Saverah Women Expo '17

I recently attended the Saverah Women Expo 2017 at the O2 Arena, which was a weekend featuring a collaboration of vendors selling scarves, modest and Asian outfits, jewellery, halal food, skin care products and makeup, and Islamic art and stationary. There was also a series of seminars and workshops, fashion shows to see the latest collections by different brands, and even a nasheed concert to enjoy.

I only managed to attend one day of the event, but I had a good browse at the shopping hall, caught a catwalk show and managed to speak to lots of other bloggers and vendors, which was a really fun-filed day!

I  managed to get a good look at the vendors who had outfits and scarves available - I often see a lot of outfits and modesty-wear from online websites or Facebook/Instagram groups, and it's nice to see some of these brands up close and see whether they are as nice as they look!

I managed to find a few vendors which I wanted to list, as I get asked a lot by readers about UK-based brands which are reliable, and I thought some of these had some really nice outfits!

First are Traditional Images London, who carry a lot of Pakistani designer pret wear, such as Khaadi, Maria B, Agha Noor, Sapphire, Gul Ahmed and Threads and Motifs (all brands that I LOVE!), which I was really pleased to find!

I also really liked the dresses by Amore Mio, a brand which sells dresses and modesty-wear which I thought were really pretty.

I also liked the abayas by Avyaana Abayah, which had some really chic pieces that caught my eye - I really like that these incorporate current trends like frills, bell sleeves and rich materials.

There were also pretty scarves available by Aidijuma, a Malaysian brand which had scarves for a very reasonable price (from £5.99 upwards), and beautiful dresses and abayahs from designer Jenny Tyayawati who also had her pieces on the catwalk as well.

Lastly were pieces by Haiqah UK, which was a range of dresses, abayahs and scarves, as well as some more luxurious pieces by Sana Zinga, whose pieces I thought were beautiful, with lovely fabrics uses and interesting cuts.

I'm a big fan of jewellery from Pakistan and India, but it has to be decent quality pieces, as there is also a lot of junk out there too! I also came across jewellery vendor Artisan Jewels, whose pieces were beautiful, and who I bought a few things from (post coming soon on that!).

We also came across a halal makeup brand FX Cosmetics, which was developed by two scientists to be properly wudu-friendly, which I thought was really interesting. I liked that there was a huge range of products available, and there were some seriously pigmented eyeshadows and highlighters which I loved!

Halal skin-care company Tamese & Jackson were also at the exhibition - have a read of my post to find out more about them!

I also found a really cute stationary and card company Islamic Moments, which had a range of products that caught my eye (and naturally I bought some cards and notebooks from them!)

I also managed to catch a fashion show with a few brands showcasing their collections, with a range of modesty brands and Asian fashion-wear. I loved the colours and styles of these pieces, although I would have liked to have seen some more dramatic pieces as well.

And of course here's what I wore, a kimono with off white separates (which were the comfiest pieces ever!), and accessorised with a colourful yellow bag!

It was also nice to catch up with the other fashion bloggers while I was at the exhibition - here I am with Modest Seamstress (here and here) and also Be.Hijabi, both of whose blogs and social media accounts I love!

The Saverah Women Expo was a pretty fun event, although I do feel that more could have been done to interact with customers and people who attended, as a it took a while to get busy (although this is also down to the bad weather that weekend as well!). I was really glad to find a lot of new designers, vendors and sellers, and managed to make my purse a bit emptier by spending on a few things too!

Tamese & Jackson: A Halal Skincare Company

I was recently invited by halal skincare and hair product brand Tamese & Jackson to come and try their new products, at the launch of the Ramadan and Eid Gift sets a few weeks ago. I was able to see the products as well as try them out, which I was delighted to do so. Halal skin care (and even vegetarian and vegan) skin care is still a growing market, and it's great to see things which are aimed at people like me. I have heard of this brand before, and know they used to sell in Tesco and Asda so they are already fairly popular, which is a good sign.

These are the products below that I was give to try - a handwash and hand-lotion set (which is part of the gift set range) and the shampoo and conditioner set. I absolutely loved the Islamic-tile inspired packaging of the products, and can imagine these looking great in the bathroom.

