Meet the Muslim fashion blogger earning fans for her modest style
Are bikini-wearing bloggers a thing of the past? Meet the Muslim Instagram star with a legion of fans – and VERY lucrative brand deals – who is leading fashion’s new modesty movement
- Maria Al-Sadek, a 26-year-old New Yorker, goes by @mariaalia on Instagram — where she has hundreds of thousands of followers
- She has been wearing a hijab since she started high school in Alabama
- The blogger and fashionista doesn’t believe that dressing modestly means ‘just a very plain, no adornment, humble way of dressing’
- Her chic but covered-up outfits have earned her brand partnerships with Macy’s, Tiffany, Giorgio Armani, UNIQLO, H&M, and Express
As models like Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, and Hailey Baldwin make headlines time and time again for stepping out in barely there dresses that hardly cover a thing, a newer wave of fashionistas is pushing for modesty — and looking chic while doing it.
One of the biggest stars of the modest movement is Maria Al-Sadek, a 26-year-old New Yorker who goes by @mariaalia on Instagram.
Maria, a Muslim American who has been wearing a hijab to cover her head since she was a teenager, sees no reason why her religion or modesty should get in the way of looking fabulous — and she’s setting an example for hundreds of thousands of fans.
Modesty chic! Maria Al-Sadek, a 26-year-old New Yorker, goes by @mariaalia on Instagram — where she has hundreds of thousands of followers
Commitment: She has been wearing a hijab since she started high school in Alabama
Background: Maria is the daughter of a Sunni Muslim and Puerto Rican mother. She grew up with all the women in her family wearing a hijab, including her mom
Jazz it up! The blogger and fashionista doesn’t believe that dressing modestly means ‘just a very plain, no adornment, humble way of dressing’
Maria is the daughter of a Sunni Muslim and Puerto Rican mother. She grew up with all the women in her family wearing a hijab, including her mom — so when she started her freshman year of high school in Alabama, she wore one too.
Though she subscribes to a belief in dressing modestly, however, she doesn’t think that means looking dowdy, and has always loved experimenting with fashion.
But she didn’t have a fashionable hijabi role model growing up to give her clues for how to cover up but still put her most fashionable foot forward.
Then five years ago, she started her blog, Maria Alia, and has become that role model for many. She now has 408,000 Instagram followers, many of whom ask her for advice.
Her popularity has helped her score partnerships with Macy’s, Tiffany, Giorgio Armani, UNIQLO, H&M, and Express among other major brands.
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Side hustle: Five years ago, she started her blog, Maria Alia, and has become a role model for other modest dressers
Fashion is fun! She loves to play and experiment with fashion, shopping from both designers and mall stores and picking out what works for her and meets her standards
‘I love experimenting and pushing limits to make the clothes that I find cool fit my personal level of modesty,’ she said
Maria told Bloomberg: ‘Everyone has their own interpretation of modesty. But this idea that it’s just a very plain, no adornment, humble way of dressing — that was some other person’s definition.’
She loves to play and experiment with fashion, shopping from both designers and mall stores and picking out what works for her and meets her standards.
‘I love experimenting and pushing limits to make the clothes that I find cool fit my personal level of modesty,’ she told The Modist in April. ‘Using my imagination and playing with pieces that wouldn’t normally go together is my trick to adapting a look to be more modest.’
It can sometimes be a struggle, though.
‘Almost everything I wear is not created specifically for a Muslim girl,’ she told Racked last year. ‘It usually takes browsing hundreds of different websites to hunt for one specific piece. It’s very frustrating.’
Stylish gigs: Her chic but covered-up outfits have earned her brand partnerships with Macy’s, Tiffany, Giorgio Armani, UNIQLO, H&M, and Express
‘Using my imagination and playing with pieces that wouldn’t normally go together is my trick to adapting a look to be more modest,’ said Maria
‘Almost everything I wear is not created specifically for a Muslim girl,’ she said
It’s slowly getting a bit easier. In 2016, Dolce & Gabbana launched a hijab and abaya collection in 2016, and Carolina Herrera put out her own the following year.
‘High fashion is where it always starts,’ Maria said. ‘After that, it will trickle down to the more accessible retail world.’
That trickle has begun. UNIQLO also launched modest clothes an hijabs in 2016, and this year Macy’s launched its modest Verona Collection. That was followed by H&M’s modest collection, and even high-end shopping site Net-a-Porter added a ‘Modest’ filter to its site.
Speaking to Allure last year, Maria partially attributed the changes to the political climate, saying a lot of people are making more of an effort to be inclusive.
‘I think the industry was already heading in the direction [of inclusivity], the political climate just sped up the pace this season,’ she said.
Times are a’changing: Maria sees some brands getting better at offering modest clothes and thinks it’s become more commonplace as people try to be more inclusive
More, please! She said trends like this start with designers and trickle down
‘One of my biggest worries is, is this just going to be a trend?’ she asked. ‘Is it no longer going to be on the table after this?’
Still, she’s cautious to rejoice, and worries that modest attire could go come and go.
‘One of my biggest worries is, is this just going to be a trend?’ she asked. ‘Is it no longer going to be on the table after this?’
Maria isn’t the only hijab-wearing fashionista to earn a huge fan following. She’s joined by several others, including Halima Aden, who has over three quarters of a million Instagram followers.
Halima rose to fame after competing in the Miss Minnesota pageant two years ago (and wearing a burkini for the swimsuit competition). Since then, she’s modeled for Yeezy, British Vogue, and Allure.
‘I have women messaging me on social media every day thanking me for essentially, in their eyes, making modest clothing cool,’ Halima told Bloomberg this week.
‘I never knew a black, hijab-wearing Muslim woman could be in high fashion. It’s hard to visualize something you haven’t seen before.’
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