Following 9/11, some young Muslim American women have been wearing hijabs to assert their Islamic identities. They are also seeking fashionable modest clothing, yet, despite their growing buying power, the US modest fashion market targeting Muslim women appears underserved. The purpose of this study was to critically examine how niche modest fashion brands in the United States target Muslim women while drawing upon theoretical concepts centring on oppression and agency related to the long history of gendered Islamophobia Muslims have experienced. We analysed eleven brands’ websites and social media applying the constant comparative method and identified four themes: empowering Muslim women, reclaiming modesty as modern and beautiful, meeting fashionable modest wear demand, and rejecting and perpetuating colourism. In our analysis of the digital discourses of US modest fashion brands, we revealed that these brands emerged to meet the demand of young Muslim woman in the United States who are embracing the hijab and modest clothing as a potent symbol of resistance against western ideologies, the fashion system’s oppressive acts towards Muslim women and traditional Islamic dress codes. Yet, their advocacy-centred messages – empowerment, reclaiming modesty as beautiful – operate within a profit-driven system, which we theorize as a fashion-advocacy-capitalistic-façade. The fashion-advocacy-capitalist-façade concept helps explain the slippery slope that fashion brands are tiptoeing as they aim to empower Muslim women, offer trendy modest clothing, reject traditional Islamic dress codes for women and create space in the fashion market for this unmet demand. Although these brands aim to promote a positive sense of self for Muslim women, they cannot be withheld from critical examination and potential interpretations when operating within the capitalist-driven industry that is so often plagued with significant injustices.
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, racialization against Muslim women in the U.S. significantly increased and prompted second generation Muslim women to embrace the hijab (Haddad, 20007). During this time, "the fashion industry was deeply averse to being publicly associated with Muslims, whether as designers, models, consumers or influencers" (Lewis, 2018); however, "the market for Muslims' modest apparel is now a lucrative global industry" (Hwang & Kim, 2020, p. 1). Wearing the hijab and modest clothing has traditionally been associated with repression and submission by those in the western world (Watt, 2012); however, due to the Muslim youth population, modest dress is becoming a personal choice and being adopted by non-secular consumers as well (Usher, 2018). A growing demand by young Muslim American women embracing their cultural identities, an expected growth in the Muslim American population in the U.S. (Mohamed, 2018), and and expected increase in Muslim consumer spending over the next three years has renewed interest of the modest wear market. Retailers such as Dolce & Gabana, DKNY, Mango, and Nike have developed modest wear lines or special collections (Alleyne, 2016, Solomon, 2019, Usher, 2018. While niche Islamic modest wear focused brands, such as Artizara, Haute Hijab, and Urban Modesty are emerging in the fashion industry, there is little research about these brands, how they position themselves, and the discourse surrounding the brands and their brand images. Therefore, the purpose of this exploratory study is to critically analyze U.S. Islamic modest wear niche brands.We critically analyzed how eleven niche Islamic modest fashion brands in the U.S. position themselves across multiple online spaces (brands' websites and social media: Instagram and Facebook). We limited our sample to U.S. brands that exclusively sell modest wear fashion, including Islamic head coverings. Additionally, we limited our sample to those with a website and social-
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