Hilal Ibrahim Partners With Nordstrom For Store’s First Designer Hijab Line

By David Schuman

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    MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (WCCO) — A Minneapolis woman is making huge strides to diversify the world of fashion.

Hilal Ibrahim, the founder of Henna and Hijabs, has partnered with Nordstrom to launch the department store’s first line of designer hijabs.

The product made its debut in 16 Nordstrom stores Tuesday, including at Mall of America in Bloomington.

“‘The time is now.’ That’s our company motto,” Ibrahim said. “It’s a surreal moment, like it’s like this is really happening.”

Ibrahim designs hijabs to be fashionable and stylish, which isn’t always the case for the head scarves commonly worn by Muslim women. The Nordstrom launch also makes them more accessible, a focus of Ibrahim’s since high school. Sahra Mohamed is a friend of Ibrahim’s.

“If I’m going to buy a hijab, I’d have to go to the specific Somali mall in Minneapolis, but I live all the way in Fridley,” Mohamed said.

The launch is also significant for representation because some of Nordstrom’s mannequins will now wear hijabs.

“It tells millions of women that look just like me and hundreds of young girls that they too look like people in this store and they belong here,” Ibrahim said.

Fardowza Hilowle, another friend of Ibrahim’s who attended the launch event, said Ibrahim deserves all her success.

“People like Hilal pave the way, so more kids are going to be able to do this now,” Hilowle said.

The hijabs start at $39. Ibrahim says she’s happy to be launching now because the Muslim holiday Eid is next week.

Nordstrom released this statement about the collaboration:

We’ve long believed that we’re all made better by the diversity that exists within our communities. Our values are centered on the notion of creating a place where every customer and employee is welcome, respected, appreciated and able to be themselves.

We’ve done a lot of listening, and we chose to prioritize the pieces of feedback we heard most frequently from our employees, customers, partners and communities. This partnership with Henna & Hijabs allows us to introduce a collection of hijabs, designed for specifically with Muslim women in mind, but wearable for individuals across many backgrounds in a number of stylings. We hope the headscarves will help us deliver a more inclusive assortment of products for our customers.

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