Modest Fashion

Styling Bodies, Mediating Faith

Reina Lewis, Reina Lewis

• Editorial: I.B. Tauris
• Año: 2013
• ISBN:
  9780857733603
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Theologie & Religion
• Categoría: Islamische Theologie

Increasing numbers of women are engaging in the development and discussion of modest dressing; a movement matched by a growing media and popular demand for intelligent commentary about the topic. Modest Fashion sets out to meet that need.As a trend, modest dressing is spreading across the world, yet it is rarely viewed as 'fashion'. Studying consumers and producers, retailers and bloggers, Modest Fashion provides an up to the minute account of the art of dressing modestly - and fashionably.Leading scholars in the area, along with journalists, fashion designers, entrepreneurs and bloggers discuss the emergence of a niche market for modest fashion among and between Jewish, Christian and Muslim faith groups as well as secular dressers. Crossing creeds and cultures, analysing commentary alongside commerce, the book probes the personal and the political as well as religious, aesthetic and economic implications of contemporary dress practices and the debates that surround them.

Part 1

Faith-based Fashion and the Commercially Fluid Boundaries of Confession

1

‘DISCOVER THE BEAUTY OF MODESTY’

Islamic Fashion Online

Annelies Moors

The Modest Clothing Directory, started in 1998 by Dana Becker from Minnesota, USA, is a good starting point to discuss the online interface of modesty, Islam and fashion.¹ In an interview about her motives for starting this website, Becker explained how, after her conversion from Christianity to Islam, her search for appropriate styles of dress led her to the internet and she ‘kind of became obsessed with looking for Muslim clothing companies online’.² Having located 40 of these webstores, her desire to share her knowledge with others pushed her to start the Modest Clothing Directory. This website did not limit itself to Islamic styles of modest dress, as from its beginning Becker had decided to also include links to other religions. In her words, ‘Because I used to be a Christian, I just feel a kinship to Christian women who want to dress modestly.’ She also expressed the hope that having such links side by side ‘will give all religious women a sense that, despite discrepancies in theology and a lot of misunderstanding about each other, they are not that different’ (Fellow 2005).

The Modest Clothing Directory does not only bring together a wide variety of forms of modest dress, but it simultaneously segments these into multiple categories. Working with a database that has entries such as location, religion and style, Becker divides the webstores into ‘Western Style’, ‘Creed’, ‘Other Regional Styles’ and ‘Speciality Niches’, each of which is then, in turn, subdivided. The Creed section, for instance, differentiates between Islamic, Jewish, Latter-day Saints, Plain Simple Christian, Catholic, Trendy Modest Christian and Messianic webstores. In the case of the Islamic ones, there is a further division into particular items of dress (abaya, jilbab, hijab, long skirts, long shirts), materials (denim), styles (trendy, career) and functions (Eid, swimwear and sportswear). Under the button ‘reasoning behind site’s organization’ she explains why she includes the category of ‘Creed’. First, as she points out, she does so because there are those who would like to ‘patronize stores that run under the auspices of their own religions’, and second, because it makes it easier for women to find the kind of clothing that fits the requirements of a particular faith. Presenting the example of the length of skirts for Muslim women, she points out that if they go to the Islamic section they stand a far better chance that these will be long enough.

Whereas Dana Becker includes a wide variety of modest clothing webstores in her online directory, in this contribution I focus more narrowly on Islamic styles of dress, yet include a wider variety of online formats, such as weblogs and YouTube videos. Starting in the late 1990s, Islam online has become an academic growth sector. In its early years, the emphasis was mostly on how such new media have played a significant role in the fragmentation of religious authority, with youth, women and minorities actively engaged in interpreting the foundational texts (Eickelman and Anderson 1999: 11ff.). In the aftermath of 9/11, in contrast, digital Islam increasingly has come to be seen as a field in which ‘competing authorities attempt to out-do each other in terms of the strictness of their interpretation of legal norms’ (Turner 2007: 32). Whereas temporality is important to understand these divergent observations, the specific dynamics of particular fields also need to be taken into account. The Islamic culture industry, that has more recently become the focus of research, has tended to go in yet another direction, producing ‘a marketable image that is attractive and desirable’ to a broad public (Gökarıksel and McLarney 2010: 6). This raises the question of how ethical considerations and aesthetical practices work to authorise particular forms of Islam online.

