New York Hijabis

Back in 2015, I met vlogger Nabiilabee

while filming the documentary High Street Hijabis.

Nabiila helped me to explore what modest fashion means for

young Muslim woman who want to express their style but also

adhere to their religious requirements.

Two years on, and we're back together.

The first documentary we made was something of a journey

of discovery for me.

It brought up many questions,

such as why the high street wasn't catering for young Muslim women

looking to dress modestly,

how young women were combining

modest clothing with cutting-edge fashion,

what Islam says on the subject

and why this didn't always meet everybody's approval.

But in 2017, especially in America, the issues surrounding

Muslim identity have come sharply into focus.

This is our journey into modest fashion

in the post-Trump United States.

Wait! We are vetting very, very strongly.

To keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America.

You have some bad people out there.

We don't want them here.

MUSIC: New York by Angel Haze

Prior to coming to the States,

we had to get official I visas to work on the documentary,

all in the midst of President Trump's proposed Muslim bans.

This doesn't really affect me personally, but indirectly,

it does impact Nabiila and other Muslims travelling to the US.

Worryingly, it could also be reversing the positive steps

young modest fashion bloggers have made.

I'm super excited but I'm still kind of nervous,

with like everything going on.

I wonder how it's going to be.

-I hope I'm not stuck in security.

-So do I.

I hope you're not stuck in security as well.

Because we have filming to do.

But we are going to board now, and hopefully,

-we're going to be there in seven hours.

-Yes!

Hello there, how are you?

How funny that we actually had more issues on the British side

than what we did in America.

It was so weird, because I thought it would be the other way around.

-Me too.

-I thought we would get through England, it would be fine,

and then come to America and there's going to be so much issues.

But I actually got stopped and searched in England,

and then came to America and it was fine, they just let me through.

I felt so bad, because it is that situation where everyone

starts looking - "Oh, why has she been pulled to the side?" -

when you have done nothing wrong,

but then all of a sudden, you feel that you have done

something terrible, because the authorities are questioning you

and you're just stood there by yourself.

I was like, "This is awful."

I just want to get a feel for what the people on the ground

are really feeling, because in England,

we are bombarded with the news and then we see people protesting...

Yeah, and whether it is really affecting everyday people.

Because it is all about politicians,

-but are people actually getting affected?

-Mm.

Back in February, Muslim designer Anniesa Hasibuan

showcased her Fall/Winter 2017 collection at New York Fashion Week.

All the models were wearing hijab. They were also immigrants to the US.

What was the reaction to the show and what effect

has the statement she has made had on the modest fashion industry?

We got exclusive backstage access to the show and spoke to Anniesa.

MUSIC: 99 Problems by Jay Z

I was completely blown away by it.

She has an ability to grab these very intricate details

and translate them into very wearable clothes,

and I thought this one was dramatic,

but yet you can adapt it to an everyday wardrobe.

APPLAUSE

New York Fashion Week has been very political.

A lot of designers have been making statements that have been

very pointed but very classy and subtle at the same time.

I think it's a beautiful statement in general,

especially at the moment with all the things happening,

and I think it's beautiful also, and it's important also,

in the fashion industry to use that platform

to make a statement,

to bring awareness and consciousness to beauty stereotypes also,

to change that up a little bit.

Even if it's more modest or whatever,

you still can dress beautiful and you can make a statement.

But it's also more about just being open.

I think Anniesa is making a statement that is very simple,

and it's that there are Muslim women all over the world,

and they like to dress fashionably and they like to dress

to their own taste and still maintain the tradition of a hijab.

They still maintain their modesty.

And I think she does it in a way that is very adaptable,

not only to somebody who is Muslim,

but also to somebody who just really likes chic clothing.

I have never worn a hijab on the runway,

but I think it's a great idea

to not draw the attention away

from the garment, and to rather have

every model, a very clean look.

I think it's just putting more emphasis on the clothing.

Having shows like this is something that gets conversations going.

