Are you a Spring, Summer, Autumn, or Winter? If these questions don’t sound familiar, then you probably don’t remember or weren’t old enough to remember the book “Color Me Beautiful” by Carole Jackson from the early 1980’s that completely changed the way women shopped and dressed. Granted that at that time I was more into Leggos and struggling with the Rubrick’s Cube, caring about what color palette suited my skin tone wasn’t my main preoccupation. But, like any young girl, I had a thing for rummaging through my mother’s, grandmother’s, and great-aunt’s clothes with a desire to be just like them, and so I remembered a thing or two about that iconic book.

Before that time, there wasn’t really a system for shopping for clothes and getting dressed to look your best. What I found interesting about this book was the idea to harmonize nature’s colors with our own skin tone and hair color to select clothes in colors that will always look best on us despite the time of year or fashion trend. How does this concept help us maintain our style on a budget? Instead of buying clothes in colors that look good on the model, rack, or pages of a magazine, you buy what makes “you” look and feel good. Period.

Every season, designers come up with color palettes that are the “in” colors for the season. The tactic that you have to employ is to resist buying your clothes in colors that don’t suit you. Kelly Green is a gorgeous bold green, but why would you have a Kelly green shirt in your closet if it makes you look like you’ve got food poisoning? I think it’s safe to say that a lot of us have those “Kelly Green” shirts, trousers, and other items beautifying our wardrobes, but doing nothing for us except eating a hole in our wallets and taking up valuable space in our closets.

For some, picking out colors to wear might send them into a state of panic knowing that in the past they always looked dull, washed out, or older than what they are. What’s good to know is that every collection at SHUKR not only gives you a great base of neutral colors, but also gives you a larger color range to choose from and the possibility to find “your” colors in the styles that you love. I make an exhaustive search every season to create new color palettes that draw a lot of inspiration from nature, landscapes, interior design, my world travels, and books that aim to complement your look.

Here are some tips to help you find your colors and incorporate them into your wardrobes that will save time and money and leave you looking great every time:

1) First go through the clothes that you have to make sure they are in colors that suit you. It is more than likely that most of your clothes are in your colors except for a few. Everyone probably has that favorite item that they always reach for when they get dressed and it most probably has a lot to do with its color and how good you feel in it. Hold each item near your face and look at yourself with natural daylight which will help you ascertain which colors are suitable for you. If you have trouble distinguishing colors, ask someone to help you with this process. Donate any clothes that don’t make you look or feel good.

2) Now that you know which colors are yours, purchase only those colors when shopping.

3) Be sure to build your color palette upon a good foundation of neutral colors such as whites, nudes, beiges, browns, grays, and, don’t forget, black. Blending neutral colors with your bolder colors will help to harmonize your overall look. Wearing all one neutral color such as a charcoal gray, if that’s your color, can be sophisticated and adding small bold accents can make it chic. Your skin tone and hair color will determine how much of each of these neutral colors you can have in your wardrobe and in which types of clothing. For those who have a fair complexion and light colored hair, wearing a lot of black near the face may be to jarring for you, but wearing black in trousers or skirts or as an accent color may be more suitable. The same is true for other colors such as reds, blues, greens, oranges, and yellows. Since there are hundreds of variations of the same color, it is important to choose the right variation for you.

4) Creating color groups in your wardrobe also helps you to stay organized and makes getting dressed a lot easier. In my closet, I started creating color groups, something that happened organically without planning, to divide my wardrobe in a way that easily shows what colors I have. I have Blacks, Whites, Grays, Royal Blue/Chinese Red, Eggplant Purple/Mauve/Taupe, and Salmon Pink just to name a few. Since the colors in my closet are “my” colors, I don’t have problems matching and putting looks together in the morning because the color groups work together, giving me limitless options. The end result is more money in my wallet and a overall appearance that is polished which helps me feel more confident and positive. The last thing I want to be doing all day is fiddling with my clothes or thinking about how bad I look every time I catch my reflection in a window.

Many people just avoid color altogether because they don’t know how to work with it or don’t know how many wonderful benefits wearing color has on the mind and spirit, apart from the aesthetic aspect. For me fuschia is my signature color and it is a color known to raise energy levels. Even having small doses of it in a room immediately lifts your spirits. So with summer already creeping in our minds, visions of leisurely sunny days by the beach or in the mountains, and nature coming into full bloom, now is the perfect time to embrace COLOR.

