Ladybrille Web Snob 9/1/08-9/5/08

[set by YEJ]

Happy Friday! Today marks the first day of the exciting shows at New York Fashion Week Spring 2009. We are off to the shows but wanted to leave you with some of the best posts of the week from our Web Snob partners. Enjoy.

1. A Few Goody GumDrops polishes her nails to perfection with Deborah Lippmann's Pump Up The Jam!
2. Stiletto Jungle features work-chic pumps worth the splurge.
3. Gossip Girl's Leighton Meester was born in a jail! Allie is Wired has the confirmation.
4. Bag Snob kicks off Fashion Week with Snob TV and Diane von Furstenberg!
5. Beauty Snob has a lifting serum from Prescriptives to tighten and brighten!
6. Cheap JAP spends small and scores big at the Intermix Sample Sale.
7. Coquette adores the succulent jewelry of Prismera Design.
8. Debutante Clothing questions the cutting of designer vintage
9. KRISTOPHER is wanting, wearing, hating Post-Labor Day whites.
10. Quinta Trends shows you how to look glorious in a party night (or in a wedding party)
11. Second CIty Style reviews the Saks Want It! List for Fall with Michael Fink.
12. Shoppingandinfo loves Gossip Girl’s clothing from episode one what do you think ?
13. StyleBakery.com rounds up this season's most-wanted shoes for every budget.
14. Stylehive Hive5: Hive 5: Earth-Inspired Cocktail Rings.
15. Sxy Fashion Queens talks about Jennifer Lopez and her eight favourite designers.
16. The Beauty Stop says update your look with acid eyes.
17. Wondering what to wear this Fall? The Fashionable Housewife has compiled a list of all the best trends! Check out our Fall 2008 & Winter 2009 Trends Roundup!!
18. The Shoe Goddess has the best ballet flats to build your shoe collection!
19. V-Style checks out Matte Black clothing, one of the hottest new designers for fall 2008.

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New York Fashion Week, Sneak Preview- The Academy of Art University, San Francisco

Excited is just one way to describe our feelings towards the upcoming New York Fashion Week Spring 2009 shows! We are so looking forward to some of our favorite shows like Perry Ellis, Tracy Reese, DVF, Gottex, Ports 1961, Sabyasachi, Carmen Marc Valvo and of course the Academy of Art University, San Francisco's show!

The Academy of Art University's show remains one of our favorite at Bryant Park. Since September 2005, the school has showcased graduate work during fashion week in the areas of womens wear, menswear, accessory, knitwear and textile design. For Spring 2009, for the first time, two graduates who completed their degrees 100% online will be showing their collections: Ali Khan in menswear and Elena Akoulova in womenswear.

Approximately eight other designers, on September 5th, 2008, will be showcased including Jaime Cole who in April was featured in MTV: True Life I'm Going to Fashion Week. By the way, did you know the school is the ONLY one in the USA and the world, for that matter, that gets to show at the brilliant New York Fashion Week?

Check out the video below to see why we love them! Look carefully you might catch us singing their praises alongside other fashion insiders.

Stay tuned throughout the week for more of the latest scoop on New York Fashion Week, Spring 2009!

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Ladybrille Woman of the Month, Ausma Khan, Part II

We continue with part II of our indepth interview with our Ladybrille Woman of the Month, Ausma Khan, Editor-in-Chief of Muslim Girl Magazine. For Part I click here.--Article by Niama Sandy.

LADYBRILLE.com: What are some obstacles that you’ve seen, personally and professionally for Muslim women and Muslim girls? Khan: For me personally, I’ve been really fortunate as I haven’t really faced any obstacles. I grew up in Canada, which thrives on multiculturalism and I had every possible opportunities and privilege in terms of education and my job pursuits. I think about where I come from and my history of my two grand mothers and I know my life is so different from theirs. I don’t view my own situation as having been difficult. In the context of my work for the magazine, we hear from young Muslim women all across the U.S. and Canada. Especially if they’re visibly identifiable as Muslim because of a head scarf, they face many challenges in terms of integrating into their classrooms, getting jobs or promotions. Particularly in the United States they might feel very singled out after September 11th.

