Islam & Fashion: a modesty-driven combination

Abstract

Muslims are required to abide by Islamic teachings also when it comes to clothing. Fashion must be halal, that is to say ‘permissible’, in Islam. However, halal fashion is an heterogeneous category whose content relies on different interpretations of haya’, a virtue that is generally translated as ‘modesty. As a result, what is labelled ‘modest fashion’ is a growing market within which the plurality of readings makes Islamic fashion style a multi-faceted phenomenon both in Islamic countries and among Muslim communities in the West, where it enters the courtrooms and gives rise to geopolitical antagonisms