Vela hijab scarves for women were designed by a Muslim woman from Orange County, California, named Marwa Atik. They stand out from traditional hijabs by integrating Western fashions into their designs. They feature pleats, ruffles, and beaded sequins.
Dolce & Gabbana vela hijab scarves for women
Atik Sabri is the woman behind the design, manufacturing, and business side of the Vela line. She lives in Fountain Valley with her parents and her husband in the San Francisco Bay Area. The business is growing slowly, and Atik hopes to double production soon. Currently, she sells around 500 scarves a month.
Atik started designing hijabs for women in 2009 after her friends noticed her notebook doodles of atypical hijabs. These classmates encouraged her to pursue design. Earlier this year, the Italian fashion house announced expanding its range to include abayas. However, some questioned the motivations of the company.
Atik Sabri began creating hijabs in her parents’ garage. She decided to call her product Vela, Latin for “veil.” Vela hijabs are designed differently from traditional loose hijabs, with more ornamentation, patterns, and tying. Although the Vela hijab is sold only online, the designer hopes to expand her business to stores and reach non-Muslim women.
Atik Sabri’s role in manufacturing
Unlike the mass-produced hijabs in stores, Atik Sabri’s hijabs have a more finished look. It is because she sews most of them. But when orders for hijabs from non-Muslim women come in, she hires a sewist to fill them. As a result, the prices of her hijabs range from $15 for basic designs to $60 for high-fashion ones.
Her first visit to Utah was in 2009 when she looked for manufacturers and suppliers of the product she was developing. Luckily, she was familiar with the area and navigated it like a pro. She pulled her clunky zipper bag from the car and walked into a factory with two stories of fabric and a half-dozen sewists sewing bikinis.
Marwa Atik has a creative background in the industry and is passionate about empowering women through her designs. At 18, she recognized a market gap for women’s stylish scarves. So, with her sister, TASNEEM ATIK SABRI, she founded the company VELA. The two women now manufacture a variety of hijab scarves for women and have more than 1,000 customers worldwide.
The “hatta” pattern
Vela hijabs for women are a new type of hijab inspired by veils. This style differs from traditional hijabs in ornamentation, patterns, and tying. Though the scarves are only available online, Sabri hopes to expand into stores and eventually market to non-Muslim women.
Vela’s new fabric design is inspired by the hatta pattern worn by Palestinians, Jordanians, and Syrian women. It is made in India, a country with a history of producing high-quality cotton fabric. Currently, the company has 500 scarves a month and plans to double that number in the future.
The two-month production time
After the design and production are complete, the scarf manufacturers take about two months to complete one batch. During the busy seasons, they hire friends and relatives to package the finished products. Every cycle, they sell out their entire inventory. Atik Sabri picked up a zipper and some Vela labels and headed down to the factory. The factory is several floors away from the street, with rolls of fabric and half a dozen sewing machines.
Marwa Atik, a British-born Muslim, grew up sewing hijabs for herself and her sisters in her parent’s garage. She realized that there was a need for fashionable yet modest scarves for Muslim women and saw an opportunity at 18 to create her own business. The brand is currently sold only online, but Atik plans to expand into retail stores soon. In addition to selling hijabs, the company also produces other modest apparel, including a line of abayas.
When Marwa Atik purchased 700 yards of the zipper, she looked for a white zipper with silver teeth. Instead, Anik walked into a warehouse in the Fashion District, where she surveyed the products on two-story racks. She was surprised by the many buttons, ribbons, and tassels.
