Wednesday, February 25, 2009

I may not be the best-dresser around, but I take a keen interest in fashion and I really enjoy going shopping. Never before has it occurred to me to look for outfits online though, but I picked up the 'Sisters' magazine on Sunday, saw a few of the websites advertised and was inspired.


I started with IslamicDesignHouse.com and the abayas/jilbaabs that they have on sale are interesting, but not quite what I was looking for.


I moved on to another website and had a look at what they term the 'burqini' or burqah version of the bikini :P which is a bodysuit that covers ur entire awrah, head included, but is still accepted for use in swimming pools in and around the UK. I hear that there is a muslim life guard who carries out her duties wearing one such 'burqini'. It looks a bit strange and I would probably be quite self conscious if I actually decided to buy and wear one, but kudos to her for being so brave and carrying out her job islamically :)


And then I struck gold! I google image searched Islamic wear and found this picture on the blog pearls for breakfast


The blogger who put together this ensemble is not muslim, but she had a go at an Ismalic outfit and i think she did a great job:)

I decided to explore polyvore.com, the place she uses to construct her outfits and I was in heaven:) It's like playing dress-up-barbie but with real, actual clothes that you can find in the shops. You don't have to go to specific websites to find what you want, you just search for, 'green handbag' for example and the search engine goes and picks up a multitude of green handbags from different stores and different designers and you can just put them together and create something that you can buy afterwards. I don't think I'll actually ever buy anything from polvore, because with the exchange rate and the shipping costs etc it becomes quite expensive, but it's great fun to explore.

Here is my first attempt at an Islamic outfit:




My first polyvore attempt

It's nothing to shout about, but i'm proud of it. I think I found what I was looking for in online islamic wear and I'm definitely going to be going back to polyvore to play some more