Inspiring Women : Leena Asad, Melanie Elturk, Sebina Hussain & Sara Mouslli
9:37:00 PM
One of the best experience and benefits that I've gained from the Dubai Modest Fashion Week 2017 trip for aere earlier this month is meeting so many amazing, gorgeous, smart and inspiring women! They are really amazing individuals and are just so so inspiring in different ways and they came and flew in from all over the world to gather for the event. Fashion unites and brings people together.
It was truly humbling for me just to be in their presence and mingling with them, talking and getting to know them. And throughout the event, these inspiring women were empowering and learning from one another. Opening our minds by sharing different opinions on various topics and agreeing to disagree in certain matters.
Although I was meeting most of them for the very first time, I managed to capture some short videos of them as well as take photos together.and I am so glad I did. I tried to fit everyone I met over there in just one blog post but I couldn't manage it because I met soooo many amazing inspiring individuals! So, I'll be sharing about them in different posts and maybe some of their articles that I like so that you will get to know them too. Some of you might already know them but hey, I'm just going to share anyways!
So here in this post are the first four inspiring women that I have met and a video compilation of our meet up.
To begin the series of the Inspiring Women video compilation at the Dubai Modest Fashion Week...
First up : Leena Asad, Melanie Elturk, Sebina Hussain & Sara Mouslli!
@withloveleena
Leena Asad
Fashion, Travel & Lifestyle blogger
from Texas United States of America
I was walking out of the fashion talk tent after listening to a talk and saw this beautiful lady in white who looked really familiar. I approached her and introduced myself and found out that she is the withloveleena whom I have been following for quite awhile. She is so sweet and it just so happened that we were wearing matching colours! She just got married earlier this year and her wedding photos are just so gorgeous. Anyone getting married soon should definitely check out her wedding photos for inspiration. As for me, even though I've been married for about 7 years, I'm in the midst of redecorating my house especially because of my recent expansion to the family. So, Leena's latest post sharing how she decorates her living room is just so beneficial and useful. Love it! Click the link below to read the article in her blog.
My Living Room Tour + 6 Tips to Make Your Room Look Expensive
@sebinaah
Sebina Hussain
Lifestyle blogger
from London
I first met Sebina at the London Modest Fashion Week and we had a nice conversation and also took a photo together which I posted on IG but not here on the blog (boo I was MIA on the blog for a bit at that time). She came to the booth when it was supposed to be our show and she's actually one of our guests. It's really good to meet her again and she is just so funny too, I mean just look at her at the video making me laugh again and again! She is now about 7 months pregnant if I remember correctly. To be pregnant, and flying from London to Dubai for DMFW and working on her third trimester, now that is one super strong woman!
Anyways, I like how she is very honest, frank and blunt and here's an article from her blog that I really enjoyed reading so read away.
Things no one tells you about you're early 20's
Btw, I'm wearing aere's ARABELLA Top and CLARA Skirt.
@hautehijab
Melanie Elturk
CEO of Haute Hijab
from New York United States of America
Another lady who looked awesome in white and just because I was also wearing white on that day it was easier for me to spot ladies who were wearing the same colour. I approached her and introduced myself and just like Leena, I found out that she is hautehijab! Hehe. That's one thing about Instagram though. Before you meet somebody real life you tend to remember the IG handle first. But now I know she is Melanie. The CEO of Haute Hijab. She is building the leading US hijab brand into a global phenomenon and doing so based in a county where Muslims are the minority is just something very brave, challenging and super inspiring. Here's an interview that she did that I like because of her honesty and fearless attitude.
Interview with Haute Hijab CEO Melanie Elturk
@saramouslli
Sara Mouslli
Interior Designer & Founder of Escarvio
From Syria living in Dubai
It's the first time that I met Sara and she is so sweet to come to the booth. She said that she's going to come again because of some drama that you can read below the video. (Scroll down a little). She's just so sweet, soft-spoken and pretty! I saw a YouTube video of her interview but it's in Arabic and I just wished I continued taking Arabic classes after my uni days. Teach me please, Sara!
So, here's the video!
Anyways, you will find out in the video that.... something happened. Drama. It rained for the first time this year in Dubai (so I was told). It doesn't normally rain but it rained on the day of aere's show. Out of all the days in a year. And people in Dubai have been praying for rain all year long, they say. And then their prayers were answered and finally it rained. On the day of our supposed show, 8th December 2017!!!
Oh, and did I mention that it was an outdoor event? The fashion show had a pretty cool concept, being an outdoor event is was actually pretty amazing because it was winter over there, so its sunny in the day time but it was also windy and cool ... and most importantly, the backdrop of the event itself is the iconic Burj Khalifa which is the tallest building in the world.
When it started to rain shows were still going on and the models actually walked on the slippery runway in the rain. Saw some guests of the show were insta-storying that they watched the show while it was raining. The raining didn't stop And so our show (together with some other brands and designers) which was supposed to be held at 8.00 p.m was cancelled! Not postponed. Cancelled. Yep. Came all the way to Dubai just to have our show cancelled because of rain that chose our day as the one day of the year. The event's schedule was already full and packed with other shows the next day so the organisers could not promise that they could reschedule all of the cancelled shows. (Of course the orgasniers tried their utmost best and they're just really amazing in handling everything) It was something that I've never ever imagined happening. Our show being cancelled. Can it get more dramatic than that? Haha! But it really is something beyond anyone's control so we just embraced it and I went to some of the other talks being organised nearby which was really beneficial (and I'll be sharing that in my future postings here hopefully) and then went around meeting people over there and attended to people who came to our booth.
You can see my reaction to the announcement when we found about the show being cancelled when i was recording the video with Sebina. There was a blackout at one point so we had to go somewhere else for shelter but when it was just drizzling and when some lights at the opposite booth was back up, I went back to the booth and if you closely during the video with Sebina, you can see the lights at aere's booth at the back is still out. But there were still people coming to the booth even though it rained and their clothes were all drenched! We even had a buyer who came when it was raining and we were looking for shelter. She came back and checked out aere's wet and drenched clothes on display and it went pretty well. Phew.
Will continue to share more, soon!
PEACE & LOVE!
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