It’s so much more of a negatively-charged climate for Muslims. They’re operating under fear and suspicion, and a lot of them feel the pressure to be ambassadors of their faith all the time which can be burdensome. Many young women are also using it as a tremendous opportunity for dialogue and engagement. So those are the kinds of misconceptions people have. People have stereotypical misconceptions about Muslim women: that we all wear head scarves, that we all dress a particular way, that we all think a particular way and really there’s a tremendous amount of diversity in American Muslim communities and that’s also not recognized in mainstream new coverage. That’s a challenge to try to get people to think of them outside of the box, to engage in the public sphere, to get our young women to represent themselves rather than being represented by others.

LADYBRILLE.com: How are you addressing that through your work and how do you think every day persons can address it in their lives? Khan:

The way we address it in the magazine is by being a forum to tell these stories from the inside in ways that we think are authentic, honest and positive. We showcase these kinds of stories that break stereotypes all the time: girls who travel the world, girls who work for charitable organizations in the community, girls who’re very active in athletics, girls who do not wear head scarves, girls who do wear head scarves and yet do all these things. We show very high-achieving Muslim women in a feature called “Woman to Watch.” We’ll showcase women who are very advanced in their careers and who’re doing important things in a variety of fields. We’ll talk openly and honestly about challenges of modern society and how young Muslim women try to make these accommodations. We show that there are struggles and problems in Muslim communities that need to be addressed. I think our editorial content is fairly substantial in that way.

LADYBRILLE.com: How did you initially become involved with Muslim Girl? Khan: It was an interesting sort of divergence from my career path. I was in academia working as an adjunct professor teaching International Human Rights Law – that’s also my area of specialization. I met up with the publisher who was recommended by a mutual friend. I’ve always been a lifelong writer and engager, when I met with the publishing team up here in Toronto I realized what I could achieve with the magazine is the same thing that interested me in International Human Rights work. Also living in the US and seeing what young Muslims are up against and how important it is for us to represent ourselves. I saw this as a chance to do something meaningful for the community.

What has your experience been like thus far with running the magazine? Coming from academia, what has that transition been like? What were some of your challenges? What was easiest for you? Khan: I really had to learn publishing from the ground floor up. I had very little publishing experience beyond getting my own work published, so it was a challenge. Everyday I would learn new things, but I was working with a great team the whole time. They were able to train me well and take a lot of information from me and feedback on what kinds of stories we should be telling, how we should tell them, and how we could achieve our joint objectives.

It’s been incredibly hectic and busy. In academia you have a lot of time for yourself and for your own research and your schedule is much more flexible; in publishing you’re always on deadline, it’s always crazy and hectic, stories are always falling through, you’re always looking for new material. That’s been quite different, but very exciting and challenging. The other thing that I really love is the opportunity to write and get my perspective out. Another thing is the incredible young women that I meet everyday through the magazine and the communities that we engage with and the kind of feedback we get from them. It makes it feel like you’re making a difference and like it’s worthwhile.

LADYBRILLE.com: There've been some amazing fashion spreads in Muslim Girl. Was it a conscious decision to make fashion a part of the magazine's content or did it just happen along the way? Khan: It was a very conscious decision. As much as we want to tackle the heavy and important issues, our audience is young and they’re stylish and they’re very much a part of the society they live in and so this is part of their identity and how they present themselves to the world. If you want to get young women to pick up your magazine and read if of course you have to provide things that engage them and entertain them. Fashion is one way to do that. This is one of the aspects of the magazine that’s most widely responded and people are very interested in. Particularly because most of the stuff in other fashion magazines doesn't match with their beliefs. We look at current trends on the runway and adapt it for their lifestyles and values. We receive fashion story suggestions all the time.

LADYBRILLE.com: Islam is [said to be] the fastest growing religion on the planet, has there been any thought of expanding into new markets? Across the continent of Africa, for example, a sizable portion are Muslims. In some African countries, about half of the citizens practice Islam. Do you see Muslim Girl addressing those young girls at present or in the future? Khan: We actually have done it to some extent in the past with a feature we have called “Muslim Girl International,” we’ll tell stories about girls from other parts of the world. We have told some African stories, and a lot of our content and images is about African-American girls because that is a constituency of our readership. In terms of expanding the distribution of the magazine, we’d love to go worldwide because there are Muslim populations all over the world but we’re just not there yet. Editorial would have to be localized, and that’s not really plausible. We don’t have any immediate plans for print distribution but we’re planning to expand our digital edition and make that available worldwide because we’ve had so much interest.

