Product: "Burqini" in a Modest Fit
From: Ahiida - www.ahiida.com
Price: $126.00
Pros
It's very comfortable, the material is 100% Polyester so it's very light to wear! My favourite part of the swimsuit is the ties that are located at mid-calf length - they tie onto the separate shirt which means the shirt doesn't lift up when you're swimming. There are also ties at your feet which means that the pants don't flap around at the end when they're wet. I also love the colour, the photo above makes it look almost black but mine is a dark blue. Here is a pic of the ties on the shirt:
And at the feet...
Another thing that I love is the fit of the top. There are a few cons which I'll address but on the whole, it just drops down from the chest so it doesn't cling to your body. However, you would need to get a Modest Fit as I did, a slim-fit suit would cling a bit more I think. I also found that while swimming, I could simply tug on the bottom of the suit and it would become baggy again which was great when getting out of the water! You can see here that it just goes straight down, the only bump there is the ties sticking out after doing them up.
The instructions included were also great, it was a really professional bundle! I would be disappointed if it wasn't though tbh.
Cons
I obviously don't have the photos of the cons, but my main thing is that the chest area doesn't really give much to women that have regular or larger busts. But I think this is due to the design of the shirt - the hijab itself is attached, meaning that it just falls straight from the neck to below the knee (on me, anyway). It felt really weird to walk around with it at a deserted beach at first - no one was there but I didn't feel adequately covered at the chest area so wore a pashmina over it. That's the biggest con for me and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I am the type of person to wear jeans and a knee length jacket w/ hijab so it was a bit different at first.
The cap itself also took a bit of getting used to, in the beginning I felt like I wasn't wearing a hijab because of how light it is lol! The design is great though and it was hilarious hearing water slosh around in it when I was swimming in really strong waves.
I also think that the sleeves are a bit tight. I would've preferred the design of the shirt to be baggy at the shoulders, to imitate the look of having a big shirt & smaller undershirt because that would just let everything fall a bit better.
The thigh areas were also a bit too tight/revealing BUT this doesn't actually matter because the top is below the knee for a Modest fit on my frame, 163cms. The good thing about that is that it makes sure that the pants don't slip AT ALL :)
Overall
Price: $126 is a fair price for the swimsuit, considering that good swimmers here in Australia (1 piece or 2 pieces) are often $80 and up.
Comfort: 9/10! Great for swimming, only drawback being the ties on the feet need to be adjusted every now and again which is normal.
Coverage: 6/10 - I won't be wearing this at very public beaches, that's for sure, but it does the best it can for quiet areas with non-mahrams not present.
The swimsuit itself is amazing. It's such a great innovation and I'm really happy that it's available. In saying that, I don't plan to wear it in really public places as I'm still not 100% comfortable with the fit at the chest and don't believe a larger size would fix that. I think I will just continue with what I've been doing, which is swimming at very quiet beaches (not recommended if you are in a rough area though, remember the flags Aussies lol) and private pools in gym complexes that are almost deserted during the day. A great fix for someone conscious would be to simply wear a longer Al-Amira over the cap, something that I do want to do but I only have a black one which would look quite funny on my blue suit lol. I would recommend it to others but only as long as they were OK with either wearing an al-amira or the way the fabric falls naturally.
Have you ever worn a "burqini" or similar?
10 comments:
i was waiting for this. jazakallah ellen :) just one more question if u dont mind: what size r u normally and what size did u end up ordering. i cant decide
I've been wondering what their swimsuits were like. I had purchased one in Singapore a few years ago and the headpiece part was a separate piece that you could tie to secure it and then pants was like a jump suit inside (i.e. you have to step into it and it's sleeveless) and then you put on the loose fitting top. So if the top came up, it wouldn't matter because you had a jumpsuit on underneath! I got that for $60 SGD. But I would prefer the headpiece to be connected because the one that I had just kept floating up, so I'd have this round frill around my neck when my head was bobbing above the water, lol!
MashAllah!
Salaam Gonul I'm a size 10 and ordered a Modest Fit in a 10-12 (classified as a medium).
