Hijab fashion rut

For me, wearing hijab has become so normal that its become hard for me to write this blog. Its no longer really fashion for me, I do it every day, don't really buy new clothes, just same thing, day in and day out. I have never worn a maxi dress with hijab, I try them on in the shops and it just doesn't work. I think perhaps its because I wear hijab to work with formal tailored wear, which is hard to buy here in modest cuts. So I have a few skirts I've had for years and just change my work shirt or jacket, but again these are mostly old. I probably should buy something new, but I just get drawn back to things in grey, navy, green, white and some feature colours like green, blue, purple and pink.

The only thing I feel like buying are new scarves from Middle Eastern Mall (lol)

Men look at a woman's breasts before her face

Men have an eye for women's breasts
Victoria University of Wellington researchers have found nearly half - 47 per cent - of men first look at women's breast. A third of men's ''first fixations'' are on women's midriff.

Shockingly less than 20 per cent of first glances were at the woman's face.

''Men spent consistently more time looking at the breasts of front posed female images and also made significantly more fixations upon the breasts than other regions of the body or head,'' the researchers suggested.

Tichels: 2 Cute Chiffon

Distinctive Hair Coverings Large Square Chiffon Scarf (Blush and Grey Paisley) US$16.99

Distinctive Hair Coverings Small Rectangular Chiffon Scarf (Sparkling Maroon) $14.99


I thought these tichels were cute and quite different from hijabs that you see around. The reason why they are styled this way is that some Orthodox Jewish cousins wear their sheitals (wigs) to cover their hair and then a tichel (scarf) on top.

Serene Somayeh

Open publication - Free publishing - More adidas

This is my first magazine style post, let me know what you think. If you'd like to look at the Polyvore set go here.

Spring time tunics

It's feeling very summery today, sunny and beautiful. It's a lovely 14 degrees Celcius here where I live, pretty nice for our Southern hemisphere winter. I find it astounding to receive my Ezibuy catalogue (NZ's answer to Victoria Secret but more normal than sexy) in the mail for Spring in July when its still freezing. Muslim & non-Muslim woman alike are wearing long sleeves under their tunics and big coats. Its the time of year where muhajabat fit in the best, our hijabs match the pashmina and wooly hats other women are wearing as do our coats and long sleeves. However with the shift to warm weather I'm thinking about long sleeve tunics, kaftans, breezy cotton skirts and sandals. Unfortunately finding a hijab appropriate kaftan or tunic is quite difficult. Although they do pop up as regular lines at a lot of our chain stores here they are often 3/4 sleeves or shorter, or the dreadfully sheer either by design or thinness of fabric.

This is beautiful but I'd have to wear a long sleeve henley or tee under it, which would make it hot and defeat the purpose.

Sara Print Tunic NZD $59.99

However is you search you can find great things like this, which are sold one off from an online store I'd never heard of before, I want more!

Nooz Pink Ethnic Boho Style Kaftan $25

Girly with sneakers

Casual fun by celeritas featuring Miss Selfridge

Here's a fun outfit that I've put together based on my new gorgeous Adidas Midiru sneakers. I'm sort of wearing this look today, with a long sleeve tee style dress and a grey coat. I love wearing girly colours and sneakers and scarves are a great way to do that.

Lav-an-dar

Lavender by celeritas featuring Jeffrey Campbell shoes

In Singapore they pronounce the suburb Lavender, Lav-an-dar on the train, it amuses me alot.

I thought I'd keep up appearances and post my outfit today. I know I always wear boots but its so cold her in the Winter so I have to. I always wear my handknitted socks in them to keep extra toasty. 

Chalina (said as in See-leee-naaah as in the film 'Selena')

I've found these neat mexican cotton scarves called Chalinas that could be used for hijab, which one do you like best?

They are 0.3m by 1.3m so really good for coverage and they are made in in the State of Chipas, Mexico by Chamulas Indians.

Great piece: Herringbone jacket

Herringbone is great and it’s everywhere this Winter. Shopping over the weekend, I saw it on clothes and furnishings. It's a pattern I normally associate with men but it looks great on women for formal wear. I bought the jacket above in grey as that’s the most versatile for my wardrobe. I do hope it will come down in price though and I will buy it in some more adventurous shades like blue and green.

To wear a jacket modestly either pair it with a long knit with loose wide-leg trousers or wear it with a maxi skirt.

Work that dress!

Black Dress & Brown by celeritas

I love this top, mine is even more modest as it doesn't have bust shaping but if you 'draw your veil over your chest' it shouldn't matter. I really feel very muhajabat wearing this outfit; the length is great with trousers. Its very appropriate for work but with a skirt could be jilbab equivalent for visiting a masjid. I also love wearing leather boots as you can wipe over them for wudhu as they are khuffayn.

