OUTFIT OF THE DAY: My Mother's Watermelon Shawl

I've always said that I get my fashion tastes from my mother, and sometimes I've gotten my outfit ideas from her too!

My mother has a much more amazing wardrobe than I do, and she's lucky enough to either have new clothes sent to her from family in Pakistan, or she brings back a few collections for herself on her yearly trips to Pakistan!

One of the other things she has that I love is her collection of beautiful shawls and scarves - they're bought from all over the places, whether it's from Pakistan or Saudi, or just high street stores like M&S and John Lewis.

I borrowed my mum's shawl not too long ago to complete my outfit - this beautiful watermelon print to go with my plain navy shirt dress and navy palazzo trousers. I love that the stripes and fruit/florals are very in right now - I've seen dresses in this kind of print on the high street and catwalks, and it's perfect for summer.

This is the shawl I wore with my outfit (although looking at this picture, the shirt dress and palazzos remind me a little of a lacha!), the shawl made a beautiful statement piece and it's amazing how one piece can make a whole outfit!

RE-INVENT YOUR WARDROBE #4: Add a Shawl to your Outfit

I've already posted before about the shawl trend, and how much I love it, and it got me thinking about the different ways I've seen this being worn. I love that it's a perfect accessory - ideal in the winter months for keeping us warms, and also making an inexpensive statement piece to jazz up a simple outfit.
I thought I'd play around with the pashminas in my wardrobe to see what kind of outfits and stylings I could create (I meant to raid my mum's cupboard for this post because she has beautiful shawls, but I forgot!) I came up with a few variations and tried them out - let me know what you think of these.

So here are a few ideas on how to wear a pashmina...

1. With a jumpsuit
I love wearing jumpsuits (even if my sister does say they look like baby's onesies), and have seen a few dressy jumpsuits being worn at weddings and Eid which look incredibly stylish. I've been keeping an eye out for a jumpsuit for myself, and I don't have a dressy one yet, but I do have a few western-style ones which work just as well.

This is a wide-legged jumpsuit (I love wide-leg jumpsuits!) I styled with a colourful pashmina and a gold belt - I was initially going to try a plain shiny black belt but loved how the gold one looked. I loved this look, and think it would be perfect for summer-time too.

Jumpsuit - Aab Collection

Shawl - Charizma

Belt - Instagram seller

2. With a kameez suit
I have a lot of simple kameez outfits which are ideal for weekends and casual events, but it's always nice to add a little elegance to it. because I wear a hijab, I don't always add a dupatta to the outfit, especially if it looks more casual without it - but I love how simply adding a printed shawl to this outfit made it look so much more stylish. The shawl I added here was just a simple one I bought from a local market but it really pulled the outfit together.

Kameez suit - Pakistan

Shawl - Queens Market, Green Street

Shoes - Love Label

3. With a maxi dress or abayah
I don't wear abayas, but I thought it would look similar to an maxi dress in the length of the outfit and the shape (although maxi dresses are more fitted, of course). I tried out a colourful maxi dupatta for this outfit, from one of my heavier suits and liked the effect when I added it to a simple navy dress. I've tried it in two different ways below - one simply draped on the left, and secondly on the right a more fitted look with a belt. I think this would have worked better with a dressier maxi dress, but I liked the look, and I think both would be ideal for summer or even for an alternative outfit at a mehndi event!

Maxi dress - Notting Hill

Dupatta - RDC London (part of an unstitched suit)

Shoes - Primark

4. With a tunic shirt and jeans
I was a bit unsure on how else to style a pashmina, until it hit me that I should try it with my every day clothes - jeans and a shirt! They say the 90s and 80s are in fashion at the moment, and I definitely remember my sisters used to throw a shawl over their dresses and tops with jeans in the 90s. So I thought I'd give this a shot and see if it would still look good (hey, fashion trends are cyclical!) and mixed one of my more colourful shawls with my shirts.

I love how vibrant the shawl looks against the simple white, and it definitely gives that fusion of east-meets-west. Again, I styled this in more than one way and loved all of them (I think the middle is my favourite, though) - and looks great whether you wear a hijab or not. I think this is a nice way to make an outfit modest, as well as give it a little colour - I also like that it adds a little uniqueness to an outfit simply by making it more vibrant.

Shirt dress - Inayah Collection

Jeans - H&M

Shawl - Gul Ahmed

I had a lot of fun playing around with these shawls and outfits, and will certainly be trying more. I would loved to have tried more styles like a pashmina with a sari (which I have seen before) but I'm terrible with wearing saris so didn't try to attempt it!

Let me know what you think of these, and which one you liked best - I think I'm loving the jumpsuit style best!

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!