LADYBRILLE.com: What’s your favorite story been from “Muslim Girl International”? Khan: That’s a good question. We had a very interesting girl from Malaysia who was bioenvironmental engineer and her work involved sustainable development in Africa & Panama. In Panama, she was helping to create a sustainable water source for a village in Panama. In Africa, she was working on an HIV drug device delivery system that was sustainable and that could be recyclable. That was very interesting for me.

Another story was of a young Somali girl who had come to the US and was living Chicago. She’d come as a refugee and her experience in a refugee camp in Africa was horrendous. It was such an eye opener! She was a young girl with so much grit and determination. She was so determined to make the most of the opportunity to be in the U.S. and get an education and really do something for her family and her community.

Those kinds of stories are very meaningful, very powerful and inspiring, and it just shows you that young women have some important contributions to make.

LADYBRILLE.com: Where is the magazine available? Khan: It’s carried in libraries across the country. It’s also available nationwide in all but 20 of the Barnes & Noble stores in the U.S. In Canada, Indigo Chapters, and some independent newsstands carry it (like Hudson’s in New York), also some Borders carry it, but Barnes & Noble is the easiest place to find it.

LADYBRILLE.com: What is your hope for Muslim Girl in the next 5 years, for both the magazine itself and the community? Khan: I hope: our circulation could doubles and triples and is widely read; that it’s on the desk of every Senator, Congressperson and public policy official; that it’s widely available in schools, libraries and universities; and that it continues to be a resource to people who want to talk about Muslim issues both in the United States and around the world - so that Muslims can have a chance add their own voices to the debate, we’re always being talked about but rarely contributing. For the community, I hope that the girls continue to empower themselves, get good educations, get out into the workforce and join careers in law, public policy and journalism so that their voices can be heard and they can tackle the problems that are significant to their communities.

LADYBRILLE.com: Thank you so much! Khan: It has been my pleasure!

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For previous Ladybrille Women of the Month, click here.

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Ladybrille Woman of the Month, Ausma Khan

by Niama Sandy

Imagine that the world has been your perpetual oyster. Completion of a doctoral degree in International Human Rights Law is just on the horizon. A friend connects you with a contact interested in publishing magazine geared toward teenage women and you jump at the opportunity leaving behind most of what you know. Does it sound far-fetched? Well it’s not for September’s Ladybrille Woman of the Month, Ausma Khan, Editor in Chief of Muslim Girl Magazine!

In 2006, Khan left an adjunct professorship at the prestigious Northwestern University in Chicago to helm a fledgling magazine called Muslim Girl. In her youth, Khan was instilled with a great appreciation for and understanding of her faith – Islam. After building an impressive career in academia and an avid and cultivated interest in the struggles of Muslim people globally, Khan set out into uncharted territory to document the experience of the Muslim woman.

In some locales of the globe, the sight of a hijab inspires some of the worst atrocities humanity can muster. Now more than ever Muslims - women in particular- need to have a voice. Sometimes in life, matters of community consume us - they set our hearts, minds, and spirits ablaze. We become emboldened, obsessed and even possessed with the desire to make our world a better place. That is what motivates Ladybrille and we can appreciate and recognize that fire when we see it in others. Ausma Khan and the staff of Muslim Girl have taken up the mantle to tell the stories of Muslim women across the globe – every where from the U.S. to Africa. Under Khan’s leadership Muslim Girl Magazine has shown the face of the Muslim woman to be that of a diverse and richly cultured woman. Ladybrille honors Khans’s commitment. Simply put, here is her story.

LADYBRILLE.com: Hello, thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview with Ladybrille! Let's get started . . .I'd like to speak about you personally for a few moments. Tell us about your background. Where were you born? Where did you grow up? Khan: I was born in Lester, England and then my family immigrated to Canada in 1974. First I lived out in the prairies in the west in Saskatchewan from 1974 to 1982, and then I moved to Toronto, Ontario which is where I grew up and did all my schooling. Three years ago, I moved to the United States, and I’ve been living here since.