I think a designer like Anniesa makes a statement

and then it is up to the audience to take that statement

and accept it or reject it.

At least it's a conversation starter,

and we could all use a little bit more conversation.

With modest fashion growing as an industry,

others here in America are seeking to push it forward.

One of those is Nailah Lymus, who runs Underwraps,

the first-ever Muslim and modest female modelling agency in the US.

I did a lot of research

before I launched the agency in the secular world,

because that's where I really wanted to push the models,

into the mainstream industry

and not just to be with Muslim designers

or anything like that. It was just to show

how beautiful modest fashion can be, and when I speak to what I'm doing,

I speak to the reasons why I'm doing what I'm doing with the agency.

So I'm not trying to conform.

Turn very slowly to, kind of, look out the window.

And...

Yeah, let me see how that looks.

-I know how you look.

-MODEL LAUGHS

I would say it's been an overall positive reaction.

There are some people that don't get it and don't agree,

because that's just life.

I mean, that's a level of reality with everything you do,

you just can't satisfy everyone,

but I'm just content with my mission, my plan.

Not to say that there's anything wrong with showing skin

or the "sex sells" idea -

you want to wear bikinis, that's totally fine.

This is just creating another avenue,

and the beauty of the fashion industry

and the fashion world is there's room for so many avenues.

This is the great business to do that.

That'll be the last shot, the dabbing...

One of these situations?

And it would be after you drink the water.

And what kind of support do you feel from

publications and designers?

I feel a lot of support.

I think right now, it is picking up a lot of momentum,

because it's trending a lot more.

Modest fashion is kind of in all the stores now,

it's becoming more noticeable and more tangible,

because modest fashion has always been here,

but it's usually been more...

You got the Valentino, it's usually more high-end designers

and it's not really tangible to the average.

Just because of price points.

But because it's trending now, you have it in H&M,

you have it in Uniqlo, it's like,

Target, you can find some long, flowy dress.

It's a lot more accessible now,

and therefore you see that a lot of women see the beauty in it.

One thing I will say is when you dress...

..a little more where skin is shown, as opposed to more covered,

you're received differently.

There is a different type of attention you get from

the opposite sex, there is a different type of attention

in the business field, it's just a different type

of aura that is going to come your way.

So you never know, maybe dressing like that from fashion,

you may feel, "Oh, I really like the energy I'm getting here."

Yeah, but what does that feel like, the energy?

I feel respected.

Whenever I'm dealing with...whoever it may be,

I mean, a bit of that is just my personality,

because I'm very confident and comfortable with myself,

upbringing and friends and family have built me that way.

-You respect yourself.

-Right, exactly.

So that plays a large role.

I feel like when I'm speaking to people, there is eye contact,

if I'm speaking to somebody of the opposite sex

and they may be attracted to me or whatever,

the conversation doesn't go too far,

because I feel like they don't think it can go that far, you know?

When you see body parts and things,

you just feel a little bit more comfortable

to talk a certain kind of way.

If you see it covered up, you're kind of like,

"I don't know if I can really approach her like that,

"even though I'd like to. I can see she has a shape,

"but I don't think I can only go all the way like that."

As far as being Muslim women,

we want people to see the beauty and modesty.

So if you see it and you like it and you want to copy it,

I'm all for it.

One of the Underwraps messages of yours is "infusion of inclusion".

-Mm-hm.

-Do you feel like America is following that ethos right now?

Um, I think it's gradually getting there.

Because I remember when modest fashion wasn't the term,

it wasn't associated with just Muslims,

and now it's becoming this kind of new Muslim thing going on,

when it's just modest fashion.

It's not Muslim fashion, it's not Islamic fashion, it's just modest.

Anniesa's 2017 collection made a clear statement about

modest fashion and being a Muslim and immigrant in America right now.

We met with Elle journalist Kristina Rodulfo to get her views

on what's happening in fashion at the moment

and its importance when set against

the backdrop of current US politics.

How far do you think the modest fashion industry has come

over the last three years?