~ Tabassum, Head Designer

SHUKR clothing isn’t just for mosque visits or feel-Islamic social gatherings like a Muslim bachelor party, where you get to practice your last night of unlimited gaze-lowering. No, and it’s certainly not just for showing up at your arranged overseas engagement party to silently communicate to your bride-to-be that, while you’re traditional and all, you also have a sense of style. Real Men™ practice the most macho of activities in SHUKR clothing: working out.

For many exercises, the Zaytuna cloak (US, UK) is an excellent piece. Normally, I am in-between sizes when it comes to SHUKR galabiyyas; the smalls are a bit short on me while the mediums are rather baggy. The Zaytuna Cloak (US, UK) is particularly loose, so I normally wear a small, though I also own one in medium. The medium gives me such freedom of motion that I have no problem doing free weights and chin-ups in it. And, after a grueling workout, it’s nice to be wearing something that doesn’t feel like it’s attached to your body.

Recently, a group of brothers in Amman went hiking in Dibbeen. I wore the perfect hiking garment: a Zaytuna Cloak (US, UK) – in small to ensure I wouldn’t trip on it. After the less-than-taxing hike through the wildflower-covered hills, we decided to play a game of Capture the Flag. After an initial tie, we played the deciding game. One of the opposing team’s better players was hovering around our side. I wanted to eliminate him, so I bolted towards him and started my fateful chase downfield. What happened after that was somewhat of a blur, but somehow one of the children on the field got right in front of me as I was running. Other than having the wind knocked out of him, the boy was ok. I wasn’t as lucky. Alhamdulillah, I managed to break the fall on my hands and knees, followed by a roll. When I got up, I found my hands were bleeding, and the thin white non-SHUKR trousers I wore under the Zaytuna Cloak (US, UK) were all bloodied and shredded, but the Zaytuna Cloak (US, UK) was in fine shape, other than quite a bit of dust, a minor scratch, and a loose, but still-attached, thread-button. The white cotton slacks are now history, but I still wear the Zaytuna Cloak (US, UK) regularly. Some day, somewhere, a rugby team needs to use a customized Zaytuna Cloak (US, UK) as its uniform.

Back in 2008, I visited my family in Vancouver. While there, I decided I’d get back into running. I know that, with a bit of practice, I can maintain eight-minute miles. So, when visiting my mother, I went to her building’s gym and hopped on the treadmill at the desired rate. It turns out that when you’re in your mid-thirties and haven’t worked out for a few months, you can’t just pick up where you left off. I certainly didn’t make it to my goal that day, nor the day after it. However, by the end of the week, I was doing eight-minute miles easily, alhamdulillah. Of course, the treadmill was just the appetizer. This was followed by a couple rounds of the Grouse Grind, Vancouver’s outdoor staircase. Evidence of my successful climb up Grouse Mountain is below, where I triumphantly stand in true SHUKR fashion, sporting the 100% Cotton Baggy Trousers (US), sans tête, and complete with ugly shoes.

(Above: 100% Cotton Baggy Trousers, US)

~ Moustafa, Manager, Retail Division

One of the less-commonly used features on our US website is the option to sort our products. The first option is to sort by price. It goes in denominations of $10, until $100, and then it skips to multiples of $25. This makes shopping on a budget easy! For example, it lets you quickly, simply, see all of the garments featured on our website for $21 – $30 by clicking on the $21-$30 option.

Trying to match a particular hijab? Looking for that “sunset” kufi that you’ve been dreaming of? The next option over is your answer. Simply click the “sort by color” button, and scroll to choose which color you’re looking for. The site will then list all of the items that have that color in stock.

The third option is “shop by size.” It is especially helpful if you’ve found that particular SHUKR size that fits you best. For example, if you only shop in items that are size Large, simply click on “shop by size” and select size Large. The site will then display all of the products that have a size Large in stock. Rather than falling in love with a garment only to found that your size is sold out, avoid this by starting from what’s available with this option.

All apologies to UK shoppers, as unfortunately, this capability is only currently available on our US website.

Our retail manager, Moustafa Elqabbany, was on Hayat FM yesterday for their English language program with Yasmine Al-Farra. The program topic was on—you guessed it—Islamic fashion.

If you are in Amman, Jordan, you can hear the program on Wednesday night at 10 PM or Friday at 2:30 PM (Amman is GMT +3). If you are in a different time zone, here is one of the many websites you can look at to figure out when you should listen.

Listen in to hear more about SHUKR, and let us know your thoughts.

~ Beth, Blog Admin