FashFaith's Picks of The Week... :)

To welcoming this Summer season, I prefer the casual style.

Maxi dress is always be a "good friend" in Summer.. It prevents the sunlight to "hit" your skin directly, especially if you wear the long-sleeved one, and, in the same time, gives you a breeze from its well-circulated air inside the dress.

Here are a few maxi dresses of my picks:

Splendid tee maxi dress

Lanston - Boyfriend maxi dress

Parker - Long pleated dress

Hijab Styling Tips:

When you choose to wear a maxi dress, make sure that it is not sheer. But if you pick the sheer one, wear an underdress inside the maxi dress, not leggings... because leggings still can give a silhouette of your body (read: legs).

And, wear an edgy outerwear (such as a jacket, blazer, cardigan, or even a cropped long-sleeved tee as an outer wear) if you wear a short-sleeved or sleeveless maxi dress.

So... Happy Summer days, Lovelies! :)

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FashFaith's Pick

Beside other basic wardrobe items popular amongst Muslim women, such as tunics, long-sleeved tees, or maxidress/abayas; shirtdresses can become a chic alternative for your modest fashion's style.

According to wikipedia, a shirtdress (or sometimes called shirtwaist dresses) is

a style of dress which borrows details from a man's shirt. These can include a collar, a button front, or cuffed sleeves. Often, these dresses are made up in crisp fabrics like cotton or silk, much like a men's dress shirt would be.

As they are typically cut without a seam at the waist, these dresses often have a looser fit, usually relying on a belt to define the waist. Button fronts and a forgiving fit make this a flattering look for most body types.

In regard to my observation, the usual tunics and long sleeved tees mostly fall right below the waist or on to the hip, differ to shirtdresses that fall down below the hip and sometimes fall grazing the knees, also cover your thighs. It makes the shirtdress a better choice for Muslim women if they want more coverage while wearing a pair of jeans or pants.

A shirtdress also usually looks more flattering on most women and gives much more style than a typical tunic or long-sleeved tee. It gives a girly or feminine touch (from its A-line or skirt-look bottom's shape) that most tunics and tees can not give.

That's why I love the shirtdresses.. :)

A vintage shirtdress, late 1960s-early 1970s.

A 1950s vintage "shirtwaist" dress.

(Images source: wikipedia)

Below are some of my favorite shirtdresses:

1. Boy. by Band of Outsiders - Shirtdress

2. Madewell - Wayward plaid shirtdress

3. Yigal Azrouel - Silk shirtdress

4. Diane von Furstenberg - Cynthia shirtdress

5. DKNY - Harper print shirtdress

6. Thakoon addition - Button front shirtdress

7. Thakoon addition - Gathered waist shirtdress

(Outfit styling: Ashfi Qamara, via My Amethyst)

Hijab styling tips:

• You can wear either pants, jeans, or a skirt, underneath the shirtdress... then pop up your headscarf, and you are ready to go! ;) 

• Shirtdresses can be worn in many ways... You can wear a shirtdress as an outerwear with the buttons open over a sleeveless maxidress.. and then accessorized the look with a loose skinny-belt over the shirtdress, like this:

• Or wear a sleeveless shirtdress as a vest over your "tight" outfit to give you a modest look. 

Thakoon addition - Sleeveless print shirtdress.

• Or the opposite, wear it as a base-layer underneath your edgy outer wear such as a leather vest or edgy jacket like shown by the image below:

(Image source: teen.com)

A sleeveless shirtdress worn by Selena Gomez, and Ashley Greene worn the same shirtdress as a base-layer for her edgy jacket added with a scarf..

What do you think? Do you love shirtdresses, too?

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Featuring DVF Loves Current/Elliott for S/S 2012

This past recent week, I've been in the mood of casual outfits. Perhaps it is because of the hot weather in my hometown these days and my high activities that need me to move with ease.

My days were filled up with shirts, blouses, tees (my favorite this week is my navy stripes tee), jeans, pants, lightweight skirts or maxis, completed with breathable cotton-linen headscarves. For layering stuffs, I chose to wear a thin, lightweight blazer or jacket over the outfit.

