Eid Outfit Inspos!

We all have this struggle every year - what to wear for Eid? My sisters and I always make a trek along the local high streets and either get lucky in finding something we love, or look online and in shops for ages before we finally settle on something.

It's a little cheeky to be looking for Eid outfits before it's even here, but the one thing I've learned for myself is that the earlier I look, the better deals I find and the more happy I am with my outfits!

I thought I'd post a few outfits I've seen recently which have caught my eye as Eid outfit inspirations - even if I don't buy them, treat them as inspiration!

#1 - This Amber Gohar pearl outfit
I saw this online, which is currently being stocked by UK vendor Hina Rasim on her instagram page, and loved the look - pearls, trendy bell sleeves and a gorgeous border on the hem. I quite liked the outfit in white, which would look great as a summer piece. My husband also loved this piece too, but it's slightly more pricier than my budget allows at £250.00, so I'm still thinking about it!

#2 - This Sana Safinaz Luxury Eid Collection piece
Pakistani brand Sana Safinaz released their Eid Collection recently for pre-order, and some of the pieces look really dreamy. My favourite is this pretty piece, a mint and peach ensemble with gorgeous embroidery. It's different from a lot of pieces I've seen in that it's a longer kameez style, but I think it looks pretty chic, and at Rs. 12,500 (that's about £95.00), that's not bad. The only issue is being to actually get it before it sells out, and as these come unstitched, getting a tailor on time!

#3 - This cape-dress from RDC London
RDC London is one of stores, so we always take a look in the shop whenever we're in the area. The black cape-dress on the left caught my eye last week - I loved how elegant the cape looked. It's a little dressier than my usual embroidered kameezes that I go for, but I have a few weddings coming up so this could be handy! I wouldn't pick the black shade (my family tend not to go for black when it comes to Eid these days), but it does come in cream as well. I also saw the red outfit on the right a few weeks back and it looked quite funky to me - a little Russian-inspired to me! Not sure I could pull it off  but it's an interesting idea.

#4 - Agha Noor outfits by Kurta Kouture
You can't go wrong with Agha Noor, it's reasonably priced, easy to wear and looks pretty. UK-based Kurta Kouture stocks a range of Agha Noor and has a few pretty pieces online - I quite liked the pieces below, although I haven't decided on anything yet!

I'll be keeping an eye out for more pieces (watch this space for a Part 2 of this post!), and will post any more ideas I find, whether it's online or in the shops!

I'm also looking to go to a Ramadan souk (bazaar) called The Exhibit at The Bulgari Hotel, Knightsbridge, which is happening in two weeks. This will be a multi-brand trunk show showcasing a range of brands, which I'm hoping to find something at - so more about this soon!

Curly Fry's Shopping Therapy! My Lipstick / Highlighter Haul

If you know me, then you'll know I'm a huge lipstick freak when it comes to makeup, followed closely second by highlighters, which are also an obsession - and my primary love these days are liquid lipsticks. As I was describing to my friend yesterday, I'm so used to wearing lipstick lipsticks, that when I wear 'normal' lipsticks, I keep thinking that it will come off my lips too easily!

I've been pretty good with buying make-up for a few months, so decided to treat myself to a few things a couple of weeks ago. There's a good mix of brands here, and I wanted to wait til I tried them all before I posted (I wore one each day for work!) so here's a quick review about each. My sister also  gave me a pretty highlighter brush in a fish-shape, which I've seen online but wasn't sure where to get from, which adds to my brush collection nicely!

This is my haul - there's a good mix of American and UK brands, some of which were new brands that I hadn't tried before.

As you can see I got mostly liquid lipliners, some highlighters from Makeup Revolution, and some things from Model's Own (which has opened up a store in Westfield near me, which is where I bought these from).

Here are all the lipsticks from left to right - Faryal Makhdoom Cosmetics, Colorpop Ultra Matte Lip, Drayon, Dose of Colors and Model's Own Lip Crayon.

Firstly, the Colorpop lipsticks - I've tried a few lip crayons from this brand so had high hopes for the liquid lipsticks, and wasn't disappointed. I've loved the shades these came in (there were quite a lot to choose from), they smell great and really pigmented. They mostly last the whole day but do come off a little when eating, so not completely long lasting, but very good value for money.
Top to bottom: Beeper (soft pink/nude). Trap (cool mauvey-pink), Tulle (red-toned dusty dark plum)

Next is Dose of Colors which I have been eyeing up for ages on Beauty Bay - I bought two of these when there was a 20% flash sale on so got lucky there.
Top is Pinky Promise, which is an almost neon pink shade, and bottom is Stone, an almost lilac-pink shade which is pretty for every day wear. These are pretty long-wearing and took me a while to get off my arm, so be warned!

