For these Muslim and Jewish women, 'modest fashion' isn't what you think it is.
Published on Mamamia
August 9, 2022
It was New York Fashion Week, 2016.
Indonesian designer Anniesa Hasibuan was the first designer to present a collection where every woman on her runway wore a hijab.
It was a moment for ‘modest fashion’. It had arrived in the mainstream.
At that time, the State of the Islamic Economy Report revealed that Muslims alone had spent US $230 billion on fashion in the past year. By 2024, that number is projected to reach $402 billion.
Since 2016, Nike released its first ever high-performance hijab for Muslim female athletes, and fashion superpowers Zara, Mango, Net-a-Porter and DKNY have all launched Ramadan collections.
And more recently, The Iconic and Boohoo established Modest Edits too.
While the modest fashion is a movement of many, it is also incredibly individualised - interpreted differently by each woman.
In this article, we talk to Jewish and Muslim women who wear and design modest fashion: Orthodox Jewish sisters, Simi Polonsky Hoffman and Chaya Chanin, founders and designers of modest label The Frock NYC, and Muslim woman Yasmin Jay, fashion influencer and designer of her label by the same name.