All looks set for the 2nd annual International Arts Award Gala & first U.S. Modest Fashion Week event scheduled to hold at the Lakeview Terrace Navy Pier Convention Center and Contemporary Arts Museum June 30th to July 3rd, 2022.
Going by the theme “Fashion is an Ambassador to World Peace” with diversity and inclusion high on parade, along with 25 International designers and models to match, the highly anticipated event promises to be an exciting two days of live and virtual catwalks plus four days of presentations and events, including a 3000-man Unity Peace Walk, a Purple Carpet Modest Arts Awards & Modest Metropolitan Gala, complete with entertainment, and a VIP Reception.
According to convener of the event and CEO of Al-Nisa Designs, official host of the event, Carmin Muhammad, “The mission is simple—to remove the perception that modest fashion is boring and a religious-based style of dress”.
“We want to create a new narrative and a new way of thinking when it comes to modest dress. My motto is: A New Dress, A New Mind, A New Women” she said.
“Normally Modest Fashion Weeks have become somewhat of a sideshow to a mainstream Fashion Week event, but this is historical because it is the only time that modest fashionhas ever been at center stage,” she said.
“It will allow inclusion and diversity, because the designers that are presenting are usually not a part of international modest fashion week events,” added Muhammad.
The Chicago Fashion Week is the brainchild of Muhammad, and was born of conviction that for many emerging modest designers and African-American designers, an illusion. The event in many ways is empowering and gap-filling while positively projecting African fashion and creating opportunities for African designers.
With the incursion of Covid 19 and the resultant lull in business globally, it was a time that many business proprietors took time off on, to reset as Muhammad agrees.
“The covid pandemic was a real game changer in the business of fashion. A light went off and when it came back on we saw that inclusion and diversity in the business of fashion was, For Ms. Muhammad, it was a call to action and as a result this event was born”.
The crowing event of the weekend is sure to be the Modest Arts Awards Met Gala, where homage will be paid to trailblazers who have paved the way for emerging designers of different backgrounds. The list of honorees includes Maki Mandela “House of Mandela,” Lexy Mojo Eyes Founder of Legendary Gold TV/The African Reception and African fashion e-commerce online portal “AgogoAfrica,” Mother Khadijah Farrakhan, Designer & Fashionista, Zubair Mughal, Al Huda Centre of Modest Fashion and Islamic Banking and Uzo Udemba, Chairman of Udemba Group & Smart City Lagos. We will also honor and pay tribute to Virgil Abloh, an African American designer and Artistic director of the Louis Vuitton’s menswear collection who passed on last year from cancer.
“We are able to use fashion as a catalyst to address issues that are crucial to the positive growth and development of women, so we want people to not just be conscious of modest fashion but to also be conscious of the fact that through fashion, we’re able to start some of those important conversations and dialogue surrounding women,” stated Ms. Muhammad.
For the past 4 years Carmin Muhammad has appeared at major mainstream fashion week shows, blazing the runway with her cutting-edge designs and establishing relationships with high-profile fashion week founders and designers from around the world. International VIPs, fashionistas, buyers and global media will all converge in the city to be a part of this historical milestone event.
Partners who have embraced the mission and invested in it and to whom Muhammad expresses appreciation include; Al Huda Center of Modest Fashion a Media Partner, Iman Montayre, Iman Clothing, House of Mandela, Legendary Gold TV & The African Reception, Drip International Modeling Agency, Global Green Development Group, DK Ambassador, Platinum Entertainment Producers, Virtue Today Magazine, The Udemba Group, and Torino Fashion Week (TFW).
Among that group of 25 designers showcasing their stuff both live and virtual, will be Maki Mandela, daughter of the late Nelson Mandela, featuring the “House of Mandela’s ‘Struggle Series’ StreetWear Collection;” Lina Dweik, Memphis-based designer from Palestine; Princess Jehanne Masorong Mangondato-Dimaporo, Philippine’s first hijab stylist brand; Yonasda Lonewolf, one-half of the Native American and African American women-owned brand (Kayla) Lookinghorse & Lonewolf; Niloofar Avesta from Iran, Abdul Isak from Burkina Faso, Africa and many more.
The event is rooted in culture and tradition to create visibility and amplify voices collectively.
Al-Nisa Fashion Brand has been investing effort to provide a foundation for International modest designers in America, a feat that has in no small measure helped in amplifying African voices in the diaspora.
Carmen W. Muhammad is an African American modest designer, owner of Al-Nisa Designs and Women Working Together Inc., a native of Los Angeles, is a designer of great interest at international fashion week events.
Her plentiful list of achievements includes over 7 appearances at various international high-profile fashion week events. After her first appearance in Torino, Italy, she not only went viral after the UAE National newspaper article titled “Pink Hijab Ladies Steal the Show at Torino Fashion Week,” but she was the only African American designer that received the Louis Vuitton Brand Ambassador Award and the At Film Awards 2017.
Come and meet the new faces of emerging designers from around the world
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