Dolce & Gabbana Brings Fashion into the Muslim World

Let me try to give a little insight into what’s it’s like for me to shop as a Muslim woman. I walk into any retail store, look for the mini-dresses and decide how I can layer it on top of a pair of pants and a long-sleeved top. In the fitting room, I will twirl to make sure nothing is too clingy – or too akin to a potato sack. Long shirts are always a good find and dresses are usually hit or miss. This can be a frustrating experience, as most stores across America don’t really have hijabi Muslim-friendly ready to wear clothing.

This won’t change with the release this week of the Dolce & Gabbana 2016 abaya collection. The collection is being lauded by fashion magazines and websites because the designers are showing that “modest” doesn’t have to equate to dowdy, boring or head-to-toe neutrals. But I don’t know if most Muslim women believe that anymore.

Tying to be stylish while maintaining modesty has been at the crux of Muslim women’s fashionable dilemmas for years, and one capsule collection won’t change that status quo – though it’s nice to see designers recognizing Muslim women, especially now, when creeping Islamophobia means women can be targeted for “looking Muslim”.

                    

 Dolce & Gabbana launched an abaya collection this week to much aclaim. Photograph: Courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana

It could reflect the fact that, in 2013, Muslim women spent $266bn on fashion globally, a figure expected to increase to $484bn by 2019.

But much-publicized capsule collections like D&G’s, even if well intentioned, still keep us on the outer edges of inclusivity by virtue of the fact that it feels rare instead of mundane. I want to see Dolce & Gabbana – and every other design house – make clothes for the everyday Muslim woman. Clothes she can wear to work, to school, to party.

It would even be great to see some of these abayas pared down for school drop-offs and D&G signature gowns “Muslimified” for our formal events. The D&G collection may be appropriate for Eid, but we exist the other 11 months of the year. And some of us can’t afford couture.

Around the Middle East there are souks lined with stores that are jam-packed with abayas. They come in all colors and styles. Depending on the region, their prices range from cheap to extremely expensive. And the European and American brands tend to tailor their clothes to the demographic so those long tops and flowing skirts are more readily available.

That’s not the case in much of the west, though the Muslim population continues to rise in America and across Europe. With numbers like that, one would think designers would be falling over themselves to cater to this demographic.

Dolce & Gabbana are being applauded for “groundbreaking moves in the fashion industry, where the blinkers are usually firmly on when it comes to diversity”. But it’s 2016: should we really have to do a happy dance every time designers throw us a crumb?

Muslim women are making room for themselves at the table. They are fashion bloggers, designers, models and media moguls. We aren’t looking for validation anymore. This collection is a great first step but it won’t change our lives – my shopping experience will remain a challenge with or without it.



Source theguardian