Mahira Khan and Sonam Kapoor at Cannes 2018

Guys, I've been MIA for a while now, I know! Did you miss me?
I've been taking a small(ish) break from blogging for a couple of months recently, partly because of time constraints and partly because of laziness/motivation needed/ideas needed but I'll hopefully be posting more regularly now!

In the meantime, how sweet is this photo of Sonam Kapoor and Mahira at Cannes? I love that it's shows a lovely friendship between an Indian actress and a Pakistani one - definitely one of the best moments of Cannes, I think! More on the outfits at Cannes soon though!

A Meet and Greet Blogger's Session with Imaan Boutique

Last weekend I was lucky enough to be invited to an afternoon high tea with leading Malaysian hijab and modesty-wear brand Imaan Boutique, and also a chance to meet Imaan Boutique founder, Madam Rubina Mughal. The company had exciting pieces of news, firstly the company celebrated their second anniversary, and secondly the release of their new Eid collection.

Imaan Boutique has a gorgeous range of scarves, modest outfit pieces and abayahs which aims at an audience of young adults, career women and also 40s women. Initially the brand was launched online in 2013 with the use of social media, but since then the brand has opened a boutique in Malaysia, and aims to launch new collections every season to keep up to date with trends. One of the things which really struck me about this brand was how colourful yet wearable this brand it - it aims to create beautiful outfits which appeal to many ages and which fit in with comfortabole yet modest.

The event took place at Skylon Restaurant in central London, and when the bloggers arrived we were all given an outfit or a hijab to try on. I arrived a little late (blame the trains!) so I didn't get a chance to try on the abayahs or dresses, but I did manage to look at the hijabs, and I loved the fabrics which were used.

The group managed to have an interview session with founder Rubina Mughal, where she told us about the brand's aim and the new Eid collection, which consisted of beautiful pastels, maxi dresses with drapes and pleats, soft pinks and mints and embroidered sleeves. Personally I loved the scarves, the material draped beautifully and I love that they are big enough and versatile enough to be draped any way the wearer wants.

Here's a quick peek at the restaurant we went to - I forgot to take a picture of the amazing view overlooking the River Thames and all of the lights below, but you can see how lovely and floral it was inside!

Here is also some pictures of the outfits on the actual bloggers - I love that we all got a chance to try and get a feel for the new collection for ourselves. Most of the bloggers (including myself) loved the outfits, and agreed that they were very wearable. Not all of us wear abayahs but the designs were very appealing and there were also a mix of maxi dresses which looked lovely.

And of course a mention of the tea itself! We were served several juices and teas, along with delicate sweet treats and nibbles, which tasted lovely - I quite liked the raspberry and pineapple tarts!

Imaan boutique very generously gave each blogger an outfit and a hijab to take home - I got this lovely black one with embroidered sleeve and a very pretty salmon-coloured hijab. Even though I don't wear abayahs normally, I can imagine wearing this one because of the flattering cut and how wonderfully it drapes, especially as it was made from a thick silky material which looked quite decent in quality. I also was really happy with the hijab scarf as the material is a non-slip one and the colour is something which is right up my street!

All in all, I thought this was a really fun day to meet the Imaan Boutique brand, and also to meet other bloggers who are interested in hijab, modesty and fashion. It's great to see brands which are trying to make hijab fun and colourful without compromising on modesty. In this day and age, it's still too easy to associate boring with abayahs, especially if you see a lot of plain black ones, or even for non-Muslims to find hijab intimidating, so it's lovely to see brands like this which try to combat this.

I'll be styling my Imaan Boutique hijab and abayah soon, so watch this space!

Imaan Boutique online store

Facebook group

Instagram page

(You can also see a few Youtube Vlogger's videos here and here of the day!)

CURLY FRIES SHOPPING THERAPY: Limelight Gold Kameez

A friend of mine recently went to Pakistan and was kind enough to get me an outfit from Limelight Pakistan, which was a beautifully embroidered gown with a silk inner slip. Here's a sneak peek of the outfit, isn't it gorgeous? I can't wait to style this outfit, I'm already thinking of gold and black combinations (with pops of red, maybe?)

The best thing was, the weekend I got this outfit, I went shopping in a local store which stocks designer outfits, which also had a very similar outfit to this one - but at twice the price! Always love getting a good bargain!

Outfit post coming soon...!

My 1920s-Inspired Bridal Shower

 A week before all of the wedding festivities began, my sister-in-law threw me a 1920s’-themed bridal shower, which was mainly an excuse to have one last shins-up with all the girls in my family before the real party began. It was a really fun day, with my mum, sisters (minus my eldest sister who was absent due to the birth of my newest, squishiest niece!), cousins and a couple of aunts all enjoying the dress up, good food and silly games which made us all explode in girly giggles. I thought I'd post about this first because it was the first in about a fortnight of lots of wedding events, girly fun and dressing up - I wish I had more photographs and you can also see my post here, and my sister's post here, but I didn't get a lot of chance to take my own so credits to my sister for most of the amazing photographs!