The mainstream fashion industry has definitely embraced

modest fashion, it has established itself

as one to watch, for sure,

but we are still at a point when it's news -

you know, it's not the norm,

and so it's definitely a sign that we need to keep on continuing

this conversation until the point that it's no longer something

that's outstanding, it's something that's normal

and making fashionable more representative of all women.

Is it the designers making a statement against...

Using their creativity and their shows and platform to make

a statement against the political climate?

It may seem that modest fashion is coming to the forefront right now,

especially as Trump is in power,

and it might seem like it's an act of defiance, which, in a way, it is.

I can't say for sure if the designers are definitely

trying to say something to the President, but I know for

a fact that it's definitely a group of women that should not be ignored.

Muslim people, by 2030, will make 29% of our population,

so that's 29% of the population that you should be catering to.

Fashion is for everyone.

So it should be for those people as well.

-Halima Aden.

-CHEERING

Seeing Halima Aden walking the runway and getting

the career start that she has is definitely encouraging to

young Muslim women who may want to work in fashion,

because it tells them the message that "You belong."

So seeing more diversity and seeing fashion represent

our country the way that it actually is is very encouraging.

All people want to see is themselves,

and representation for all...

People say that diversity talk happens so much -

because we need it!

We need that, until it doesn't have to be discussed any more.

Who, for you, are the important voices around modest fashion?

A lot of credit has to be given to fashion bloggers,

because they are creating attention

and creating a space for hijabi bloggers,

hijabi fashion, hijabi beauty,

way before mainstream publications were paying attention.

One person I follow is Melanie Elturk of Haute Hijab.

I love her, she's so great.

Amani from Muslim Girl is someone we definitely pay attention to

and we feature her on Elle.com and have a relationship with her.

She is the coolest.

She has a really fun blog that kind of brings

a space that wasn't there before for Muslim women.

Amani has grown her site since starting it at 17 years old,

and it now receives over 100 million hits a year.

Campaigner, tech entrepreneur, author -

this young woman is vocal about all the issues that concern

young Muslim women, and we're about to meet her.

-Hi, Nicola.

-You OK?

You were at Anniesa's New York Fashion Week show in February,

and all of the models were in hijab and they were all immigrants.

So how significant was that to you?

I thought it was really cool to see that,

because it's not an image you typically see.

I instantly just flashed back to my first New York Fashion Week.

It was when I was in college, maybe three years ago, and when

I was there, I remember meeting someone from Wilhelmina Models.

I thought it was so cool,

I'm getting an insider's view on the industry,

and I asked him, "Do you think that there is hope that, one day,

"we are going to see modest fashion represented on these runways?"

And he immediately said, "Absolutely not."

Modest fashion is really about equipping women with a choice

to reveal as little or as much as they want with their clothing,

just to have that autonomy about how they choose to express their bodies.

In the past, a lot of women have been really limited

in the way they choose to dress.

With fashion especially,

I can tell you how much difficulty I experienced

when I first started wearing a headscarf,

when I made the commitment to start dressing in hijab.

And I could rarely find clothes that covered my body,

and especially for a teenage girl, when I started wearing it,

you're already dealing with so many body issues and, like,

fashion, style, you're really trying to navigate your identity.

You want options for how to express yourself,

and I remember always feeling so awkward trying to make things

fit with the headscarf, and now I think it's beautiful

that there are a lot more options out there.

So Muslim Girl has become hugely successful.

What inspired you to start?

It was less about being inspired to start

and more being pissed off enough to start.

I think that, for me, I was 17 years old, I was really frustrated by

this misrepresentation of Muslim women

I had been experiencing my entire life.

9/11 happened when I was nine years old,

so I grew up through a lot of this Islamophobic misrepresentation

of Muslims, and just seeing people talk about Muslim women

and what we believe in, what we stand for,

but it was never Muslim women doing the talking.

And so, yeah, we did what any typical millennial women would do -

we went online and we created our own space.

