Islamic Fashion and De-orientalising the veil.

By Darina Savova

The book aims to understand the revolutionary character of the increasing global visibility of Muslim fashionable clothing and investigate in what ways does the hijabista fashion challenge existing stereotypes of oppressed Muslim women. This paper first investigates the Western discourse of the veil and the negative connotations associated with it. The study then links that discourse to a discussion of the dominant Western perspective found within the fashion scholarship. Afterward, the research presents a series of challenges posed by veiled Muslim women to the Western dominance by tracing them back to the Islamic revival movements and following them to the present days in which the modern fashionable Islamic attire has come into sight. Following this investigation, the paper engages with the significance of social media in spreading, altering, and claiming new fashion styles. It uses critical discourse analysis to scrutinize two Instagram profiles of Muslim fashion bloggers with an aim to understand how their self-presentation affects the common perception of the veil. The analysis has found that the self-branding of Muslim fashion bloggers as maintaining hybrid identities of both fashionable and modest effectively breaks long-established stereotypes of the voiceless, unhappy and oppressed Muslim women. The findings of the study have shown that hijabsita fashion bloggers are embracing their beauty and identity through hijab and find their liberation and empowerment by creatively experimenting with the headscarves. Taking into account the global spread of Instagram, it could be concluded that Muslim women are successfully challenging stereotypes associated with Islam rewriting the history of fashion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Darina Savova
• Release date: Jun 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201908379

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ABSTRACT

This research explores in depth the hijabsita fashion phenomenon occurring in the 21 century and its socio-cultural significance. The main objective of the research is to understand the revolutionary character of the increasing global visibility of Muslim fashionable clothing and investigate in what ways does the hijabista fashion challenge existing stereotypes of the oppressed Muslim women. This paper first investigates the Western discourse of the veil and the negative connotations associated with it. The study then links that discourse to a discussion of the dominant Western perspective found within the fashion scholarship. Afterwards, the research presents a series of challenges posed by veiled Muslim women to the Western dominance by tracing them back to the Islamic revival movements and following them to the present days in which the modern fashionable Islamic attire has come into sight. Following this investigation, the paper engages with the significance of social media in spreading, altering and claiming new fashion styles. It uses a critical discourse analysis to scrutinize two Instagram profiles of Muslim fashion bloggers with an aim to understand how their self-presentation affects the common perception of the veil. The analysis has found that the self-branding of Muslim fashion bloggers as maintaining hybrid identities of both fashionable and modest effectively breaks long-established stereotypes of the voiceless, unhappy and oppressed Muslim women. The findings of the study have shown that hijabsita fashion bloggers are embracing their beauty and identity through hijab and find their liberation and empowerment by creatively experimenting with the headscarves. Taking into account the global spread of Instagram, it could be concluded that Muslim women are successfully challenging stereotypes associated with Islam rewriting the history of fashion. The research then concludes the most significant points made throughout the study and offers a view on the limitations and recommendations for a further investigation.

Table of contents

Introduction

The history of fashion and fashion trends have become a rich area of research ever since they have emerged as subjects. Fashion, as being quite an immense phenomenon, has been analysed by scholars through the prism of countless realms and they have related fashion to various social, cultural, psychological and economic theories in search for answers. As proposed by Wilson (2010, p.11),

The attempt to view fashion through several different pairs of spectacles simultaneously– of aesthetics, of social theory, of politics – may result in an obliquity of view, or even of astigmatism or blurred view, but it seems we must attempt it.

A new dimension in the fashion industry has recently emerged and has not failed to attract global attention. The Muslim fashion-consciousness has first come into sight in countries like Turkey and Indonesia in 1990 and spread across Western Europe, the UK, and the US (Williams and Kamaludeen, 2017). The rapid spread of the so-called hijabista fashion phenomenon became a popular issue within the social media space such as Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube as well as a spanking new theme among high-end fashion brands. This fashion revolution is important when the dominant story of the birth of fashion in the West and the common bias that fashion is always Western are taken into consideration. However, as Eicher (2001,