Focusing on fashionable styles of Islamic dress in cyberspace, I start with a brief overview of two conditions that have enabled the emergence of Islamic fashion online: that is the offline proliferation of fashionable styles of Islamic dress and the development of internet formats that present these online. I will limit myself to the most successful ones that draw the largest audiences in terms of views. In the next section, I investigate the work these various online formats do in producing particular publics. How do they mediate Islam and fashion, concepts that may intersect and overlap, but also stand in an ambiguous or even tense relation to each other? Whereas Dana Becker’s Modest Clothing Directory brings together different faith communities as well as regional styles through the lens of modesty, I investigate whether and how modesty functions as a bridging concept in the field of Islamic fashion and end with a brief note on its intersections with regional styles.

THE EMERGENCE OF ISLAMIC FASHION: A GLOBAL PHENOMENON

Whereas in many Muslim majority countries European styles of dress had become increasingly widespread in the course of the twentieth century, especially amongst the middle and upper classes, the ascendance of the Islamic revivalist movement in the 1970s and 1980s encouraged a growing number of women to start to wear recognisably Islamic, covered styles of dress (Brenner 1996; El-Guindi 1999; Göle 1996; MacLeod 1992; Mahmood 2005). Initially, this meant a move towards a uniform and sober style, such as uniform full-length, wide coats in muted colours, that many hoped would do away with the sartorial distinctions between the wealthy and the poor (Navaro-Yashin 2002; Sandıkçı and Ger 2007). In the course of one to two decades, however, more fashionable styles started to replace these austere and purposely non-fashionable forms of Islamic attire. By the 1990s the Islamic revival movement had become more heterogeneous and had shifted from an anti-consumerist radical movement to a more individualised reformist trend with identities increasingly produced through consumption (Navaro-Yashin 2002). The emergence of an Islamic consumer culture engendered a greater heterogeneity of Islamic styles of dress and stimulated the fashion consciousness among younger, more affluent Muslim women (Kiliçbay and Binark 2002; Sandıkçı and Ger 2007; Abaza 2007). Aesthetic judgements, taste dispositions, cultural capital and financial means increasingly structured women’s sartorial practices, and processes of aestheticisation and personalisation turned sober forms of Islamic dress into highly fashionable Islamic outfits (Sandıkçı and Ger 2005, 2010).

A move toward trendy, fashionable, yet recognisably Islamic dress was not only discernable in settings that had first seen a shift from Western fashions to austere styles of Islamic dress. Also in settings where covered outerwear had remained normative, the increased commodification of dress and the turn to consumer culture led to more rapid changes in styles. In the Gulf States, some started to transform the abaya from a non-distinct, shapeless, all-enveloping black gown into something more akin to a fashion item, with seasonally changing cuts and models, materials and decorations (Al-Qasimi 2010; Lindholm 2010). Elsewhere, the abaya was introduced as a new fashionable item of dress, such as in Yemen where it replaced existing styles of all-covering dress (Moors 2007), amongst migrants in south India (Osella and Osella 2007) or in Indonesia (Amrullah 2008), where it was often introduced by returning migrants and students.

Europe and the Anglo-Saxon world, where Muslims are a minority, were relative latecomers to the field of Islamic fashion. There, Islamic fashion emerged inspired by the global Islamic revival, in conjunction with local histories of Muslim presence and in an environment that has come to be increasingly Islam unfriendly (Moors 2009, Tarlo 2010). Within this context, young women opt to combine a style of dress that is visibly Muslim and simultaneously contemporary or modern. Rather than buying their outfits from stores specifically targeting Muslims, many of them turn to the same chains their non-Muslim peers frequent, such as H&M, Zara, or Mango, where they combine items of dress in such a way as to produce covered yet fashionable outfits. These consumers can be considered as creative co-producers, who ‘make do’ with mainstream items and recombine them, engaging in forms of bricolage to put together an ‘Islamic’ wardrobe.³

ISLAMIC ATTIRE ONLINE: WEBSTORES, VIDEOS AND BLOGS

All kinds of Islamic attire, both the more and the less fashionable, are present in cyberspace. A quick Google search shows the enormous amount of information on Islamic attire available. The term hijab gives over 23 million hits, ‘Islamic fashion’ 624,000, and ‘hijab fashion’ 364,000. The exponential growth of the internet is intrinsically related to the development of new infrastructures. In particular, the new web browser technologies, such as the introduction of Web 2.0, have turned the web into a more participatory platform. Rather than only allowing for the static downloading of content information in browser windows, it enables uploading user-generated content (such as text, photos and videos) and hence is characterised by a far greater interactivity. This has enabled the development of social media and networking, sharing pictures and videos, podcasting, blogging and wikis.