Faryal Makhdoom Cosmetics matte liquid lipstick in Latte - I was lucky enough to get this sent to me via the company's Instagram page for free, and love this shade. It's a really lovely nude shade which would suit a lot of skin tones, and feels pretty creamy on. It's not as long-wearing as some higher-end brands but pretty decent in pigmentation and coverage.

Next up is the Model's Own jumbo matte lip crayon in shade Cute Candy, which is a rich brown shade, and has a nice matte look but a creamy feel. I've worn this a few times already to the office because it's a pretty easy colour to wear, pretty flattering on Asian skin and makes a good everyday brown.
I bought the Drayon lipstick from eBay after seeing a Youtube video by Dyna, who compared these to Kylie Jenner liquid lipsticks, and looked like a pretty good dupe. They don't have names, but come in shades, and this is a shade 8. This was surprisingly very pigmented and very long-lasting, although it is another one which takes a while to take off.
Top to bottom: Faryal Makhdoom lipstick in Latte, Model's Own Cute Candy, Drayon shade 8

Lastly are the two strobe highlighters from Makeup Revolution - I'm a big fan of this brand's highlighters and blushes because of how good value they are, and the excellent colour range. I have two or three blushes and highlighters which are my makeup-staple because they are so flattering on me, so I was excited to try these.
As you can see, both of these are decently rich shades, the gold highlighter is pretty gold, although I did expect a bronze undertone which it doesn't really have. The silvery highlighter is actually a holographic one, although the other colours in them are very subtle, but it still makes a nice warm highlighter.
I also did try to use the fish brush with these, but unfortunately, while it picked up the product, it was a little hard so didn't blend on my skin well!
Left highlighter is Flash, right is Gold Addict.

I'm quite pleased with this haul, if you keep an eye out on my Instagram stories, I post my new stuff every now and then, so let me know what you think :)

Fashion Trends & Passions: Pashmina Shawl Statements Pieces

This is something I've been seeing a lot lately, pretty pashmina shawls being used as statement pieces. Not just any old shawls either, I've seen a whole range of embellished, embroidered and velvet ones which I love - perfect for the winter weather too!

If you haven't seen these, here are just a few examples I've seen below - I've even seen gorgeous velvet heavy shawls incorporated into wedding outfits which look amazing. I also really like the fact that some of these shawls are styled with belts for a fitted look, which look really chic - with dresses, short kameezes and even jumpsuits.

I'm really liking a lot of the trends out there at the moment which include contrasting, or making shawls pop out with bright colours against a neutral surface, which can really pull a simple outfit together.

I'm lucky enough to have quiet a few outfit which come with beautiful shawls and dupattas, which are statement pieces on their own. I always have loved the idea of a colourful dupatta with a plain kameez suit (something my sisters and I used to do a lot when we were younger! Net dupattas, anyone...?) so I love that this is back in again. I also find these quite modest - great for a draping on your shoulders or arms if you want a looser look.

I've been looking for a a reason to pull out a few of my pashminas for a while and have been playing around with a few that I already have - luckily a lot of my winter suits have beauttiful thick shawls for me to use. This is an older outfit I have from Pakistani label  Charizma, that I got the chance to make use of recently. I really like this brand because it's pretty reasonably priced, and really comfortable. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get this directly through the website (but looking at the decent prices on their website, I'm tempted to order now!) but I did order this through Brandcentral.pk who are quite reliable.

This is me wearing the outfit, I wanted to use a belt for this but thought it wouldn't go with the embroidered kameez. No heels this time, just flats and a plain hijab!

I really loved the colourful design of this outfit - I'm not sure what I like more, the outfit or the pashmina! I'm definitely going to use the shawl for a more plainer outfit though (jumpsuit, plain abayah, any ideas?) to see how it looks - I can also imagine a light simple white kameez for summer with statement shawls.

What do you think of this trend - would you wear this? There are quite a few vendors out there with these trend and it's pretty easy to put together from your own wardrobe!

Make-It-Yourself-Fashion: DIY Lace Trousers

I'm sure you may have seen over the last few months one of the latest trends in the ever-changing Pakistani fashion industry - embroidered and lace cuffs. I love that there's a variety of styles available rather than just the usual tapered pants - tulip trousers, brocade trousers, palazzos and straight trousers with cut-outs and lace inserts.cuffs

For Eid, I wanted to go for something quite contemporary - I had a beautiful worked kameez from my Pakistan which I loved but wanted to mix-and-match with some more trendy trousers. I had a look around the local shops - first wondering whether to get a brocade/jamawar print trousers to match, then looking for embroidered or lace trousers. Unfortunately I had no luck - the turquoise colour of the outfit is quite a specific one to match (although I did consider a contrasting look in light grey or pink), but in the end I gave up - the closest I found were trousers which were plain an had simple buttons on the cuff.