Then I recently popped over Shopbop.com and let me tell you, there are a bunch of exciting stuffs and new designs coming out for this Spring/Summer collection...

In regard to my mood for 'Casual Looks' this recent week, I automatically got attracted to some pieces in casual style... The first pieces that were catching my eyes are from Diane von Furstenberg Spring/Summer 2012 collection.

Here are a few of my favorite pieces I picked from the collection:

The vintage-printed jeans:

DVF Denim

will be a perfect match with one of my favorite tops, the denim wrap shirt-dresses:

DVF dress

By adding this collarless silk chiffon blouse under the denim wrap dress above,

Silk chiffon blouse

the look surprisingly looks fresh and chic! :)

I really love on how the model was styled up by combining the two tops above... the denim wrap dress with the collarless silk floral-printed blouse under, and then accessorized them with a skinny leather belt.

DVF belts.

Other favorite pieces are the silk blouse and pants:

Some beautiful, fresh prints, flowy dresses:

Silk-chiffon Naira dress

Lehana dress

Hijab styling tips: Style them up with a chic cropped blazer and a pair of pants/jeans (or even adding an H-line ankle-graze skirt under the Lehana dress).


Two fabulous pairs of Spring shoes:

A scarf in "Spring colours" combined with black-and-white stripes:

Linescape scarf

Some gorgeous clutches:

Leather large envelope clutch

Embossed crocodile clutch

Anything you are particularly loving, too?

You can see the whole collection here.

Happy weekend! :)

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I was browsing over my folders and files, and found this image of fabulously-looking Muslimah. I can not recall where the picture was from and when it was being photographed.

One thing that I remembered that I really adored her style, and.. when I found it just now, it still amplifies the current trend...

She rocked that "un-usual" cut of the shirt-dress and complimented her headscarf with a big statement brooch... then, smartly toned down all the garish 'black and white outfit' with a pair of 'one of this season's trends'... the nude shoes!

The shoes also break down the 'too matchy-matchy' colours from this look.

The style is simple.. but fabulous!

FashFaith Blog's style inspiration.

  Style Tips:

1. Try to add a big statement brooch onto your headscarf's wrap. It can be pinned on the side of your face just below your ears (like the look above), or at the back of your neck, on your shoulder, or above your inner hijab besides the forehead.

Or simply wear the inner hijab with a "brooch" attached like this... ^_^

It will unexpectedly boost up your look!

2. Don't be afraid to pull off some "un-usual" tops, it might be an asymmetrical-cut long shirt, awkward prints or designs, etc. You'd never know when it comes fit to your style. Or, with a right twist (for example by adding a belt or vest over it), it possibly makes you looking fabulous! 

3. Go for a perfect nude shoes! Find a pair ones that matches your own skin tone, especially pick the pump-type shoes. They will go with almost everything!


Have a wonderful days!

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Tips and Tricks

One styling key that becomes so trendy nowadays amongst young urban Muslimahs who wear hijab in Indonesia is the using of ninja headdress as an inner hijab.

By using a ninja headdress, your hair, neck, upper bosom, and part-of-shoulder area would be get covered (that's why it's so-called "ninja" ^_^ according to how it looks), allowing you to have a free choice on how you would wrap your headscarf.

If you have no idea yet about what kind of headdress that is, you can read the details about it here, on my previous post.

But the big problem that many of these Muslimahs face while they are using ninja headdress is it becomes loose easily around the face after had been worn many times or after had been washed.

I notice that many of these Muslimahs have no idea to fix this out. Some of them will just leave their ninja headdress alone in their wardrobe, unwearable.. Others, keep wearing it by the help of pins. They pull off the fabrics to the both side of face, left and right, and then pin the excessive fabrics to both side; Or, pull the fabrics down and pin the excessive fabrics below the chin.

This is not practical and not neat to be seen :)

I found the solution to fix this up from the shop where I bought mine, Claroshop. As one of the online shop which sell this kind of headdress, Claroshop had wrote a tips on how to fix this problem about several months ago. I have tried it myself and it worked really well for me.