Can fashion and voices like yours help change attitudes?

I really do credit social media platforms like Instagram

for the rise of modest fashion trends.

You scroll through it and you see

veiled Muslim girls putting on make-up

right alongside non-Muslim women and it's normal.

It's normal in a platform like that,

and I think that's the reason why a lot of these brands are starting

to wake up and realise there's a demand to cater to this market.

Do you feel like it's a genuine interest into modest fashion

and into the Muslim culture?

Or do you think that it is these organisations just jumping on board

because they can see it is a booming industry?

I think that, largely, for our partners,

it has been really genuine,

because what makes interest like that genuine

is when you actually pull in the people you're trying to cater to,

when you include them in the process and you have them

be the ones to design how they want to be addressed, right?

But many of these fashion brands, like Dolce & Gabbana,

for example, it wasn't led by a Muslim woman fashion designer.

It's an amazing initiative for us, for our visibility,

that a beautiful fashion house like Dolce & Gabbana would want

to cater to our community, but at the same time,

it puts out of business a lot of Muslim women fashion designers

that have been creating abayas and hijabs for much longer.

I think brands like Uniqlo kind of have the right idea in mind,

because they partnered with Hana Tajima, they had

a Muslim woman be behind it and be the visionary for it,

and I think that's really great.

I think that's what's so important right now,

especially in the United States, for example,

we've seen so many brands try to reach out to our market,

but then when Donald Trump was saying,

"We want to ban all Muslims", blah-blah-blah,

how many of these brands made any public statements

in support of us, to stand up for us?

None.

What you think the future holds for modest fashion in the United States?

I can tell you what I hope the future of modest fashion

will be, and that is that it's going to be normal.

It's just going to be an option readily available to anyone and

people are going to understand that some women choose to dress

and cover themselves, while others don't,

and there's nothing wrong with that.

As a blogger and YouTuber myself, I want to find out what

all these changes mean for my US peers here in New York.

Have recent events spurred them on to be more outspoken

about modest fashion?

Or are people now scared to

voice their opinions and assert their Muslim identity

in a divided America?

Mariana, what for you has been the effect of Donald Trump?

We have a leader in our country that is not very aware

of our country's history, first of all,

and also the laws of our country,

so it is creating turbulence between its citizens and him.

When he was saying such horrible things,

not just about Muslims, but about people in general,

and...he won, it showed that half the country, even more than half

the country, was OK with this, and they also believed it.

So for me, it was just a big wake-up call,

it was like, "Wow, this actually...

"Islamophobia is something that exists."

And it made me just more, not only aware of it,

but more conscious that I need to do certain things to try

and change it or combat it,

where before, I didn't see it so much of an issue.

I feel like it's made hate much more tolerable now in our society.

For example, my aunt one day was driving and she parked her car,

and somebody threw trash at her in her car, and they said,

"Go back to your country." And she was like, "I was born..."

My aunt was born here as well, so it's just a lot of ignorance,

I feel, and people are taking more pride in it,

they feel like it's something they can do

and they're not going to get in trouble for.

Not to be completely negative,

I feel like there has been a lot of positivity.

At least for me, I have experienced it walking in the street,

someone sees me in my hijab,

a lot of non-Muslims have been like, "Wow, you're so brave."

There's both sides to it.

A lot of love has come out of it,

but there's also definitely been a lot of hate, so...

How has this affected modest fashion?

I personally know people who've taken off their scarves

because they have said they don't feel comfortable or safe,

or they just can't take the stares any more, or the comments,

and I can totally understand that pressure,

I feel like that's personally why I do it,

and I'm sure most of us here, that's what we encourage other women

to do, that's the end goal, to let them feel comfortable.

There's definitely a lack of tolerance for who we are

and the way we dress.

My grandmother has always been incredibly encouraging

of my journey and she asked me,

"Do you think you could still be Muslim and not wear the hijab?"

-And I said, "Well, yes..."

-She just wants you to be safe?

-Yeah.