Maroon and Brown in Beautiful

Maroon & Brown by celeritas

Another what I'm wearing post with alternatives. Yesterday I wore sort of what's in the middle but the shirt was a button up and I wore a jacket over top. I've got two more formal options on either side, all skirt based. I love the dress on the right - great to see long sleeve maxi dresses but be careful with jersey knits as they can cling. It might be better to wear a coat over the top or a long sweater.

I'm trying to blog more so sorry if they aren't hugely interesting, there are lots of great muhajabat blogs out there. Inshallah my blog is interesting for some, may Allah swt bless you all.

Green collar hijabi

Green collar by celeritas

Here's an approximation of what I'm wearing today, although my shirt is more of a business shirt than this tunic style. I really challenged my style recently and bought three shirts in colours I don't normally wear for work - green, pink and maroon. I'm really enjoying wearing my more colourful hijabs and trying out new colour combos like green-navy-teal. When wearing bright colours to work I feel really comfortable when I wear a formal jacket or light coat on top.

Horsey hijab

Equestrian hijab - by celeritas on Polyvore.com 

I love J Peterman, the clothes are beautiful, described with evocative stories and often hijab friendly. This is a lovely eqeustrian themed skirt suitlook great with subtle accessories. You could wear the jacket in a larger size to ensure modesty or drap a shawl over the top. The skirt looks beautifully loose and modest.

Dog clothes!

Getting a dog is a big thought process for Muslims. They are regularly maligned in Muslim culture as unclean, unpleasant and yucky animals. People generally lump dogs and pigs together but they shouldn't. The rulings on pigs do indeed forbid Muslims from having anything to do with pigs, their flesh or areas where they have been as they are essentially filthy. The rulings on dogs however are quite different. I'm no fiqh expert and I won't go into the details here but basically as long as they have a job - hunting, sheparding or guarding and they live outside, it is perfectly acceptable to keep dogs. There are differences between the Sunni madhabs about whether their saliva and hair is pure or not, as I am a Hanafi the saliva is considered impure but not the skin or hair. To remove the impurity the contacted skin or clothing must be washed with water a number of times.

As we feel the need for a guard dog and are not at home during the day so don't want them to get upset by being alone, we got two! They are sister staffordshire terrier crosses and they are really nice dogs. They are still learning commands but don't do anything nasty things like biting.

As they are still quite slobbery and like to lick everything, hands, clothes, hijab, face I wear 'dog clothes'. These live near the back door and I put them on before I go to feed, walk or clean up after them. This way I don't need to wash them every minute, I just take them off when I go inside. This is what I'm wearing as my 'dog clothes' at the moment:

Hijabi dogwalker - by celeritas on Polyvore.com

Long jackets / coat = Jilbab for work

Ezibuy Coat by celeritas

I really really love Ezibuy, they started in Palmerston North here in New Zealand in the 70's as a catalogue company and now are a trans-Tasman business with catalogues, the internet store and bricks and mortar stores in major centres. Most of their clothing is pretty low priced although they have some 'designer' ranges that use better quality fabric and are a bit fancier in general. What I love about their clothing is that a lot of it is longer and looser than what you can find elsewhere. They sell heaps of long sleeve booty covering shirts, maxi skirts and dresses and even Indian inspired items.

This weekend I got this lovely long jacket over 50% off and the same item in black. I'm sure I'll get a lot of wear and although they are polyester they don't look nasty and they will be light for Spring/Autumn or I can layer underneath. They are really modest and with a long skirt are definitly jilbab equivalent. I would have bought one in brown too but as NZ women mostly don't wear brown for work they didn't have one. Can't have everything.

I've paired in here with a lovely Anokhi scarf and workwear accessories.

Supre Maxis

The Australian newspaper The Age has this great story on using maxi dresses as part of hijab so I thought I'd do a quick polyvore of maxi dresses the chain store Supre is currently selling:

Supre Maxi by celeritas

Vietnam Abaya

Most cultures have a history of modest dressing, its only recently that people started wearing exposing clothes that are tight and see through. The film Heave & Earth contains many images of modest dressing, I'm not sure if they are indeed traditional Vietnamese outfits but they are beautiful none the less. The characters in Good Morning Vietnam also wear similar clothes.

This one on the left is quite tight, a good reminder that the headscarf should be drapped over the bosom.

Here's two similar abayas from Aab

Aab Blue Cosy Cowl Abaya for £44.99

Aab Cinnamon Swirl Abaya for £44.99