The company's aim is to produce and make available halal skin products for everyday use, and as great alternatives for those looking for ethically product products:

"Tamese & Jackson, a new brand of halal-certified, wholesome (tayyib) personal care products ethically produced in the United Kingdom.
We are dedicated to supply high quality, wholesome personal care products which are halal certified, suitable for vegetarians and at prices that are affordable to all."

The company also had a launch event a few weeks ago, and I was invited with a group of fellow modest-fashion bloggers to see their products and also see what the company was about.

We started off with a drinks reception at a lovely venue called HS&Co, which provided some colourful mocktails to start with, and some yummy nachos.

We were then introduced to the company's new products, where we had a change to look at the company's adverts and products on display so we had an idea of what the new Ramadan and Eid gift sets would look like. I like that the products seem very natural-ingredients based, and fairly gentle in smell so that it feels wearable without being overpowering.

There was a really fun dress code for the event - dressing up in the company's colours of white, gold, black or blue! This is what I wore below, a black dress with gold pleated pants, slightly MC Hammer-style but I liked it! I also loved what everyone else went for - lots of white and black, blues and combinations of gold which looked amazing - you can see some of the outfits here.
We all were given a pretty rose each, and also had a chance to take pictures with a beautiful white flower wall which was made especially for the event by a flower company called Al Rouge Flowers.

Next came the food - which was an amazing three course meal of meat platters, steaks and sides to finish - I think I wasn't the only one who was stuffed by the end of the evening!

To finish off, we had cupcakes with the company's logo on them - don't they look lovely?

I really loved the floral theme which was present through the event. There were beautiful centrepieces, single roses for each guest and a couple of huge floral bouquets for scattered around.

Products: Tamese & Jackson
PR company/Event organiser: Generation M
Flowers and Flower Wall: AlRouge Flowers
Venue: HS & Co

I wanted to post a quick review of the products I got to try, as I can see that a lot of thought was put into the products, and I really like the idea of a halal skincare and shampoo brand.

This is the shampoo and conditioner I got, which had a lovely fragrance of lime, reyhan plant and ginger extract. I normally don't vary my hair treatments too much as my hair is pretty long and I need something gentle for it - this set was quite good because it cleans my hair nicely without making it feel dry, just what I need!

I also really liked the hand wash and hand lotion set I was given, which look great in my bathroom. Again, these have the same lime, reyhan and ginger extract smell to them, which feel lovely on my hand and don't feel drying.

I am really liking the fact that companies are starting to recognise that there is a demand for halal skincare, as well as ethically-produced products. I can certainly see that this is something which has potential to become bigger, and I really like the fact that this has come about because of the influence of ordinary Muslims like myself and the people I know.

Tamese & Jackson are available to buy from their website, at Modestrove and Amazon. Have you tried this brand? What do you think of their products?

Afternoon Tea at Laduree

I recently went for afternoon tea with some friends, who are also food bloggers (cue a thousand food and outfit pictures!) at Laduree in Harrods. Laduree's always been on my list to go for afternoon tea, and the desserts did not disapppoint - doesn't everything look pretty?

We all opted for the standard afternoon tea which was very reasonably priced (£30 for two people), and sat back to enjoy the tea. One of the things I really liked was how pretty the cutlery and plates looked - it always makes a tea feel more luxurious when the plates are pretty!

I'll be honest, the mains for this afternoon tea didn't blow me away, but the desserts did - how beautiful does the raspberry fancy look below? I opted for a hazelnut and chocolate slice (being the self-confessed chocoholic that I am) and it was pretty amazing.

And of course we all stopped by at the counter to take home some goodies too - I'd like to say I took some home for my husband, but really, they were for me!

All picture were taken by the lovely The London Haloodie (who, may I say, is amazing at taking food pictures. NONE of my food pictures came out this nice!)

And of course, I can't post a blogger meet without our outfit pictures! It was a mish-mash  of pastels and dark colours, but I loved all of our looks (although I did feel like I was wearing the English equivalent of a lengha!)

