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As Islamic fashion moves into the mainstream with brands from Nike to D&G producing their own lines, Sunory Dutt analyses whether they’re getting it right — or merely playing dress up

Standing out… (clockwise from main) a model at the first Asia Islamic Fashion Week; an ad for a D&G hijab; a burkini by Aheda Zanetti

Between the mid 1970s and the late ’90s, plus-size clothing was the fashion industry buzzword and almost every brand launched collections targeted at curvy bodies. It’s not as if larger figures didn’t exist before or after those two decades, but there’s nothing the fashion

world likes more than dismantling an issue, dressing it up and selling it back to the public — with bells on.

We are currently witnessing such fervour around Shariah-compliant clothing, or what’s more popularly known as ‘modest fashion’. With Islam the fastest-growing religion and the number of Muslims expected to increase twice as fast as the world’s population by 2050 (to a total of 3 billion, according to Pew Research Center), Muslims have become a key target group for the fashion industry — and for good reason, from the finance director’s perspective. While they spent US$266 billion on clothing in 2013, Muslim consumer spend is expected to almost double to $484 billion by 2019, according to Thomson Reuters estimates.

By far the wealthiest markets are Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, but modest fashion also has a growing consumer base in the APAC region, particularly in countries with high concentrations of Muslims such as Indonesia and Malaysia. The first Asia Islamic Fashion Week was held in March in Kuala Lumpur with the theme, ‘Establishing Asia as a global centre for Islamic fashion’. The event welcomed 180 exhibitors from 10 countries, including non-Muslim countries such as Japan, China and Singapore. Singapore also held its own first ‘Modest Fashion Weekend’ last month, featuring more than 50 regional designers such as Lully Selb and Lulu Alhadad, while the second Tokyo Modest Fashion Show will take place this November.

While ‘breakthroughs’ in the modest fashion world will only ever occur within fairly conservative parameters, for self-evident Shariah-compliance reasons, the creativity displayed by designers at these shows is testament to the youth of so many of their customers in the region — and these customers’ eagerness to explore new forms of self-expression. Some 60 percent of Muslims under the age of 30 live in Asia and these “Muslim futurists”, as they are named by Ogilvy Noor (an Islamic branding offshoot of the Ogilvy network), take the view that faith and modernity are inextricably linked.

With this in mind, big multinational fashion brands that already have enormous young customer markets for their ‘regular’ lines, have for some time been attempting to join the modest fashion game as it finds its creative feet. Uniqlo has an ongoing partnership with the British Muslim designer Hana Tajima, whose first collection for the brand launched in Southeast Asia in 2015 and is now available across the world. Her latest line features cropped long-sleeved blouses and long flared skirts as well as printed hijabs made from Uniqlo’s quick-dry ‘AIRism’ material. H&M and Mango have also created

The making of a modest fashion revolution

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The big brands’ ‘Ramadan collections’ are a case in point. DKNY, Mango, Tommy Hilfiger, Zara and Oscar de la Renta are just some of the designers to have dabbled in this area, hoping to capitalise on the tradition of wearing or giving new clothes at Eid-al-Fitr, the festival that marks the end of the holy month.

While some factions of the Muslim community appreciate that these fashion giants are showing an interest in Islamic fashion, others feel that many of the collections are not appropriate for Ramadan, being too relaxed and casual for the formal evening celebrations that accompany the month. Ramadan is also one of the busiest times of the year for Muslims, who will be involved in 30 days of family, worship and charity commitments. So, when Mango launched its collection a week before Ramadan last year, and DKNY, Zara and Tommy Hilfiger released theirs on the first day of Ramadan, they left it too late: Muslim customers had no time for their shopping.

Given these cultural faux-pas, it seems naive to think that these brands have any honest intentions about serving the Muslim community and their interests beyond boosting the profit margin. Khan laughs this off. “I don’t want to second-guess anyone’s intentions. Naturally, you’re not expecting the fashion world to be any different from the rest of the business

modest fashion collections, while luxury brand Dolce & Gabbana started selling its first hijab and abaya range last year, targeted at Middle Eastern customers. Some applauded the line; other criticised D&G’s use of Caucasian models.

In general, these collections aren’t gaining traction with the Muslim community to the same degree as local brands, says Alia Khan, chairwoman of the Islamic Fashion Design Council. “They aren’t understanding this market in the way they need to understand it,” she says. “They have to know how to cater to the individual, their way of life, the culture, sensitivities etcetera. The big brands are not doing that and they’ve suffered quite a bit.” Khan thinks brands need to pause, seek consultation and understand that there are ways to approach the modest fashion market that aren’t being pursued so far. “They need to make a concentrated effort in proving to this market that they’ve done their due diligence, and they understand and respect them for what their needs are and take it forward from there.”

