Dutch designer Loubna Sadoq is solving Muslima fashion problems

Luxury scarf designer, Loubna Sadoq / Photo credit: Loubna Sadoq

Minimalist and lover of beautiful things, Loubna Sadoq was aghast when she first saw a baseball cap crammed over a hijab. The Amsterdam-based designer says that’s when she realised that hijabis also like to sport a casual street style, but it comes with challenges: It is pretty tricky to fit your hijab under a cap, and it often gets hot and sweaty. Moreover, how do you get your hijab to match your cap perfectly?

Her solution to this fashion problem is the ‘hicap’. Launched in September 2017, the hicap is a baseball cap with an integrated scarf. After 1.5 years of research and brainstorming, Loubna created this accessory keeping in mind the requirements of covered Muslim women. The cap part completely covers the top of the wearer’s head. The scarf part has one longer side that can be draped across the other shoulder.

Loubna’s career as a designer of luxury scarves began on similar lines – she couldn’t find what she needed, so she created it. When she decided to start wearing a hijab, she had great difficulty finding something that suited her minimalist taste. “In my first three months of wearing a hijab, I bought at least 100 scarves. I love to follow fashion trends and wear quality clothes. But I could never find a hijab that matched the rest of my outfit,” she said.

Photo credit: Loubna Sadoq

She looked and shopped at online stores for Muslim women. The scarves looked beautiful in the pictures, but when they arrived in the post, she discovered that they were either poor quality or synthetic material. And they were voluminous, in keeping with a trend to drape the hijab twice around the head. She decided that they just wouldn’t do, and started working on the perfect scarf.

“I just wanted a slightly stretchy, simple jersey scarf to wear to work. I figured other hijabis had the same problem. So I spoke to friends in the fashion business, who suggested the best fabrics for the purpose. I came up with bamboo, a natural textile that is light and breathable,” says Loubna.

Most of Loubna’s scarves under her Sadoq label are made from bamboo or cotton. There are also a few ultra luxurious ones made from modal silk. “My scarves can be worn by anyone, but I intentionally market them as for the Muslim woman. I want to show the world a different side of Muslims in the west,” she says.

Photo credit: Loubna Sadoq

She says that her advertising campaigns, featuring women with a bit of hair showing under their scarves, are sometimes criticized. She defends her decision, saying, “I like big hair. I believe women should choose how or if or when they want to wear a scarf. There is no one rule. Everyone knows what is right for them. We must stop judging each other, because as women, we have similar experiences and face similar problems.”

Loubna sounds uncertain about the future of the modest fashion industry in Europe, which is still on the fringes. Unlike halal food, fashion is more visible, she points out. “So every brand that a department store takes in, says a lot about the identity of the store. Other brands either do or do not want to be associated with this identity.” Her theory is that this is why the big stores here hesitate to stock Muslim brands.

But she remains undeterred in her mission to change the perception of the European Muslim woman, and to give them fashionable and practical alternatives to mainstream style. For now, she is working on a leather prayer mat, with a secret pocket to store a phone and keys during prayers at the mosque, that rolls up and is tied with rope bearing her signature tassels.

Sadoq scarves are available at select stores internationally and on the webshop, with worldwide shipping.

Photo credit: Loubna Sadoq

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