6 - Modest Fashion and Textiles

Summary

Introduction

Modest fashion lines are prominent in high-street chains and luxury fashion brands, in magazines and advertising campaigns. A conflation considered strange, if not incompatible, when first launched, modest fashion is now entering the mainstream. Ethnic and Asian fashion styles that were popular in the 1990s can be seen as important precursors for the later visibility and mainstream retailing of modest fashion. For instance the short-lived trend of wearing saris over jeans, bindis, and henna, which also brought some critical debate around issues of ethics, transnationalism and aesthetics in sartorial choice, as a precursor to the cultural appropriation discourse more prevalent today. Usually attributed to fashion designed for minority faith groups from the Abrahamic faiths – Islam, Christianity and Judaism – modest fashion at its simplest is stylish design that provides bodily cover. Academic studies and the fashion industry have focused on Muslim modest fashion, and to a much lesser extent Hasidic Jewish and Mormon forms of style, with some discussion of non-religious markets (Lewis and Moors 2013; Lewis 2015; Tarlo 2010). The wider marketability of longer garment lengths and more relaxed tailoring is now evident in fashion from high street to luxury, with crossover mainstream appeal. Starting as a niche segment of the global fashion market thirty years ago, modest fashion has grown exponentially with key high-street stores such as H&M, Zara, Nike, Marks and Spencer and Uniqlo launching their own modest fashion lines. The first hijabi model on a British Vogue front cover, Halima Aden, along with luxury brands such as Dolce and Gabana, Versace, Chanel and Balenciaga releasing abayas (long robes) and headscarves, meanwhile show expansion at the higher end of the market. Given the visibility of Islamic modest fashion it is unsurprisingly reported as the fastest growing sector of fashion (ThomasReuters 2018/19, 2019/20). Industry buzz around the sub-sector has made headlines across the global fashion world and media, such as the reporting by Al Jazeera, the Islamic Fashion and Design Council and Vice that by 2023 Islamic fashion will reach $361 billion turnover.

Muslim spending power has been courted in the global fashion industry, through style and marketing, but also the seasonal targeting of religious holidays.