I decided then to try my hand at customising the pants I already had for the outfit instead - this way I'd get the look I was going for, and it would be a little more unique. I got a family friend of mine to alter the trousers so they would be more tapered (they were quite wide to start off with), and then looked around the shops and markets for some lace I'd like to add.

It took me a while but I finally managed to found some lace I liked, in a tiny shop near my mum's house, which was about the size of a walk-in closet and crammed wall-to-wall with lace, ribbons, buttons and sew-on patches.

This is the lace below - it's a silvery colour but for some reason it looks white! I got luck with this - it only cost £5 for a yard, and the woman who sold it confirmed that this was the kind of lace you can sew on trousers. Surprisingly, this was the only shop to have decent lace - a lot of the bigger shops and markets had very old-fashioned lace or just the wrong shape and size, suited more for kameez hems than anything else.

I also bought some pearl buttons (I couldn't decide whether to go for just buttons on the cuff, or lace, then opted for both!) - I couldn't find pure white ones but found some very pretty ones from Queens Market in a very pale mint blue shade which went perfectly.

I set about sewing the lace onto the bottom of the trousers by hand with white thread - which took me about two hours to do! This was mainly because I used small stitches to secure the lace legs properly (my husband kept offering to staple the lace on for me) and also because I kept checking the lace was in the right position and was straight - very fiddly work!

This is the final look of the trouser s- you can see the stitches a little but overall I was quite pleased with how the lace looked. My sisters told me that they wouldn't have realised I had sewn the lace on myself unless I told them, so I'll take that as a compliment!

I'd love to try more experiments with altering my own outfits and customising, and I had great fun searching in markets and shops for ribbons and laces, which gave me lots more creativity ideas. The only thing I wasn't happy about was that you can't see the pearl buttons on the trousers cuff, but seeing as the lace is such a statement piece of the trousers, this was bound to happen.

I'll be sharing more DIY projects soon - but let me know what you thought of this one!

FOLLOWING TRENDS: Floral Maxi Dresses (again)

Over the last couple of years I've seen the floral trend burst into into Western and Eastern fashion, and over the last year or so I've seen this translated into various styles and designs which have seeped into the high street. I've already posted about these gorgeous floral maxi dresses from a local store which caught my eye, but they were above what I was looking to spend. I've still got a hankering for a floral dress or maxi skirt which I can wear as a lengha, and it's been great to see more variety in the shops.

I've seen these lovelies in several shops over the last week or so in Green Street, Ilford and Whitechapel (all East London hot spots for Asian clothes!) - all for pretty bargain prices from as low as £69 in some shops to £120 for the embellished ones in others. All in all, these are a pretty good buy for someone looking for something floral and they're perfect for a summery look (I know summer is more or less over but it's still nice to see colour!)

I've been contemplating these for a future wedding, or even Eid, the styles are simple yet pretty and there's a lot of colours and styles available, not to mention being such a good bargain.

What do you think of these? Would you buy one?

Curly Fry's Shopping Therapy! My Eid Shopping Experience

I wanted to post about shopping for Eid outfits - I've been asked by a lot of readers and also friends/family for the best places to look for outfits, and honestly, it's a problem I have when shopping as well.
My main problem when looking for outfits is that east London prices are too high for what the value of the outfit is, and even though the shops are catching up with Pakistani trends and designers, I still would rather not pay £700-1000 for a formal outfit (prices which I've seen!). I also found that not all shops have oufits which are up to date with trends - this isn't really an issue but my preference for this Eid was something simple and in line with Pakistani trends of a shorter kameez, which was only in a few shops near me.

My other issue was with shopping online, there is that obvious risk of not getting what you paid for, and also the worry that your outfit may not come on time. There are a few good websites where you can buy ready-to-wear, and also vendors who sell outfits but some of them were expensive or didn't have what I was looking for.

In the weeks before Eid, my sisters and I had a look around the shops for inspiration on Eid outfits, so that if we saw anything we could get it. There's quite a good variety of shops in east London and near where we live so it was quite handy for us to have a look around.

One of the first places I looked was in a local store, Ruby's House of Design Eid exhibition, where I did manage to pick up these two outfits on sale, but they were a little casual for me to wear on Eid. I did like the look of this Agha Noor kurta below, which I thought was pretty and that I thought would look nice with brocade pants. In the end I didn't go with it because the kurta alone was nearly £100 and along with trousers and a possible scarf, I thought I could get something nicer for less.