“ They need to make a concentrated effort in proving to this market

that they have done their due diligence ”

Alia Khan, chairwoman, Islamic Fashion Design Council

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world. Their job is to look for business opportunities and that’s what they’re doing,” she says. “It’s not their job to make socio-politically correct sensitive comments. Their job is to make really good clothing and appeal to the various markets that they make the clothing for and see who takes an interest in that.”

Understanding the process by which modest fashion has evolved to what it is today might be the key to more sensitive collections in the future. Neslihan Cevik, a Turkish sociologist of religion, points out in her book, Muslimism in Turkey and beyond, that Islamic fashion in the ’80s was mostly monotone — dark green or black. The scarf would have to be tied in a particular way, as determined by the jamaha — informal religious community — which was almost always headed by a man. By the ’90s jamahas had started to weaken and civil society organisations, which did not impose a collective identity on women but recognised them as individuals, had become more popular, allowing women to be able to express themselves — partly through personalising their hijabs.

“It wasn’t consumerism or individualism,” she says. “It was personalisation of the self, and the acceptance of legitimacy of that personalisation by the Muslim community.”

It is easy for companies that don’t understand this background to miss the

point about the ‘meaning’ of modest fashion, according to Cevik. “They may risk making the mistake of thinking: ‘I have this bag, I’ll just make it halal, and make a lot of money!’” she says. “It doesn’t work that way. It needs to solve a problem because this sector of Islamic fashion is really about solving practical problems.

“What you’re giving the customer is not just an additional style or cut, you’re answering the question of ‘who can I be’, ‘what activities can I engage’, and ‘what aspirations can I have in life?’”

Cevik’s research has shown that the products that sell the most successfully are those that have literally solved a problem.

The Australian Muslim Aheda Zanetti has sold over 700,000 burkinis, or burkhas for the beach, for example, since she established the brand in 2008 and in the face of the burkini ban in France last year, her sales actually grew by 200 per cent. Sefamerve, the creator of the ‘hijab bonnet’ for sportswomen, is another success story, pulling in US$25 million in revenue within two-and-a-half years of its launch.

A further point to remember for brands hoping to be taken seriously in the modest fashion world is that one size definitely does not fit all regions. The leading Asian fashion portal Zalora has had its own in-house line, Zalia, since 2014, specifically to cater to the Southeast Asian market for fashionable, well-made and affordable modest wear. The brand makes a point of localising its marketing strategies in-keeping with context and aesthetics.

“Across the spectrum, there are nuances in the preferences of Muslim men and women,” says Rayne Reed, Zalora’s head of private labels. “For example, a dress that sells well in Indonesia may not sell as well in Malaysia or Singapore given that Indonesia will have its own aesthetic preference. We study current trends in each country where we do business, and make our assortment and images relevant to our customers — right from the selection of dresses on the runway in each country, to the dress to feature in our digital banner, to the music of a video. Everything has to be locally relevant.”

“ You’re not just giving a style or cut — but answering a question about who

the customer can be ” Neslihan Cevik, sociologist and author

Game ready… Nike’s new Pro Hijab will hit shelves next year

NIKE JUST DID IT!Nike’s Pro Hijab for Muslim athletes has been a year in the making but will finally hit stores in spring 2018. The ergonomically designed single-layer pull-on head cover made of lightweight polyester is already being worn by Emirati figure skater Zahra Lari. “I was thrilled and a bit emotional to see Nike prototyping a hijab,” says Lari. “I’ve tried so many different hijabs for performance, and so few of them actually work for me. But once I put on the Pro Hijab and took it for a spin on the ice, I was blown away by the fit and the light weight.”

Although the most prominent recent creator of sportswear for the hijabista, Nike isn’t the first. Women have been competing in hijabs in

the Olympics Games since 2004, while brands such as Sefamerve and Mondanisa’s have been serving sporty urban and active Muslim women for years now. Last year, too, Danish sportswear company Hummel unveiled a soccer jersey with an attached hijab for the Afghanistan

and we are going to pay respect to it by coming up with products that suit this market. It’s a very positive thing. Their branding has been giving more spotlight to the modern hijabi woman and putting her in a favourable light from the general audience perspective, and that’s a great start.”

national women’s soccer team. But when a major multinational brand such as Nike creates a product like this, it sends a loud message, says Alia Khan, Islamic Fashion Design Council chairwoman. “They’re basically giving a nod of approval to our market and saying this is a very valid and real market

Cut above… Zalia, by Zalora, caters for Muslim men as well as women