Researching the internet is a challenge, as the availability of information online is always in flux and user-dependent. In order to provide some sense of how the online presence of Islamic attire has proliferated and diversified, I start by describing two screengrabs of Google searches, one performed on 26 December 2006, the other almost five years later, on 26 October 2011. A comparison of the first ten hits points to interesting shifts in Islamic fashionscapes. The screengrab of 2011 presented two internet formats that the 2006 Google search did not show: Google pictures and YouTube videos, pointing to a stronger visual and multimedia presence. But Islamic attire online has also diversified in another sense. Whereas in 2006 all hits were webstores selling Islamic clothing, except for a web article about an Islamic fashion show, in 2011, in contrast, amongst the first ten hits were four webstores, three Islamic fashion blogs and a link to an Islamic fashion festival in Malaysia (in addition to Google pictures and YouTube videos). This indicates a decline in the relative popularity of webstores and a stronger online presence of visual material and YouTube videos.

WEBSTORES: GREATER INTERACTIVITY

As the above indicates, Islamic fashion webstores are the oldest popular online format, dating back to at least 1997.⁴ On the one hand, they are a highly unstable presence. Dana Becker claims that on her portal, 233 Islamic clothing stores are currently open, adding, ‘Did you know over 220 online Islamic clothing stores have opened and then closed since 1998? Only four of the original stores I put up are still running today!’ Many of the webstores Akou (2007) mentioned are also no longer functioning. At the same time, there is, however, also a considerable number of webstores that have been online for over five years.⁵ Amongst the most popular ones are Shukr (2002), Al-Hannah (2000), Islamic Design House (2006), Jelbab (2001), The Hijab Shop (2004), Artizara (2003) and Islamic Boutique (2002).⁶

Webstores vary greatly in their styles of presentation. They all provide contact information, but whereas some present a personalised narrative about their background and motivation (often pointing to conversion of the owner), others present themselves more anonymously as a company or a team. Many are located in the Anglo-Saxon world, but there is also a significant presence in the Middle East, and the Gulf countries as well as South-East Asia are a growth area. Sometimes their main function is to draw attention to well-established offline stores, while others have only an online presence. Many webstores sell mainstream styles of Islamic dress, but some are first and foremost a means for avant-garde designers to present their work to the world at large. Styles of presenting items of dress also vary considerably, especially in terms of depictions of the human body. Some have no problem with depicting attractively posing models, while others only depict part of the body, use drawings, or only show the merchandise (see also Akou 2007).

Whatever differences exist amongst webstores, one major trend is that they have moved from a simple presentation of items of dress, information about the owner, pages about payment and shipping, and perhaps a guestbook, to a far more sophisticated online presence. These webstores include moving imagery, such as embedded videos of fashion shows, sometimes with music, have their own blogs, and extensively link to social networking sites. Many have uploaded promotion videos on YouTube, have made a Facebook fan page and use a Twitter account. Islamic portals and fashionista blogs, in turn, provide numerous links to webstores, sometimes including a qualitative evaluation. In other words, webstores have become integrated in a dense web of connections that makes up the wider interactive world of Islamic fashion online. Two of the new formats have gained a particularly strong online presence: YouTube videos and blogs.

YOUTUBE VIDEOS: THE BEAUTY OF HIJAB

YouTube videos, as another online form of Islamic fashion, date back to at least 2007. The most popular YouTube video for ‘hijab’ is ♥*.~.*The Hijab*.~.*♥, with over 2 million views.⁷ The video is presented as ‘showing the beauty of the Hijab which refutes the common stereotype that all Muslim women are oppressed when in fact it is the very opposite’. On his YouTube channel profile, the producer presents himself anonymously as ‘Muslim and proud’ and highlights that,

Our faith is all about peace and we are able to live side by side in peace as communities of the past have sh...