So, for you who thinks that your ninja headdress can not be worn because it's too tight or too loose, here is the tips from Claroshop:

Trick and tips.
Spandex is one of material that we using for head cover. If your head cover become elastic when after imposed many times, you don’t have to be sad because you think it can't be used again.

Don’t worry, we will give you solution for your head cover:

• If you feel too tight to wearing HC (= ninja headcover), you can open a thread at point of left and right on your cheek.

• And, if it's too loose, you don’t have to need a pin to make tight, just sewing the tip of the left and right cheek on your head cover (sew about 1-2 cm depend how loose or tight you want).

The tips is very easy to do.. You can sew it manually or by sewing machine as well.

Hope the tips can help you out! :)

Happy weekend.

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Fashion False for Hijabi

I like to observe people's style, especially their street-styles. In regard to that, I sometimes found interesting things about their style that I used to analyze in my mind then conclude it for myself, whether it was good or not good (according to my own opinion).

Once, in the past few weeks, I stumbled upon some sisters' looks, and found things which I thought they were one of the fashion falses for hijabi. One of the things is:

Wear a skin-hued legging under a mini or midi skirt/dress.

Unfortunately the pic is blur, so the detail is missing.

When I saw them or looked at their pictures from a distance, it looked like they did not wear anything to cover their legs. The legging looked like their own skin, and this is a weird look for hijabi.

The same also apply when I saw a hijabi wearing a skin-hued long-sleeved tee under a tank-top or under a halter-neck top.

I am not saying that this is not right, but these kind of looks are weird for hijabi, especially with the headscarf "on".

Hijab styling tips: Choose so many colors to wear (for your layering leggings/tee) other than the one that have the same hue with the skin tone.

So, be careful with the wardrobe pieces you choose to wear, unless you want to end up look like a desperate hijabi... ;) When we put things on our body, it shouldn't be just an action of layering and layering as an effort to cover up.. but the pieces we wear should "flow smoothly" as a whole united fabulous outfit! 

One of the gist of Hijab Fashion is how we smartly combine various pieces of wardrobe to be one whole (not just) sophisticated, (but also) modest outfit. And, as a hijabi, we know that to be "in" in this challenging fashion world, it takes double efforts for us to do that.. 

But, let's enjoy! ;)


What did you think about it?

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Hijab Tutorial

A new video tutorial from SixteenR.com showing you how to achieve stylish modern look in a super easy way, featuring SixteenR's new 'Cashmere' scarf from their Fall/Winter 2011 collection designed by Nancy Hoque.

The final look of these three styles in the video are so "in-trend" in Indonesia right now, particularly amongst hijabi fashionistas.. :)

 

(Courtesy of SixteenR, via youtube)

Previous SixteenR's tutorial on how to wear a scarf as a head or neck scarf in 11 ways :
This video was made in "vintage" style. I feel like I was watching a Charlie Chaplin movie.. :)


Featuring scarves from sixteenr.com's collection, styled by Nancy Hoque and modeled by Owranoos Suljuki. (Courtesy of SixteenR, via youtube)

Of course, for Muslimahs who wear hijab, those styles in both videos will only be accomplished by wearing a ninja headdress as an inner-scarf.

Or, if you don't have ninja headdress, you can also try to wear your snugly fitted Al Amira-typed hijab or any tightly fitted 'instant' (= slip-over-the-head, no pins required) hijab as an inner.

*Just a thought and Hijab Styling Tips:

According to my observations on many hijab tutorials and the way many sisters wrap their hijab.. ;p, that to achieve one look, there are so many different hijab-wrapping techniques you can do. So, get creative, Lovelies! If you love someone's hijab look and you do not know how to wrap it, you can always try and find your own ways to achieve that look.

On the other hand, sometimes when we want to achieve different look (or even invent a brand new style), those various hijab-wrappings can not implement it. Eventhough we have tried wrapping the hijab in various delicate ways (twist it to left, twist it to the right, twist it up, twist it down, pin it here, pin it there, tie it up, knot it, etc), the 'final look' end up looks similar with the one that already exist.. :) Not exactly the same, but I just thought that the wrapping did not make any different.

