The $277 billion fashion market can no longer be ignored

As a child growing up in Southeast Asia, I was amazed by the stylish clothes worn by Muslim women around me. While we all tried to beat the heat in shorts and T-shirts, Muslim women wore dresses covered in intricately patterned batiks or extravagant saris embroidered with gold threads—some opted to cover their heads, others not.

In the United States, where Muslims make up less than 2% of the population, it can be difficult to understand the diversity and creativity in Islamic dress. Cooper Hewitt, the design museum, wants to fix this. The Contemporary Muslim Fashion Show showcases a variety of aesthetics within the Muslim world of style, with 80 outfits and 40 portraits featuring emerging and established designers across high fashion, streetwear and sportswear.

The exhibition was originally organized by the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts, and Susan Brown, associate curator of textiles at Cooper Hewitt, was eager to display it in her museum. “So often in the media, Muslim women are shown in burqas or covered head to toe in black,” he said Fast Company. “There is a difference between people’s impressions of Muslim fashion, but when you travel in the Muslim world, there is a vibrant and vibrant community of women who are advancing in fashion. The subject appears to be long overdue for analysis.”

Diversity of the Islamic world

Brown points out that the media’s depiction of Muslim women in boring dark clothes and common head coverings makes it easy for people to stereotype the Muslim community. However, given the diversity of aesthetic sensibilities, one is forced to admit that Muslim women are far from monolithic.

For one thing, the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims are spread across many parts of the world, from South Asia to Africa to Southeast Asia to China. These cultures have very different backgrounds when it comes to dress, as well as different interpretations of modesty, from covering the entire face and body to simply wearing loose-fitting clothing. “These women come from so many different backgrounds and, coupled with their own desire to express themselves, what we’re seeing is enormous creativity in what Muslim women wear,” she said.

The simple fashion industry is currently worth as much as $277 billion and is expected to grow to $311 billion by 2024. And as the market for this fashion grows, women have more options to choose from. Brown says this is partly because Muslim women are increasingly entering the workforce and spending money on clothing. In 2017, Nike designed a sports hijab using a technical material that absorbs moisture and is breathable. Many top design houses, from Burberry to Dolce & Gabbana, create collections specifically for this community—often associated with Ramadan—that take into account the desire for modesty.

The rise of Muslim fashion also opens up opportunities for a new generation of designers. “Seventy percent of the designers featured in the exhibition are Muslim women under 40,” said Brown. “Like their customers, many of them have a global lifestyle and a transnational education. We usually list the designer’s nationality on our labels, but we had to change our format because so many of them carry multiple passports and don’t define themselves by one nationality.”

Traditional textiles, modernized

Emerging Muslim designers often find inspiration from the rich history of textile art from the Islamic world. The exhibition highlights designers from across the Muslim world, from Southeast Asia to the Middle East. It highlights some of their most outstanding work from the last five years.

Itang Yunasz based in Jakarta, Indonesia, for example, creates clothing that is similar to traditional Indonesian clothing, including the hijab, long-sleeved “abaya” dress, and shawl. He also uses a classic ikat design on the fabric. But she blends all these components, layering patterns and adding jewelry, so the outfit looks very modern.

Raşit Bağzıbağlı, who was born in England but works in Turkey, creates a black evening ensemble that on the surface looks like the gloomy outfit worn by conservative Muslim women. But when the model moves, you see the dress is covered in black sequins that catch the light, along with fluffy chiffon on the skirt and sleeves. Coupled with the extraordinary turban, the overall effect is very glamorous.

Some look not to read as clearly Muslim at all. Faiza Bouguessa, who was born in France but launched her business in the United Arab Emirates, presents a headless model, which reflects the preferences of about half of all Muslim women. Bouguessa outfits are designed to cover the whole body and not be too tight, like the “geometric abaya” dress that covers the arms and legs, but thanks to the strategically placed shapes, it still looks fashionable.

Innovation for the world

Brown said that non-Muslim consumers are increasingly attracted to the latest offerings from the Muslim fashion world. “There are a lot of women who are interested in dressing more modestly, either for religious or other reasons altogether,” she said. “Muslim designers create pieces that are stylish and trendy, but also allow them to dress the way they want.”

In the exhibition, there is an entire section devoted to sportswear and simple swimwear, illustrating how designers have had to use technical fabrics that allow them to create cuts that cover women’s bodies, without restricting their movement or overheating them. Brown said that some of the swimwear designers in the exhibition had mostly non-Muslim customers. “They like these clothes for health reasons, to avoid skin cancer, or just because they don’t like wearing regular bathing suits,” she said.

As the world gets hotter, the fashion industry may lean on the insights of Muslim designers, many of whom create clothes for women in tropical or equatorial climates that also provide full coverage. In the West, the trend is to undress in warm weather, but this is not a great solution if you want to avoid sunburn or skin cancer. But for centuries, Islamic designers have used breathable fabrics such as linen and cotton, along with loose-fitting silhouettes to create clothes that keep the body cool. “Having clothes that fit very well is uncomfortable for a lot of people, for a variety of reasons, especially in very hot places,” says Brown. “So I think having more options is better for everyone.”