Increase for Demand in Hijab Fashion Gives Rise to Modest Wear in Retail and on the Runway in America
By Ojaala Ahmad
February 1st is recognized as World Hijab Day. It's been ten years since the inaugural World Hijab Day took place to honor and appreciate the practice of hijab (or the Muslim women’s modest dress code including the headscarf) in over 140 countries, including the US. Roughly 43% regularly wear the hijab among the one million Muslim women living in the United States, according to the NPR article, Lifting the Veil: Muslim Women Explain Their Choice .
While the Islamophobic climate fostered by anti-Muslim rhetoric from certain politicians as well as negative mass media coverage of Muslims may have to led to workplace discrimination of hijabi Americans and hate crimes committed against them, this fast-growing demographic is impacting our mainstream culture in notable ways.
One of these ways is the influence they have brought to our mainstream fashion industry.
The American fashion industry is experiencing a significant rise in demand for hijabs and modest wear. According to the Bit Rebels article, Women’s Demand for Hijab Fashion on The Increase , “[T]he online search for ‘modest fashion’ and ‘hijabs’ has also increased, with Pinterest getting as much as a 500 percent increase in 2018 alone.”
To meet the demands of Muslim consumers, many big brands launched their own line of hijabs and modest wear in the last few years.
This past June of 2021, Nordstrom partnered with Henna & Hijabs (H & H), a modest wear line by Hilal Ibrahim of Minnesota to launch an exclusive hijab collection in 16 Nordstrom stores. In a press release statement , Jen Jackson Brown, the EVP and President of Nordstrom Product Group, Nordstrom, Inc., said “We hope this collection provides a sense of pride, excitement and confidence for an otherwise underrepresented community of women”
This big win for diversity and inclusivity seems to have come on the heels of other major brands catering to the Muslim women’s modest dress preferences in the recent years.
In 2015, H & M featured a hijabi in an ad campaign on sustainable fashion through recycled clothes, sparking the conversation about whether or not hijabs should be available in mainstream markets.
In 2016 Dolce and Gabbana launched their first hijab and modest wear line. The following year, American Eagle took steps towards inclusivity by introducing a denim hijab which sold out within a week of its debut and in 2019, Banana Republic broadened its offerings and took the initiative to introduce a line with their own versions of hijab.
The recent growth of markets choosing to cater to a segment that is frequently underrepresented in the American retail space is very telling of the impact hijabi Americans are making in our broader contemporary culture.
In addition to big fashion houses, many Muslim women have taken initiatives to offer hijabs through online businesses as well. There are over a dozen across the states that have come about over the last ten years to meet the growing fashion modest demands.
In some parts of the States, hijab fashion is abundantly available in stores and in other parts of the country, availability of hijab is still scarce. Orange County, CA has at least four hijab shops within close proximity to one another. In less diverse places in the country like Reno, NV, stores that offer hijab fashion are not easy to find. Over a 120,000 Muslims live in Orange County, CA according to this LA Times report . According to this article , only 0.1% of the 30.2% who identify as religious in Reno, NV are Muslim. These statistics are very telling about the impact hijab consumers are making in the demand for more hijab and modest wear in America.
Not only is this segment of Americans influencing the fashion industry in retail spaces, but they are also pressing designers and influencers to make space for fashion forward and modest hijabis to enter and thrive in other spheres of the industry.
Model and activist Halima Aden made history when she became the first hijab observing supermodel in 2017 featured on the cover of a major US magazine, Allure, wearing the hijab. She was featured on the cover of many other big names afterwards, and walked for fashion shows, starred in beauty campaigns, launched fashion collaborations and became an ambassador for UNICEF.
She added non-negotiable conditions to her modeling contract upon entry to the business including, “hijab and no male stylists” to adhere to her values in an industry that would otherwise be perceived to be at odds with her religious values of modesty.
Aden made headlines again in November 2020 when she quit the industry for good, saying the fashion space pressed her in ways to compromise her modesty values and religious beliefs while working.
She opened up about instances where she was made to feel uncomfortable including a time she had to walk through male changing areas to get to her own and a time when she saw another hijabi model not being accommodated with her own private changing station like she was given, instead having to go far for a private place to change dresses.
Just as her breakthrough in the fashion industry helped pave the way for aspiring hijabi models to enter the business for more inclusivity and representation, Aden hopes that her exit sends a good message to other girls about giving self-respect utmost importance.
In an interview cited by The Guardian , Aden says, “If I’ve done anything I’ve given models the opportunity to speak up. I felt great pressure being the first hijab-wearing Muslim model in the industry and I felt a sense of responsibility to the girls coming after me.”
Upon her exit from the industry, Halima Aden appeared in a conversation with Tommy Hilfiger in an interview for BBC World Service to discuss the problems she experienced and the future of fashion.
This conversation arguably serves as a pivotal point in American fashion’s history where a former model presses an icon and leader in the business to acknowledge and address the common practices that can be exploitative and prevent diverse representation.
Whether it’s in retail or the runway, the strides that hijabi Americans are making in the American fashion business to make it more inclusive and appreciative of modest wear and hijabs, shows how this segment is becoming more and more influential in our societies.
