Curvy Muslimah - Plus Size Abayas
Over the last year, we have had so many clients ask us about plus size abayas and we promised we would make them for you. It took us a bit more time than we expected, but you asked for it and now it’s here, the Al Shams Curvy Muslimah capsule collection.
We started with a small capsule collection of just two styles with the goal of including plus sizes across all our collections over time. Our Attika Abaya is the first of the Curvy Muslimah collection. Modeled off our Amal Abaya, this soft colored casual style flows beautifully and works well for work or informal occasions.
It should come as no surprise that the plus size market, in both mainstream fashion, as well as modest apparel, is very much underserved. So many curvy sisters complain that they can’t find abayas in their size and the pieces they find are either poorly designed, do not fit well or are simply boring. We hear you, ladies! We know that all women like to look and feel beautiful. We also know that women love garments that make them feel good about themselves. Feeling good and looking good inspire confidence and well-being and that’s what we’re hoping to bring about with this collection.
We always have a good time with our new projects despite the challenges they present. From selecting abaya colors, picking accessories and scouting the right location, it’s all very hectic and frenzied but we love it.
With this plus size project, we discovered some very interesting and quite frankly disturbing things about the fashion industry. When we put out a casting call for plus size models size 18-26 we got a ton of responses which was great, but for the fact that the vast majority of the ladies who responded were well below our size requirements.
We had responses from models that were size 8, 10 and 12. We were like what???? We had to double check the casting call to be sure we put the right size information. Well we double checked and sure enough, the size info we posted in the casting call was correct but as it turns out, the models in the size 8-12 range get shunned by the fashion industry because of their size so they wind up applying to plus size casting calls insisting that they are plus size. How crazy is that? I found it disturbing on many levels, mainly because the average size of American women is 14-16. The fashion industry seems to covet sizes 0-4 and pretty much anything above that won’t cut it.
Quite frankly, this is ridiculous and is a form of body shaming. There is no size range that’s better than another. In the world of fashion, curvy ladies have been made to feel that if they don’t meet certain ideals, they are less than worthy or even less than beautiful. Well, to the contrary, women are beautiful in all shapes and sizes and the Al Shams woman is the embodiment of sophistication, elegance, and beauty no matter what size she wears.
We hope you’re as excited as we are about this collection. If you have ideas for more styles you want to see, please don’t hesitate to call us or shoot us an email, we definitely want to hear from you.
See more of our Curvy Muslimah collection here