This Woman Designed A Viral “Hoodie Abaya,” And Her Collection Has Already Sold Out...Five Times
Saeedah didn’t create the hoodie abaya exclusively for Muslim women — something she’s frequently asked about on social media. As she says on TikTok, you don’t have to be Muslim to enjoy modesty.
“It’s ironic,” Saeedah Haque mused, reflecting on her time interning at London Fashion Week, “to be in a space where creative clothing is being celebrated yet feel out of place because of your clothing.” Though she had always been interested in fashion and deeply passionate about human rights, the young British-born Muslim woman studied business and geography at university, earning traditional degrees familiar to her Bangladeshi immigrant parents. Upon graduating, she landed a 9-to-5 in the humanitarian sector that eventually left her unfulfilled. Yet, it wasn’t until after she witnessed the growing presence of South Asian designers online — who embraced their cultures while imbuing political statements into their creative works — that Saeedah felt inspired to explore a career in fashion. In hopes of learning more about the industry, she began pursuing fashion internships and soon found herself at London Fashion Week.
However, amidst the prestige and glamor of one of the “Big Four” (the others being New York, Milan, and Paris Fashion Weeks), Saeedah felt out of place. She noticed she dressed conservatively compared to the designers she spoke with, her head adorned with a hijab. For three years, this sense of displacement lingered before Saeedah boldly made the decision to establish her eponymous label, Saeedah Haque, confronting South Asian and Muslim underrepresentation in the fashion industry through her “unapologetically modest” designs.
Since then, Saeedah’s creations, most notably her innovative “hoodie abaya,” a contemporary interpretation of the traditional garment worn by Muslim women, have gone viral. Fusing influences from London’s edgy streetwear scene and gritty hip-hop culture, her pieces have captivated audiences around the world. On TikTok, where she’s shared her work, Saeedah has amassed more than 200K followers, 6M likes, and comments from celebrities like American singer-songwriter Kehlani, British MC and rapper Dizzee Rascal, and British rapper AJ Tracey, to name a few. She even caught the attention of Nike, resulting in the release of a limited Nike By You collection. More impressively, the five original collections she’s dropped on her online storefront have sold out within minutes of going live.