I also had a look at a new shop opening near the area, Junaid Jamshed by Janan, which carries designer cotton outfits by Junaid Jamshed. My mum has bought outfits from this label in Pakistan and loves the quality of their outfits, so we were happy to see this store opening near us. When the store opened we all went to have a good browse, and we liked what we saw but it was mostly cotton casuals, which is ideal for the summer weather, but none of us ended up with anything for Eid.

Having said that, their prices were very reasonable and we definitely will be having a look for summer outfits - they had a good range of ready-to-wear and unstitched fabric outfits which we did like.

There were also a few other new shops which opened locally a few weeks before Eid, and one of these was a shop called Nees, which had some beautiful kurtas and heavier formals. I loved some of the embroidered kurtas here which were about £30-35, while I wouldn't wear them for Eid I thought they were perfect for summer. We also liked some of the maxi dresses in this shop which ranged between £130 - £190, but didn't opt for any of them in the end.

I also spent some time looking online for outfits, as a lot of my nicer outfits from my wardrobe have been bought online. One of the nicest collections for Eid I found was this Maria B collection, which had a range of soft colours and embroidered floral designs that I loved, although they came unstitched so I would have to find a food tailor in time!. The two outfits below were on my wish-list, but unfortunately they were pre-ordered and sold out before the collection was even launched.

The other thing which I found unfair was the fact that for residents of Pakistan the outfits were a little cheaper than it was for non-residents, for them it was about £80 while for non-residents the options were around £95 - £115, which isn't a huge price difference but still a little unreasonable, especially as the price increase doesn't include shipping.

Having said that, I'm keeping an eye out for these because I thought they were lovely and look really easy to wear, and they're just the sort of designs I've been looking for.

I also really liked the Eid Collection released by Nomi Ansari - these were a lot more colourful and bolder, but I loved the styles and cuts of the outfits. This was even more difficult to find out about, as I wasn't sure whether you can buy them directly online and I didn't manage to find any vendors selling them. The main Nomi Ansari website doesn't give an option to buy outfits on their Facebook pages doesn't give up help either!

The two designs below were my favourites from the Eid collection, colourful florals which look wonderful and don't need much more to dress it up. These were pricier than the Maria B outfits but I'll be keeping an eye out for these as well!

I did manage to find other deisgner websites which were easier to navigate and buy from - I loved Sania Maskatiya's designs but they were a little too pricey for me (and the plainer designers which I could afford were too plain!), while another designer I like, Zainab Chottani's designs, were mostly lawn designs which I would need to get stitched and which I didn't have enough time for, unless I bought it from a local shop which I didn't get a chance to look at. I did like the designs on the website though and loved some of the skirts, so that's something to look at agian! A friend of mine also suggested Zaheer Abbas, who also has a better website to order from, but there wasn't much of a range to look through which didn't appeal to me.

I also had a look on online store Brand Central PK, which I have ordered from before so I was confident about getting it on time - again this was a little pricey. I've noticed that the prices have gone up since I last ordered (which was last year some time) and that there were a lot of heavy formals which were a little too heavy and expensive for me. Having said that I still keep an eye on this website for their sale items, and for the odd occasion I want to have a good browse at their new collections.

I finally got my Eid outfit from a store called Grandeur (more on this shop soon!), which is incidentally the place my mum got my Eid outfit from last Eid too! This piece is by a Pakistani label called Zainab Hasan, which also came an off-white colour, black, and tea pink shade (which slight variations on the flower embroidery) in a 3-piece jacket style.

This outfit was very reasonably priced and felt very comfortable on - Sara from the Grandeur store showed me a selection of similar jackets and embroidered kameezes that I really liked, although the jade green one stood out to me most because it looked a little different.

I'll be keeping an eye out for more designs and outfits for next Eid, and also as it is now wedding season, hopefully I'll have better luck shopping online!

Did you buy anything online? Do you have any recommendations?

OUTFIT OF THE DAY: The Khaadi Blues and Floral Prints

I've mentioned before that I'm a fan of the Khaadi brand, mainly for their cotton and lawn suits which are ideal for summer. I've been pulling out my lawn suits now that it's getting a lot warmer, and have been getting more wear out of them now that weekends are busier!

I bought this outfit a few months ago from the Khaadi store in Westfield Stratford (which was luckily on sale!) and thought this was ideal to wear to an iftar dinner this weekend.The outfit was pretty colourful so I didn't bother wearing anything to accessorize, although I did manage to dig out some colourful shoes to match which I'd forgotten about!