You may remember reading about my vintage, floral, polka-dot and pearls themed bridal shower which was a few weeks before, so you can say I was already feeling a little spoiled!

My sister-in-law hosted the bridal shower in her beautiful home, and it was an amazing setting for a old-style, 1920s-slash-Great-Gatsby themed bridal shower which she decorated for and made some amazing food for.  Below is just a glimpse of the table setting – we didn’t get to put the banners up which we wanted, because all of us forgot to bring blu-tack or tape, and we didn’t want to ruin the wallpaper by using anything else! We told everyone to either wear 1920s themed costumes or just red, white and/or black to keep it simpler, and it was great to see everyone stick to the theme – I loved some of the make-up styles that some of the girls did too, dark red lips, heavy rouge and smokey eyes!

The costumes everyone wore were lovely, although as usual, the babies in the family stole the show! I had a really pretty black and white striped-and-circles maxi dress which I had intended to wear, but which I couldn't squeeze my oversized which I changed my mind about, and I ended up wearing a black lacy dress with pearl beads and bracelets was pretty perfect for me! You can see what I chose below, it looks quite simple but it was very comfortable, and I made up for it with matte, dark red lips and smokey eyes, as well as a feathered mini top hat which completed the look for me!

I wish I could post some of the other girl's costumes, but my pictures aren't great and I'd like to protect their privacy, but everyone made an effort with feather headbands, feathered-print dresses and red,black and white dresses!

The food was probably the real highlight of the evening - my sister-in-law and her mother are both brilliant cooks so it was going to always end in some very full bellies! I also was lucky enough to have two cakes - my sister-in-law made a beautiful red velvet cake, and my sister made a beautiful red, white and black cake with a yummy chocolate filling.  There were also some beautiful, miniature tarts, various dishes like chicken kebabs, finger sandwiches and to add to the desi mix, good old spring rolls and samosas!

 

 
I loved the decor, and I'll admit, I didn't really help out with it at all because everyone else did such a great job, and my sister-in-law's house was pretty much a perfect backdrop anyway. My eldest sister made Art Deco style banners, another sister added small touches like beads and coloured balloons, and of course my sister-in-law did the beautiful table settings, complete with matching napkins!

 

We ended the day with lots of gossip and a raucous game of 'pin the moustache on the groom' which was a little embarrassing because of all the teasing I got, but also very fun because we blind-folded all the older women and made them join in! The bridal shower was fun, intimate and very relaxed, and also perfect to set the mood for all the wedding festivities which started a week later (especially as we all had to run around after the bridal shower to get the preps done!) I've not been to a 1920s/Great Gatsby themed party before, and it was really lovely to have one for myself, especially as it gave all of us the chance to be creative and let our inner-drama queens come out!

 The babies of the family showing off their inner (and outer) divas!

What did you think of our party - have you ever dressed up for a 1920s theme? And what did you wear if you did?

My Eid...!

Eid was an lovely, small affair for us, but no more fun than the usual Eids, filled with family going in and out of each other's houses and eating plenty of food to complete the day!

This is what I wore, which was a very last-minute purchase from a local store called Maria's Collection, which carry a range of non-branded formal and semi-formal outfits. I initially wanted something with a shorter hem, but couldn't find anything I liked, and ended up seeing this one and thought it looked pretty so bought it. My mum and sisters thought that it looked a little Kashmiri in style, and also a little Turkish in the style of embroidered jackets, which I thought made a change from the usual blingy outfits I wear. The outfit was a jacket style gown with a plain kameez underneath, very light and comfy to wear with colourful embroidery. Here's how I wore it:

I also managed to wear the Red Velvet shade of the Lime Crime liquid lipstick, which I was happy with because the colour was beautifully vivid and lasted the whole day! I wanted to match my shoes to my lips to make them stand out more, and was happy with the effect.

I also dressed up for the second day of Eid, although this was a lot more relaxed and comfortable, particularly as it was a warm day! I wore an Agha Noor kurta in hot pink and black, which didn't come with any bottoms so I took a hot pink churidar from another of my outfits and wore it with that instead. The kurta is a lovely silky material and was perfect for a summer's day, as well as not feeling too dressy (although I changed my shoes to flats by the end of the day because I couldn't be bothered to wear heels and would have preferred sandals!)

 

I wasn't the only one who dressed up though - the little babies of the family were wandering around like little princesses, and my sisters and sister-in-law looked very chic in their outfits (I only managed to capture two of them, the other ones wouldn't stand still long enough!). Here's just some of the pretty dresses, my sisters looked lovely but it was the babies who stole the show!

