October 21, 2024

By Danya Issawi

Photo-Illustration: Stevie Remsberg; Photos Getty Images

When many of us first ventured into the digital playground that was Instagram in 2012, Maria Alia Al-Sadek was ten steps ahead. The “fit pic” was new back then, but Al-Sadek had already perfected the art form. As a Muslim hijabi teenager growing up in Alabama, the model and content creator already felt different. She couldn’t (and, frankly, didn’t want to) buy into the cookie-cutter, Abercrombie and Hollister aesthetic so many of us were obsessing over back then. Al-Sadek figured if she was going to stand out from her peers, she might as well do it in a way that felt authentic and interesting to her. Thus, she began exploring the world of high fashion, devouring magazines like Teen Vogue and Elle that her local Target kept stocked and researching the history of influential designers. She took inspiration from the runways of Alexander Wang, who at the time had an untarnished reputation, and found ways to cinch and layer garments to not only match the silhouettes she saw in the glossies but also meet her own level of preferred modesty.

ADVERTISER CONTENT

Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photo: Getty Images

By Madame Clairevoyant

Every product is independently selected by editors. If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission. For more shopping advice, sign up to get the Cut Shop newsletter every Friday.

This weekend, Caroline Polachek performed among the water lilies at Musée de L’Orangerie, and Zendaya wore the hell out of a vintage Bob Mackie gown to help induct Cher into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. There's a monastery in upstate New York where monks breed and train German shepherds. Can we just shoot Elon Musk into space already? Being a Girl Scout costs, and it's about to cost more. This year’s Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade lacked judges and prizes, but the pooches and their owners turned out anyway. And we're sorry to be the bearers of bad news, but after Friday, the sun won’t set any later than 6:00 p.m. in New York City until March 9, 2025.

ADVERTISER CONTENT

A biweekly newsletter interrogating modern family life, written by Kathryn Jezer-Morton.