I said, "Yes, I can, but I don't necessarily want to be."

And she was like, "I just don't want anything to happen to you."

And for me, that was just like...

-It's heartbreaking.

-Heartbreaking.

To think she's sitting worrying because she knows I'm going out

and going to college and things like that with my scarf on...

And are you defiant, you're just like, "No way"?

Yeah, no, I'm good.

There's not much you can do at this point, I'm happy with it.

Kendyl, you're a revert to Islam.

Can you just explain what that is to maybe people who don't know?

I was raised Roman Catholic and then, at about 18 years old,

I chose to revert to Islam, and instead of saying "convert",

like many Christian or Jewish faiths would say,

we say "revert" because we believe that our souls

are created by Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,

and so we are created in a state of being Muslim because that is

what we believe is true, so your soul is, in a way,

reverting back to where it began and what it started as.

So how does your love of tattoos work with your faith?

I get a lot of reactions, that's for sure.

Are tattoos allowed? Seen as allowed?

-No.

-No?

Well, by the majority, no.

The majority of Muslims,

tattoos are seen to be impermissible and not allowed.

So by entering the community as a fairly heavily tattooed person,

there were definitely reactions,

there were a lot of people that felt like I should remove

my tattoos or cover them,

which would mean wearing gloves constantly.

Or something!

For me, it was never an issue.

My body and the way that I looked and my faith never collided

until people made them collide.

-Have you had any tattoos since reverting?

-Yes.

-You have?

So I don't hold the majority opinion.

These tattoos, whether you agree with them or like them or not,

they are a part of my journey and they really illustrate the places

I have been, the people that have influenced by life,

and regardless of if I choose to stop getting them or continue,

they are constant reminders of how I got here.

If I didn't go through those experiences,

I never would have become Muslim.

Can an industry like modest fashion help change viewpoints and opinions?

I think definitely, because I think it shows we're really not oppressed,

we are very self-empowered and confident in who we are,

and there are ways to make it beautiful and trendy, so to speak.

Even Anniesa's show,

everything was very bedazzled and it was glitter everywhere

and it was very beautiful, very sunny, very eye-catching.

I think it kind of builds more sense of acceptance,

and not only acceptance, but fascination with it.

I feel like it's something that is growing not just

in the Muslim community, but in the fashion world all over.

Modest fashion is kind of still in its infancy

in terms of the mainstream.

Where do you see it going in two, three or four years' time?

We have seen in history that subcultures have become mainstream.

Currently, hip-hop, right?

Streetwear is everywhere,

and we're going to see what the result is once we see where

fashion and the trend is moving and see how much it has impacted.

MUSIC: Blinded By Your Grace by Stormzy feat MNEK

This is it, we're at the end of our trip.

What do you think the difference is in modest fashion between

the scene in the UK and being here in New York?

I never really realised how difficult it really was until

talking to the other girls and hearing their stories

-and how people are actually getting physically harassed.

-Yes.

I just realise how lucky I am in England to be a hijabi

and a Muslim, and how easy it is, and how I can just go about

my everyday life without having to think or worry about

me wearing a cloth on my head.

And here, people have to worry about that, it's just crazy.

I think, in today's society, we all feel,

especially with social media,

we all have a voice and we all feel entitled to give our opinion,

but a lot of the time, that opinion is uneducated.

I think with the whole thing that's happening with Trump,

with modest fashion, it has actually moved it forward.

Like Kanye used the first hijabi model.

The designers are trying to make a statement

and it's actually having a really positive effect.

Women of all faiths or no faiths

are realising that they have another option out there,

and I think that that is going to expand the industry for all of us.

MUSIC: Human by Rag'n'Bone Man

I really hope, for Muslim women, that it's going to reach

a level where they can walk out of their homes choosing to dress

however they want without fearing being attacked for that.

And I think that hopefully, I'm hoping,

we're working towards that direction.

# I'm only human after all

# I'm only human after all, don't put the blame on me

# Don't put the blame on me. #