XoXo that's a good idea! I like the sound of the long top. But I know what you mean about the bits floating lol! Sometimes the shoulders would float which made me feel like I was wearing a life jacket hahahaha.
Anon :)
I want one but I can't swim! lol~ Some of my friends have 'em, and they find it really comfortable. One tip they gave me was to buy a size bigger. :)
Salam :) i have a dark purple one from Ahiida in the same size. I think we are the same size and i agree about it being a bit tight in areas. It does cling to you when you get out of the water so i try to get out when no one is really around otherwise ill just tug at the bottom until i can get to my towel and wrap that around me. I really like that idea about an Al Amira hijab to go with it. I might try that next time, inshaAllah.
I've been on the fence about buying something like this since converting but never felt like paying that much money for something I felt I would wear so little. I also am not a fan of the attached caps. However, my husband got a job in Louisiana this summer (i.e. near the beach) so I finally gave in. I really just cannot get around the attached caps, and since I would like to be able to wear it around my family (who I still don't always wear hijab with) as well I thougt my best bet would be to buy one with no cap and just wear a normal hijab. a)I LOVE the look of a flowing hijab 100x better than the look of a skin tight cap b) a hijab would help cover the bust area and c) I don't swim for sport or excercise so a hijab is fine for just having fun in the water. I first bought a suit from Splash Gear, a california based company that sells pants and swim shirts. It came and I did not like the fit (too large) so considered exchanging it, but my husband did not like the print so I just sent it back. Now I have ordered a suit from Modestly Active based out of the UK. It ended up being $110 USD, but I spend about $80 on a bikini back in high school so really, I'm getting so much more for my money, lol. I would have liked a more subdued color (olive or grey) but the hood-less suit only came in a purplish (it was listed as navy...which I would prefer but the photo looked purple) with turquise arms and a gold design on the shirt. Sounds a bit wild but i think it'll be nice. It should be coming soon so maybe I will do a review. I hope it works because I'm tired of spending money just on shipping and returns!
Love love reading other's experience in searching for that perfect modest swimwear as I am now going through this! Thank you for sharing :)Recently I had the chance to visit Ahiida Burqini's store in Sydney, and I was surprised to see there were so much more options of styles and colour in store but not sold in their website. There is also the swimwear without the hood, which is great as I am not so fond of the attached hood either. I plan to get a separate swim hood similar to those worn for snorkeling as it looks more streamlined, neat, flat, without that extra pouch for long hair at the back. The burqinis I tried on were all very comfortable and nicely fit, and has that ribbon which we can tie up the pant to the shirt on the inside to prevent the top from floating up in the water - genius :) I love the designs with multi coloured panel on the chest area as I think the extra stitching of the panel sort of give extra thickness on the chest area. Also, it comes in many fits like modest fit if you want it to be less tighter. The pants are not tight too, which I love albeit being many inches too long but I am very petite anyway. Although I have been drooling for splashgear as it has more sporty look, the high cost of shipping to Australia deters me from getting them. As Ahiida is having sale now and some discontinued items sells cheaply so this is more cheaper option for me at the moment.
Hi DD, how long ago did you purchase the dark purple (eggplant) swimsuit from ahiida? My friend has the all dark purple one (sleeves also purple) and I really like it. However its nowhere on the website..
thanks
Salam all...
Just to share my experience with ahiida burqini. I'm a petit small chested lady in my late 30s. I've actually bought 2 sets from them. The first one was the modest fit which did everything from beach to pool perfectly. I wear quite a long hijab usually so the tight hijood did take some time to get used too. I did find the pants heavy and draggy while swimming compared to the tights I was used to wearing. Having said that I was completely happy to walk around resorts and such in my modest fit with a pashmina loosely over the hijood.
I bought the sportz fit thinking it would reduce drag when I started fitness training. I found that it was still quite restricted for intense sports. So I spent a bit more money to have the pants tapered. I'm quite happy using it to clock a couple of hours of swimming but will use Nike xtraining pants for races.
I've been using Ahiida since 2003 and the suit still looks good and I have taken these suits through everything! Quality stuff and worth the money. I have ahiida to thank for giving me the freedom to be active and do what I love!
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