By Naadiya Adams – @Miss Naadiya

For decades Muslim women have struggled to balance culture and religion with their love for fashion and expression, now in the modern world, influencers are blazing trails to merge the two.

Hijabi super model Halima Aden retired from the catwalk late last year for that very reason; citing the complexity modesty plays in the fashion industry at large.

Hijabi fashion, or modest fashion has so many interpretations but in its most basic form it is clothing which conceals rather than accentuates the body. It includes hijabs and burkas, but also loose-fitting tops or jackets. As well as dresses with high necks and ankle length hems.

Dressing modestly may be a choice, but wearing a hijab is a religious decision. Being fashionably modest is a term somewhat unknown to so many but the time to express personal style while maintaining your modesty is now.

Influencers have set the stage for modest fashionistas, hijabi Instagrammer Nashita Sultan – @nashitasultanana- told Refinery29, “My fashion style and inspiration are solely based around the rules of my religion, coinciding with the way I choose to style myself modestly, without having to erase my fashion identity as well.”

Modest Fashion has come a long way since trying to carve its space in the fashion industry. Mainstream fashion shows have become more inclusive over the past 5 years as well, showcasing hijabi fashion on runways such as Paris and New York Fashion Week.

Journalist and author Hafsa Lodi calls this new wave “the influx of ‘Generation M'” in her book Modesty: A Fashion Paradox. She writes: “Modest fashion bloggers on social media, the emergence of an all-new hijabi model on mainstream runways, and the proliferation of faith-based fashion brands all occurred simultaneously over the past decade and catapulted modest fashion into the mainstream.”

In 2015, Mariah Idrissi featured as H&M’s first hijab-wearing model. In 2018, Somali-American model Halima Aden – who has now retired from modelling- became the first hijabi woman to cover British Vogue. A selection of modest apparel known as “the Ramadan edit”  was by Net-A-Porter since 2015, and brands such as Dolce & Gabbana and Marks & Spencer now cater to modest dressers through specialized collections.

These milestones speak volumes to the potential of this billion dollar industry, though in terms of inclusivity and representation, the modest fashion industry has a long way to go.