I love the print on this kameez, and it was the reason why I bought this outfit - my favourite part is the back with it's motif of flower bunches all over. The kameez itself is a high-low style as well, which is more ideal for today's trends, and is finished off with a lovely hem.

I loved wearing this outfit - it was a really nice fit and looked really slimming on me (although that may be down to the fasting as well!). I wore a nice deep red lipstick with this, which I went well with the outfit. The pants were also a great fit (slightly cropped but not indecently!) and nice and airy for the summer weather!

You can see the floral print all the back, below, which works well with the floral sleeves and the dupatta, which tied it all together.

The best bit about this outfit was that it was a light enough material for summer, but not sheer at all. I never used to wear lawn material before because it either looked sheer, or the material would 'stick' to you and feel slightly papery - the quality of lawn these days have improved!

What do you think of this outfit? Have you bought any outfits from Khaadi before?

Make-It-Yourself-Fashion: DIY Your Own Shirt-Dress

I've mentioned before that I love the latest trend of shirt-dresses, and the fact that this seems to be a trend in quite a few stores on the high street.

Although I love the fact that most of these shirts have long sleeves or are modest enough to be layered without looking awkward, I've found that there isn't enough variety out there. I've seen a lot of plain dresses and a few floral ones, but I couldn't see anything which was colourful or a little different, so I got the idea of making my own shirt dress. I've been veering towards making my own designs anyway, since I've been looking for something more unique, and thought I'd experiment a little with what I find.

I've grown up being comfortable with home-made outfits - my mum is an excellent tailor and having a sewing machine in the house was normal in our neighbourhood (a lot of our aunts used to sew as well or work for local warehouses and factories from home). It's strange to see how times have changed; when we were younger we used to get our mums to sew our salwar kameezes from fabrics bought from a local shop or market, usually with minimal work, and either wore the plainer ones at home as casual outfits, or the fancier ones for special events. These days no one does this, 'ready-'made' outfits, which was more of a luxury back then, is now the norm - it's not worth buying nice fabric if you have to spend extra to get it made as well!

Lucky for me, my mum's pretty experienced when it comes to making clothes, although as she's gotten older she sews less and either uses a local tailor, or buys us ready-made outfits from the shop or from Pakistan. Having said that, she'll still turn her hand at making the odd abayah or dress.

I'm always wandering around local shops and markets, Green Street's famous Queens Market has an amazing stall with beautiful fabrics, there's another good market my mum recommends in Romford, and there's always odd fabric shops dotted around in local areas.

I wanted something floral, so had a look around different places to get an idea of prints - these are just some of the ones I found that I loved.

These are some of the fabrics I ended up buying, you can see they're all floral prints in different colours and styles, I wanted light cotton and polyester fabrics which would be ideal for warmer weather, especially because it can be difficult to know how to dress modestly and still wear light outfits when it gets hot.

I decided to make the light green floral one on the left first  - can you believe this fabric only cost me £3?!

I gave the fabric to my mum, who in all honesty, made the outfit for me. I wanted to make the majority of it, but I didn't do much in the end (mostly because she made the whole thing in a day and didn't want to wait for me!)

She made it in a straight-shirt style, the front being higher than the bottom, with buttons along the front and full sleeves. She didn't add a collar to this one, mainly because I hate wearing collars with a scarf (one of the reasons I hardly wear smart shirts!), and also so the top wouldn't be too bulky. The actual fabric is very light and sheer as well, so the material was not structured enough to be shaped into a collar. I did love the buttons on this though, they're big and chunky, and look pretty striking against the fabric. Again, these buttons were from my mum's collection of buttons!

I was really happy that my mum made this in time for me to take it on holiday with me to Greece - it was just perfect for the weather because it was so light. The shirt itself was quite sheer so I still had to wear a top under it, but it didn't feel too layered and I think it worked quite well.

This is me wearing it on holiday, it was a pretty good fit (which sounds obvious, seeing as it was tailored for me!) and was loose enough to feel breezy and comfortable.

EVALUATION: Although I didn't make this shirt-dress myself, I was really happy with how it came out. I didn't need much fabric (I bought 3 metres to be on the safe side, and probably only used about 2 metres). The actual structure of this shirt was very simple - it's literally three pieces for the body, and two sleeves. I've already worn it about 4 times since I made it last month, and it's perfect modest-wear for me - long and loose.

I also like the fact that this was so cheap, and you won't find this anywhere else! Having said that, I know how easy it is to not bother with making outfits from fabric - I still have printed fabrics that I've bought and never got made from laziness or just the fact that getting it tailored is costly.

I'll be trying another outfit soon to make, and will definitely post results of the next one.

What do you think of making your own outfit - would you try it?