I didn't manage to get time to put mehndi on, but some of the girls in the family did. I had wanted to go out to on Chand Raat the night before to either buy some mehndi and bangles or get some mehndi put on, but after seeing the huge number of people on the main road and hearing the dhol players, I changed my mind!

My sister also baked us some pretty pink Eid cupcakes to enjoy, which tasted scrumptious after all the yummy food my mum made.

I completely forgot to take pictures of the food because I was too busy eating it, so I don't have a lot of other pictures from my Eid (apart from chasing toddlers around and making people pose), but it was a really fun day. We had dinner at my sister's and a barbecue at my Aunt's house which was a nice opportunity to spend the day with family too.

How did you spend your Eid? And what did you wear?

Eid Mubarak!

I've been a busy bunny this weekend, with last-minute shopping and Eid preps, but it was a lovely Eid for all of us and we managed to spend time with all of the family and plenty of little ones running around! More pictures coming soon, but here's a quick post to say Eid Mubarak everyone, and hope you enjoyed good food, good clothes and good company!

In the mean time, here's a quick peek at what I wore for Eid, which was very comfy!

My Online Shopping Experience: Brand Central Pakistan

I recently linked this website - Brand Central - in another post, and mentioned that they sell ready-to-wear branded designer wear, but that I couldn't recommend them as I have never purchased from there. I thought I'd take a shot and order something from the website that was low-priced (that way if I got conned I wouldn't lose a lot of money) and to see how the process went.

I'm seeing a growing trend of pop-up shops and online websites selling ready-made and pret outfits by various Indian and Pakistani designers, which makes life easier than having to go through the rigmarole of ordering a custom made outfit. It also makes the designer outfits more accessible and gives a chance for us consumers overseas to buy outfits rather than going through Facebook, ordering via relatives or even flying out to India, Pakistan or Bangladesh!

I decided to opt for this Zainab Chottani long black kurta-style dress, which I thought would make a great outfit for evenings out or post-wedding dawats (I also wanted to treat myself to an early birthday present!) - it's simple, versatile and easy to wear, plus looked quite hijab friendly. The website is pretty easy to navigate, and they give a good view of the outfit which you can see close ups of. I saw this design a while back and thought it looked quite chic, so was quite pleased that the price was relatively reasonable.

The outfit itself took about two weeks in total to arrive, from selecting and paying for the purchase online and it's arrival at my door. I got a phone call about a week after placing the order from a Pakistan number (they start with +92), which turned out to be from the Brand Central company confirming my order, and also letting me know that the outfit would come in 7-10 days.  About two days before the delivery date, I also got an email that gave the date of the delivery, which would arrive via FedEx - and on the date as stated, the outfit arrived nicely packaged and secure.

This is the outfit when it came in the post (although it was slightly more wrinkled so I had to iron it first before I took pictures!) It was only one piece and not particularly heavy, so I didn't expect to worry about any damage or issues with the kurta.

Most of the design is print-work at the bottom of the dress, although there is a motif at the shoulder which adds some sparkle. The dress itself is a lovely shape, which has a tail to the back and the material is malai lawn, which feels really soft and comfortable on.

When I tried the dress on, I was quite pleased with the fit of it, the shape is incredibly flattering (it made me look taller and skinnier!) and it's perfect for hot summer days because of how loose and cool it feels on. I also can't wait to wear it because I'm envisaging wearing it with a long gold kundan-style mala necklace under my hijab for a statement piece.

Overall, my experience was quite easy and hassle free with this company. There are pros and cons with ordering from any online company, not to mention the risks, which I'm still quite wary of because there are very few established online websites selling outfits like these.

The Pros: The website accepts Paypal (which is better for us!) as well as card payments, and have clear, close-up images of their outfits. The shipping costs are fairly low, especially since they use FedEx which feels reliable to me. They are also willing to ship worldwide which is helpful. Generally I was happy with this website because there is a good range of designers and outfits, and there's a good guide to sizing, descriptions about outfits, materials used and information regarding shipping and FAQs. I also liked the fact that a lot of these outfits were a bit more affordable, but perhaps this is because some of them were semi-casual and formal outfits as well as the heavier (and expensive) designs.

The Cons: I'm not sure if there are many cons to the website, other than the fact that the sizes are fixed to the usual Small, Medium and Large, which may not suit everyone's needs. For me, the fact that the outfit take two weeks to arrive is not bad, since it's quicker than other companies, and certainly quicker than getting a custom made outfit which can take anything from 6 to 12 weeks. It's not really handy for last-minute fashion emergencies though (believe me, I've had those, wandering to the local shops for an outfit about two hours before a wedding!) The other thing is still the fact that it is still a bit of a risk buying something without seeing it, so you might not be happy with what you get.

I'm sure I'll get a chance to order from this company again in the future (probably not for a while, as I'm a bit broke!), and I'll be sure to share if I do.

Have you used this website before? What was your experience like?