Did you ever think so? Or, is it just a matter of the lacking of creativity? So, the main question or the challenge is how do we make that "the one that already exist"? ;)
Oh yes, several hijab stylistas have successfully done this.

As for the similar 'hijab looks', one thing that could help differentiate each of those similar 'hijab looks' is accessories, whether it is a headband, brooch, ribbon, flower/feather hairclip, etc., even sunglasses. Accessories can really help spicing up the looks and to differ each look one-another.

But, if you just want a simple, casual hijab-wrapping for daily outfit, simply wrap your hijab in a pretty casual look and you do not need to wear accessories (especially if you have already worn a full prints/motifs-ed headscarf, or perhaps just add one or two simple accessories for plain headscarf).

Hmm.. but the most thing I can think of is "it's up to you to choose your hijab styles, go for the easy ones for you to wrap, the ones that you feel comfortable in and feel confident to pull off, the ones that suit your personality"!  ;)

Happy wrappings!

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Hijab Styling Tips

For Muslim women who wear hijab, there are many ways to style up a sleeveless dress.

Sleeveless dress can be styled up with almost any outerwear, such as: jacket (denim, leather, cotton, fur, etc), blazer, coat (trench coat, ankle-graze, etc), cardigan (cropped cardigan, long cardigan, etc), jumper, cape, sweater, sweater dress, shirt, suit tops, long-sleeved shrug, etc.

You just have to know which outerwear will be best paired with a particular sleeveless dress. If the dress is tight at the top or has an elastic crinkle at the chest area, wear an outerwear that can cover the area, or even a short jumper.

If the dress is a bit tight at the bottom, wear a knee-length or an ankle-graze coat, a trench coat, or a drape-y long cardigan to cover.

Trench Coats (Image credit: Lovely Today)

Long Cardigan (Outfit styling: Chel of Carousel)

If the dress is loose, simply pair it with any outerwear you love.

A Knit Shrug (Image credit: PatternFish)

Here are some examples on how to style up the sleeveless dress:
With a denim jacket.

How to style up the sleeveless dress for hijabi by FashioningFaith featuring a ruffle dress

With a leather jacket.

(photo credit: Evans Fashion Fix)

With a buttoned-up shirt over the dress, and then accessorized it with a narrow belt:

(Outfit styling: Ashfi Qamara, via My Amethyst)

Or, style it up with a short jumper or a cropped t-shirt:

And, you can also style up a sleeveless dress with a tunic or a blouse over it.. or even layer it with a long-sleeved tee underneath.

NOTE, about layer it up with a tight long-sleeved tee underneath; I'm not a fan of layering these kind of sleeveless dresses (picture below) over a tight long-sleeved tee underneath. Even, it's a fashion no-no for hijabi:

halter-topped, strapped, and strapless/tube dresses by FashioningFaith featuring long evening gowns

It looks like you push yourself wearing something that "you can't wear". That looks weird, and.. you will look pathetic by wearing it.. ^_^



Try to avoid this.

BUT, there's STILL a way you can wear this kind of 'mix-and-match'..

To wear these 'halter tops-strapped-strapless/tube' kind of maxi dresses over a tight long-sleeved tee, is a bit tricky. You MUST complete the outfit by wearing a WIDE and LONG scarf with a particular hijab-wrapping that will ensure you cover the clingy neck and bosom area with it.



NOT like this:

It's not too pleasant to be seen.. right? You better throw up a jacket on this kind of outfit.. ^_^

Or, add a baggy cropped-tee's or a blouse over the outfit,

so the outfit will look like this:


In my opinion, a SHORT-SLEEVED, or a wide-shouldered, or a capped-sleeved dress will look a whole much better if you want to pair it with a long-sleeved tee underneath.

wide-shouldered maxi dress by FashioningFaith featuring long dresses

See..?!

What do you think? How do you style up your sleeveless dress?

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