The Somali Fashion Center & Mall

Two women sit in a shop and talk over tea and samosas The Somali Fashion Center & Mall has been known to be a place where people not only shop, but can relax and chat with community members. Most of them are of the Muslim faith and have immigrated from East African countries such as Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia.

Near the end of the day, around 5:44 pm, men rush in to the shop to pray in the prayer room on the second floor. The Somali Fashion Center is a place where people of the Muslim faith can make in time for their daily prayers. After prayer many of them leave to go home.

Osman and his mother run a shop filled with items such as clothing, hijabs, perfumes and other Islamic based items. They also sell tea and samosas. Often times they have customers that come and chat over tea sometimes staying for hours to relax.

On Fridays a shop owner brings food to share with customers and other shop owners. Osman’s mother helps with laying out the food as a customer waits to be fed and two women pray beside them.

A regular customer bring her nephew to the shop to buy new fabrics and clothing.

Sometimes shop owners bring their children to work. Here, a group of girls sit in a shop after coming from school.

Zeynab runs a shop focused on muscle therapy. In this image she shows her light therapy machine that she uses on the face of her customers. Her background in being a registered nurse has informed the kind of services that she wants to give her customers amongst many shops that mainly sell clothing, hijabs and other Islamic based items. She often speaks about her dream to go back to her home country and live in Somalia

Miriam manages a small shop that her daughter owns on the third floor. She often tells stories of her fleeing from Kenya by boat while pregnant during a time of civil unrest in the country.

The season of Ramadan is the busiest time of the year for the Somali Fashion Center and Mall. To attract customers up front some shop owners decide to display their items outside of the building.

Fatima runs a shop on the second floor covered in items that have been mostly picked by her during her yearly visits to Turkey. She often has customers that come in to barter for her products.

A shop owner named Muhammad runs a shop mainly consisting of shelves of the Qur’an and prayer mats and rugs.

The day before Ramadan, many shop owners make their last minute purchases before the big celebrations. While shopping a boy hides in a rack of clothing.

Having stood for over 30 years in Fairfax County, VA, the importation of goods from places such as Turkey, Dubai, Somalia, and many other countries with Islamic grounding not only have served the business of immigrants in the Somali Mall, but have created a warmth that reminds its customers of home. Its sister building, The Somali Fashion Center, lives just across the street and shares the same nature. Most of these shops are women-run, with items that are usually hand picked by the shop owners themselves. For example, a woman named Fatima on the first floor visits Turkey a few times a year to update her stock on hijabs, dresses, and scarves. Almost every item in her store is a reflection of her taste. “Everything you see here I go to Turkey and I get it” she says as she points towards her array of fabrics on the racks.

Zeynab is a registered nurse, and also a shop owner at the mall. Most shops at the mall consist of clothing items and other Islamic based items that appeal to the large Muslim community in Falls Church Virginia, however Zeynab has used her knowledge in nursing to run a shop focused on muscle therapy. Her husband Osman runs another shop across the street in the sister building alongside his mother mainly selling clothing, hijabs, perfumes and other Islamic items. Miriam runs a tiny shop on the third floor that her daughter owns and often tells stories about her immigration fleeing from Kenya by ship during a time of civil unrest.

When walking through the mall you can hear numerous mother tongues being spoken across the halls bartering and expressing warm greetings to each other. Many customers and shop owners are immigrants from places like Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia, and some even come to simply sit and gossip over tea and samosas. Songs of the Qur’an play in the background throughout the day, and at 5:44 pm, an influx of men on their way home from work, militantly gather in the prayer room and other male shop owners join them, while the women kneel beside their shop corners. This mall that is split between two buildings across from one another functions as more than just a place to buy and sell goods, it serves as a home away from home for so many East African immigrants that have rebuilt their lives on American soil. It is not simply an exchange of products, but an exchange of comfort, a sense of familiarity that creates community and harbors a safe place to belong.

This collection of images observe the community and culture of The Somali Fashion Center and Mall and the shop owners that inhabit the space. Most women found it quite difficult to be photographed, and the reserved nature of the space creates a challenging environment to capture intimate moments, however there were women who were open to being photographed and exposing the enclosed beauty of this mall.