and elegant, these runway looks provide great inspiration for girls in hijab or modest dressers. With acres more coverage than we’re used to seeing from designers, these maxi dresses and gowns make great abaya templates. Look for the details: trims, drape, and texture to add to your own abaya design. Keep accessories to a minimum for understated chic, or go for one bold piece of jewellery to add a touch of elegant glamour.

(images: style.com)

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Good Little Actions

Help a little more than usual around the house, maybe washing up or help to make iftar keeping someone company mean chores don’t have to be boring… and don’t they say- ‘many hands make light work’ (…I’m pretty sure they say that)

Hadith of the Day

“The most complete in faith are those best in character and kindest to their families” At-Tirmidhi

The Content of Character, Collected by Shaykh Al-Amin Ali Mazuri

Dream of Green

This beautiful modest maxi dress is the work of Chado Ralph Rucci. The golden green satin works beautifully as a base for this simple elegant design. This is one of those dresses which is deceptively simple, the bias cutting below the empire line is difficult to do well. I love the little details like the dipped hem and empire band, a perfect Eid outfit. Just add a bolero or cardigan, and a green headscarf maybe a few shades darker (I have the perfect one).

Hadith of the Day

“If a Muslim consoles his brother during some crisis, God will adorn him in garments of grace on the Day of Judgement.” Ibn Majah

The Content of Character, Collected by Shaykh Al-Amin Ali Mazuri

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A Fresh Start

Go vibrant in green gowns draped head to toe in loose lush fabric. Fresh elegant and feminine, the perfect way to start this beautiful month. Add gold accessories for an occasion, or team with dark denim and for a sophisticated day look. Add pink accessories for a quirky fun touch.

Linked Look

I love this Roverto Cavalli dress. The shape is modest and the style is very elegant, but the link print is fun and a bit quirky. It’s quite similar to the Chris Benz look I posted the other day, but even more Muslimah friendly!

(image: wenn.com)

Modest Dresses: Simple shapes and abstract prints make modest fashion fun

Pre-Fall Finesse

This Lacroix Maxi Dress manages to be elegant, luxurious and playful at the same time. The print is gorgeous with great use of colour, rich but fresh. Because of the sleeves I would wear a polo-neck underneath with a simple headscarf. You could wear trousers underneath silk pajamas style, or we could always pretend there isn’t a side slit!

Strawberries and Cream

Islamic Fashion: A very elegant beach wrap feel to it, the print is really fresh- strawberries and cream at Wimbledon.

Pretty Prints

This dress is probably a reflection of my mood which is probably a reflection of the weather. So summery, colourful prints it is, and once again I’m drawn to the billowing fabric and loose shape. Perfect for a hijabi garden party with a lightweight cardigan or bolero and plain white headscarf.

4. Wide leg trousers

Finding trousers that are loose enough to cover the hips can be tricky, but once you’ve found a style that suits they can be very useful for making tops, tunics and even mini dresses hijab friendly. Go for wide leg pleat front trousers or the harem style (word of warning: ones with a really low crotch are almost impossible to pull off so go for ones based on the style). There are quite a few around on the runway, but may be slightly harder to find on the high-street for my full guide click here.

5. Wrap Dress

Another item of clothing I wear over and over again! Because the are wrap around you can make them as loose as you like and become very versatile. Wear them fully tied, tied on one side, fully open, over trousers, skirts even abayas, as a jacket… you get the point there are lots of ways to work it out! These are easily found on the high-street and a lot of people will already own one.

6. Tunic

Tunics seem to be made for hijabis! They are modest in their shape but still very feminine and elegant. A main-stay in resort wear collections grab them in summer while you can. The only winter alternative is a long sleeved shift dress, but summer is the best time to get the prettiest prints and detailing. Because they tend to be very light-weight you can get away with wearing long sleeves underneath, but actually a lot have full length sleeves to begin with- yay! Don’t you just love love love the Matthew Williamson tunics, if anyone bought from his H&M collection send in your pics!

7. Knee length jacket

A muslimah spends a lot of time trying to cover up tops that show too much shape, of trousers that cling to the hips. For those days when you’re just popping out for groceries a long jacket hides a multitude of hijab ‘hot-spots’. Whether it’s a warm winter coat or a paper thin mac they are readily available and can come extremely well designed. And would it be so wrong for us to throw on a trench over our pajamas to throw out the rubbish?

After our top 3 countdown I’ll be throwing together some looks with the headscarf using our big top ten- if you have any ideas of your own send them in to hana@stylecovered.com

runway images: style.com

Modest Maxi Dresses are one of Saab's great strengths in his S/S 09 collection

Saab Style

Lebanese designer Elie Saab’s Spring/Summer collection was so fresh and from a Muslimah’s perspective quite exciting. I love the variety of ways he’s managed to cover up body shape without it looking boxy. The shapes are so elegant and feminine, there were so many styles I liked it was difficult for me to choose just a few to show you! The maxi dresses are really innovative and cut differently from most that I’ve seen, and great for hijab.

Islamic Fashion: With so many different modest summer styles covering up is certainly chic!

Love Lengths

The selection of tunics and dresses above are so summery. And I absolutely love the mini/maxi length where the hemline drops to full length at the back. They would look great with some slouchy trousers- just imagine that top tunic with some white linen trousers- beautiful!

Saab's couture collection was a simple but stunning array in gentle tones. (images: nymag.com)

Couture

His couture line has amazing attention to detail, it may be his Middle-Eastern background that inspires the decorative embellishment. But this decoration never looks garish or out of place, it combines the best of both worlds in beautifully simple elegance. Either way his background definitely helps him to be a great designer for Muslimahs.

This stunning Dior maxi dress combines beautiful print and elegant draping

Japanese Neon

So maybe modest isn’t the word, but for Muslimah’s the dress shape is beautiful. If you take away the ‘geisha on acid’ make-up the print is elegant and not too flashy. I know it’s not this season, but when a dress is good it’s good! I get inspired by images like this. With a high empire waist a cropped jacket would be perfect, with all the draping I would keep the jacket tailored and simple. A neutral hijab is all you need to complete the perfect Hijabi outfit.