[caption id="attachment_108635" align="alignright" width="279"] TRENDING MODESTLY: Wardah, left, and Nazeefah Safi, design under the label Mod-ish. PICTURE:SIMON DEINER RAMP[/caption]
MODEST can be modish according to two Muslim sisters from Cape Town who are designing clothes for women who want to “cover up more than you expose” through their Mod-ish label. Wardah and Nazeefah Safi presented their Isaalat range – the Pashtu word for unique – at the South African Fashion Week (SAFW) Autumn/ Winter 2016 show in Johannesburg last month, as part of the Sunglass Hut SA New Talent Search.
“This range is really personal to us as it ties in with our ethnicity,” say the designing sisters who started Mod-ish in March 2013. “We’re two sisters, who love fashion, the modest kind, and we’re always out to find a good bargain. And so, the Mod-ish brand was born.”
They describe themselves as “family orientated individuals” and say that, as Muslims, their range was always termed Islamic or Hijab wear, which refers to Muslim female apparel. They feel, however, that modesty refers to women across all races and religions “who want to cover up a bit more.
“Both those aspects influence the garments we produce,” said Wardah. She said designing modestly was not too much of a challenge as “it’s what we grew up exercising in our apparel and lifestyle alike. If anything, it’s freeing knowing we can express what we always wanted to.”
Wardah, 28, and Nazeefah, 30, grew up with a conservative Afghan father and traditional Cape Malay mother, but hope their garments will appeal to a wider cross-section of women. “The immediate reaction to ‘modest’ is out-dated, rigid and somewhat boring,” said Wardah. “We want to revolutionise fashion to make it known that you can be modest and still be fashionable, trendy and stylish.
Their biggest clientele base is in the Cape, but they hope that with the exposure at SAFW they will be expanding to other parts of South Africa and “even internationally”. -Gillian McAinsh