Left to right: The London Haloodie, Hijabi in London, myself and Yasmins Intro

LONDON MODEST FASHION WEEK 2017

Last week I attended the first London Modest Fashion Week, which has been something that has received a lot of publicity recently, as it was the first of its kind in the fashion calendar. Organised by fashion house Haute Elan, it ran for a weekend in the Saatchi Gallery, London, and included a whole host of exhibitions featuring designers selling their clothes, hijabs, makeup, jewellery, henna and natural products and services. There were also a group of catwalk shows from 40 designers in the modest fashion world who showcased their latest collections. There were also workshops, talks with designers and business-women, as well as opportunities for those looking to invest.

It was a pretty exciting event, as a lot of modest fashion and even the normal fashion bloggers were attending the event - it was really great to see a unified effort to bring awareness to modesty-wear and the market which has developed. I managed to get a ticket for one of the days to attend, which was great fun as I saw such a lovely variety of bloggers and designers and managed to speak to a lot of them while we explored the event.

The first thing I did was explore the exhibitions, which was spread out over three floors of the gallery, and had plenty of things to see and buy.

There were a lot of brands from various international countries like Turkey, Malaysia and Dubai, as well as British brands who were looking to promote themselves. I loved that there were so many styles of outfits available, and had my eye on a few beautiful hijabs and dresses but didn't get them in the end as they were slightly pricey for me. Below is just a snapshot of some the brands I saw - don't they look colourful?

We also saw plenty of henna being done - I did fancy getting some jaguar henna done but unfortunately wasn't able too, but did manage to pick up some white henna cones!

There were about 4 main catwalk shows which ran throughout the weekend, although I only managed to see one. The outfits were a good variety of modest, loose abayas to dressier ensembles, casual pieces and gorgeous statement pieces.

Here's a few of my favourite pieces from the ramp below, the models were walking pretty fast so some of the photos aren't brilliant!

Leenaz Design

iiLA Collection

Ummiriaz

Feradje

Maslea by Sakura Malaysia

There were plenty of reknowned influencers, designers and bloggers present at the event, many of which have promoted modest fashion and have helped to bring it to the fore - including fashion designer and blogger Dina Tokio, makeup entrepeneur Zukreat, fashion designer Rabia Z, lifestyle and fashion blogger Mara F, fashion blogger Aana Nourin , blogger and designer NabiilaBee and many more. I managed to speak to a few of them and loved how friendly they all were, as well as exchange a few fashion tips!

And I can't post a Modest Fashion event without showing what I wore! I paired a silk jumpsuit from Zara with a printed jacket and a bright yellow bag - it felt very flattering on and I got a lot of compliments on the day.

The event being at the Saatching Gallery, I couldn't resist hgaving a walk around to lookeat the beautiful art on display (I know I wasn't the only one to have this idea because a lot of other bloggers and customers did the same thing!). There were a lot of beautiful art prints available to sell as well, which I thought were gorgeous, particularly the beautiful Islamic art for sale by Siddiqa Juma.

I was also lucky enough to get a goody bag from Haute Elan to take home with me, which I thought was so thoughtful. Inside were some jelly beans from Haute Elan (which my husband helpfully ate for me), a beautiful mug from gift company Mubarak London and a gorgeous jersey hijab from Naelofar, a lovely Malaysian brand.

My only criticism of this event was that I think that more could have been done with this event - there were only stands to buy from and catwalk shows, and I really think there should have been more workshops and opportunities for bloggers and non-bloggers to interact and learn how they could help the modest fashion cause. As much as I loved that there were so many modest fashion brands, I thought some of the things available were too pricey - I had a discussion with a friend who also went to the event a day later who said she would prefer to buy things from a normal high street store because the value for money was better.

I also noted that a few bloggers who had attended LMFW stated they felt a little snubbed or ignored by the bigger bloggers - unfortunately this does happen a lot at fashion events, and it can be a little upsetting. It can also be difficult to get to speak to everyone you want to speak to - this event had hundreds of photographers, bloggers, designers and marketing staff, which made it crazily busy. I think in this context, the organisers of the event could have made it easier for people to interact and introduce themselves to each other.

All in all, I had a really fun time at this event, and feel pretty proud that I managed to be a part of London's first modest event like this on a large scale. It's nice to think that this could be a regular part of the fashion calendar in the coming years, and it also shows the effect that wearing hijab has had on mainstream fashion.