Islamic Fashion

Fashion trends are continuously being admired and emulated, but what if you love fashion but prefer to be modest at the same time?  A lack of modesty in fashion has been a big conflict for Muslim ladies.  Quite a few retailers fail to supply fashionable but much more modest clothing for Muslim buyers. “There is a tendency, in the Western world, to assume that if a Muslim woman is observant of her faith - and covering her body, with varying degrees of extremism, is symbolic of that observance - that she is automatically excluded from being fashionable she is, in some way, "outside" of fashion.”.  Fortunately, this is beginning to change and Muslim fashion trends are on the rise

Muslim designers recently showcased their latest designs at the Islamic Fashion Festival and they aren’t stopping there.  They hope to establish Jakarta, Dubai, and Kuala Lumpur as Fashion Capitals.  A different monumental event for the Muslim world took location during the Abu Dhabi Fashion Week at the Emirate’s Palace Hotel a variety of regional and international designers displayed their latest collections.  The United Arab Emirates are continually growing and creating, most importantly, proving that the western world is not the only leader in fashion.  Dubai and Jakarta have every single possibility of holding a reputation as high as Paris or Milan.

Muslim Fashion is rarely understood by the western world. “The discourse in the preferred mind is one of the backwardness, violence and barbarity of Islam, Arabs and Muslims.  The oppression of ladies is a given.  This makes challenging the common Western Stereotype that the veil is a symbol of Muslim women’s oppression an uphill battle” (Bullock, 33).  There is more to Muslim ladies than just their veil.  The hijab or veil carries substantial religious meaning to the Muslim girls.  For them it does not signify oppression, as the American media purports.  “Some Girls feel it protects them from the gaze of men, and is therefore liberating, offering them option and even control over their lives”  (Maynard 109)