It's wedding season, and you’ve just found a dress
for your cousin’s/best friend’s/sister’s/sister-in-law’s/girl you met at a
grocery store’s wedding. The dress you found is a sleeveless tube top dress,
and is a shade of blue. You then search endlessly trying to find the right body
(long sleeve shirt) to match and wear under the dress. You finally find one. It
matches perfectly, as though the body and the dress are one. Now, read very
carefully to what I’m about to tell you. Grab the body shirt that you just
found to match your dress… wait until nightfall… find out if one of your
neighbors is having a bonfire… walk over to that bonfire…and throw your body
shirt into the fire and watch it burn. Or, you can return it.
If
you haven’t already figured out, this post is likely targeted towards women who
wear the hijab. I have a very love hate relationship when it comes to buying
gowns and buying body shirts to go underneath them. And, many of us hijabi sisters—including
me-- have probably worn a long sleeve body shirt underneath a dress to make fit
the Islamic dress code at some point. But, while some people may disagree, my opinion is that this has become an epidemic. #Stopthebodyshirts2016
Let me first say that
totally I understand the struggle, and how difficult it is to find dresses to fit
our modest-style needs. Long maxi skirts are now see-through with a short lining as
if they were made with the intention to make a hijabi’s life harder. Or,
sometimes you’ll find the perfect maxi skirt or dress only to pick it up and
realize it has a split that goes miles above sea level. Many long sleeve dresses may be on
the upper end of our budgets and dresses that need work to add sleeves can be a
long grueling and risky process. Here are some of the rules that I set for
myself about wearing a body to go underneath a dress.
Rule
number 1: Neckline-
If my dress is a strapless/sleeveless dress, I stay away from body shirts to
wear underneath.
A lot of beautiful dresses out there are sleeveless,
but one way you can make it work as a hijabi is to have a seamstress make you a
short jacket in the same color of your dress that you can easily find at a
fabric store that is also inexpensive. With a strapless dress, it becomes very
difficult to work with adding sleeves, because no matter what you do, unless
your seamstress works under Zuhair Murad, your sleeves will have the “added on”
look. If your dress, however, is more of a tank top dress… or even short
sleeve, sometimes your seamstress can add on sleeves to the dress and give it a
complete, elegant look.
Here's some pictures of the difference a body and/jacket can make to a dress:
Rule
number 2: Color- If
my dress is not black or navy blue, I usually never consider wearing a body
underneath it. And, if my dress is one color, and you ever catch me wearing a
body shirt that is a different color underneath … I give you permission to
smack me.
In my honest opinion, there’s nothing that cheapens
a look of a pretty gown more than adding a colored long sleeve body to go
underneath. However, I think anyone can pull of a black or navy long sleeve
body shirt underneath a black or navy dress IF and only if the dress is not
strapless and has a thick tank.Black and navy are deep, darker colors that usually
allow for more concentration to see where the sleeve of the dress begins. So,
it’s easier to get away with.
Rule
number 3: Lace- A
lot of lace long sleeve dresses are out there, and they are beautiful. You can
find some that are very affordable as well. I think that if you find a gown
that has long sleeves that are laced or maybe even a see-through material, it
is perfectly fine to wear a matching body to “line” those dresses underneath. That way,
you are giving the illusion that your dress was purchased already lined, and it
looks classy, elegant and most of all complete.
Rule
number 4: Brides- I
don’t think that ever, under any circumstances, should a bride wear a
white/cream/ivory long sleeve body shirt underneath her strapless wedding gown.
If you can find a long sleeve gown… that’s great! I’m sure you will look
radiant! Or, if you find a gown that you can easily complete sleeves for, that’s
great, too! But I promise you… adding a plain long sleeve body shirt to wear
underneath your glamorous wedding dress will ruin the look in its entirety. When
I got married (5 years ago), it was in the pre-Kate Middleton long-sleeved
wedding dress era. So, my dress was strapless, and I had a seamstress make me a
short jacket using the same fabric that manufactured my dress. It turned out
okay…but now with all of these gowns that are on trend and long sleeve, I think
it’s a great time to be a hijabi bride!! Here are some of my favorite hijabi
worn wedding dresses.
So tell me, what works for you? How do you find ways
to make your evening gowns fit Islamic dress codes? Are you #Teambody or
#Stopbodyshirts2016 ? Post some of your pictures with or without a long sleeve body shirt underneath your evening gowns below in the comment section! And, don't forget to subscribe to my blog on the right hand side of your screen!
--M
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