LADYBRILLE.com: You definitely have a different perspective than the average US magazine person growing up in Canada. What was your upbringing like? You all seemed to have moved a lot, what kept you grounded? Khan: We did move a lot and I think it was just having two really great parents who were really keyed into us and had provided us with a set of values that we could comfortably live with and that provided strong guidance for us. We grew up in a community where there were very few other South Asian or Muslim families, but I don’t think we ever felt excluded or marginalized or strange or different. The people around us in Saskatchewan were wonderful. Our parents gave us a very strong sense of identity, I grew up in a home of practicing Muslims and I was taught that at a young age. They guided me throughout my life and have been of immense benefit to me!

LADYBRILLE.com: What have been some of your constant sources of inspiration/motivation throughout your life? How've they shaped you? Khan: Inspiration I would say definitely my parents. My father is a psychiatrist and he’s a very calm and rational person, and someone you can talk to about anything. My mother is a woman who has faced immense challenges in her own life. She came to England when she was 18 and couldn’t speak a word of English and she had to learn that and raise 4 kids without any family support because she was so far from her family.

Then she emigrated again from a very hot country to go to a very cold place. She seems to have surmounted every challenge without even mentioning that it was a challenge. She was a good strong example of how a woman can survive and adapt for her and raise four [4] kids. For her it was always a huge priority that her children pursue higher education. She made sure that each one of us did and it was equally important that the girls did [Khan has a sister and two brothers). My parents were always an inspiration but also I’ve met a lot of amazing people along the way – scholars and activists who inspire me and challenge me to do more with my own life.

LADYBRILLE.com: [Give us] an example of one of those persons? Khan: From a very young age, I became aware of Canadian figure by the name of Dr. Chris Giannou. He’s a war surgeon whose operated in war zones all around the around. I’ve seen him speak a dozen times in my life. I’ve read his books and he’s phenomenal! Currently, I’m very inspired by Dr. Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian Nobel Laureate, who does work in children’s rights and women’s rights in Iran. I think of her as a very courageous figure, she’s a practicing Muslim woman but her understanding of Islam is a very enlightened and progressive one. She’s operating in a very difficult and constrained context, so I find her work very inspirational.

TO BE CONTINUED . . .

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Editor's Note: Happy New Month of September!

Happy New Month! I hope you found August inspiring and you are ready to do some amazing things in September. We are excited about our September issue and hope you are too! The one and only living fashion legend and mogul, Supermodel Iman, granted us an interview and we look forward to sharing her story with you all. We are also excited about New York Fashion Week!! New York Fashion Week is a time when fashion insiders descend on Bryant Park, in New York City, to be about the business of fashion. We will be there and will be bringing you coverage throughout the week of some of the shows, personalities and events in and around Bryant Park.

By the way, don't miss our feature on "Youth Movement" and you definitely do not want to miss our feature on Ladybrille Woman of the Month, Ausma Khan. Ausma Khan is the Editor-in-Chief of Muslim Girl Magazine. Her feature is a must read and we are proud of the hard work and accomplishments her and her team are achieving at Muslim Girl Mag.

Finally, please say a prayer for one of our Ladybrille's contributors and her family Toya Thomas. Toya lives in New Orleans and was seriously affected by Hurricane Katrina. She has just advised us she is safe and on her way out of New Orleans to escape Hurricane Gustav, which appears to be gaining momentum towards New Orleans. Say a prayer for her and the people of New Orleans.

Thank you for being a loyal reader, tell your friends, at least five of them about us, and stay with us for what promises to be an exciting month!

Remain Blessed,

Uduak Oduok

Editor-in-Chief

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Never Ever Give Up!

This past week, the message for me was so clear and simple as I observed and refelected on the remarkable stories of all candidates for the White House. From Senator Hilary Clinton to Joe Biden, John McCain, Sarah Palin and Barack Obama, the message remained simple, forceful and clear. Stay determined, keep pushing and never ever give up!

On August 28th, 2008 Barack Obama's acceptance speech as the Presidential nominee for the Democratic Party reinforced the message of "never giving up!" Whatever the goals you reach for personally and professionally, don't give up! Stay at it and it's only a matter of time, all good things meant to happen to you will come to fruition.

Stay blessed and have a brilliant upcoming week ahead!

--Uduak

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