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An Author of Modesty: Hafsa Lodi talks about the fashion paradox

Hafsa Lodi, an American journalist, has been covering fashion in the Middle East for the past decade. She was born in New York City, and relocated to the UAE when she was only 14 years old.

Lodi is fascinated by the relationships between religion, culture and modernity. Her debut non-fiction book, Modesty: A Fashion Paradox, was launched at the 2020 Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, which explores the causes, controversies and key players of the global modest fashion movement, and has received critical acclaim. She is also the founder of Modestish.com that provides breaking news, thoughtful opinion pieces and interviews with inspirational women driving the industry, and also offers styling services.

She took part in this year’s edition of the lit fest as well, which concluded recently while complying with all Covid-19 precautionary measures.

How has women’s fashion evolved in the Middle East in the past decade?

I don’t think women’s fashion has dramatically changed over the past decade in the Middle East – while countries like Saudi Arabia may no longer legally mandate abayas, modest fashion remains part of the cultural fabric of the region, and many Khaleeji women prefer to keep wearing the national dress – the abaya – albeit in modernised, contemporary forms. Abayas these days are no longer black and cumbersome. Local designers are brilliantly re-imagining this cultural garment in lighter colours, lighter fabrics and sleeker, more tailored silhouettes, suiting the lifestyles of women who have increasingly entered the workforce in the Arab world.

Modest fashion, meanwhile, has evolved tremendously on a global scale, and remarkably, in the West, where the words “modest” and “fashion” were rarely paired together a decade ago. Now, modesty is influencing the runways of luxury fashion houses, the store fronts of high-street retailers and, in a complete 180-degree turn, the style trends of your average American teenager. When I was a teen living in the United States, much to my dismay, modesty was certainly not considered fashionable, so the stark contrast between style trends today, and the style trends of two decades prior, is what continues to fuel my fascination for researching and reporting about the modest fashion movement.

What is your non-fiction work, Modesty: A Fashion Paradox, all about?

Modesty: A Fashion Paradox was a project commissioned to me by Indie UK publisher Neem Tree Press. The book explores the global rise of modest fashion from cultural, religious, political and feminist lenses, and uncovers the causes, controversies and key players behind the movement, tracking the fashion bloggers, faith-based designers, hijabi models and luxury brands who have all helped shaped this retail sector.

In February, we’re celebrating one year since the book’s publication, and it’s been a fitting time to launch my latest project: Modestish – an online platform and content hub dedicated to continuing the spirit of my book, since modest fashion is an ever-growing movement with constant developments. Modestish.com provides breaking news, thoughtful opinion pieces and interviews with inspirational women driving the industry, and also offers styling services. Through my research while putting together the book, it became blatantly clear that while international brands and retailers were increasingly entering the modest fashion space, many of their campaigns and shoots were criticized for not authentically representing the demographic they were seeking to target. So, Modestish offers brands expert styling and production services for their modest fashion campaigns. We just launched our first shoot with Puma, featuring the brand’s new International Game collection, starring two Dubai-based fashion influencers, @Salima.oui and @SadafjKhan.

Give us a sense about the concept of modesty across different cultures, languages, and religions — haya (Arabic), Tesettür (Turkish) and tzniut (Hebrew).

From community leaders to women across different walks of life – each of these cultures contain a host of different definitions and interpretations of modesty – it’s very difficult to generalise.

Modesty is ingrained in the cultural traditions and religious scriptures of the Abrahamic faiths – Christianity, Judaism and Islam – and communities across each of these faiths approach modesty in diverse ways. But there are more similarities than differences! More often than not, religious scriptures emphasise modesty as a virtue for both genders to uphold, yet most communities place the onus of embodying “physical,” or outward, modesty on the females. While early pious figures in these faiths often covered their hair, many contemporary adherents of these religions do not believe it to be mandatory for all women – and of those women who do cover their hair, quite a few do so to mark their political identity. Some conservative, traditionalists within these communities believe that colours like red are “immodest”, some prioritise the amount of skin covered over the form-fitting silhouette of the garments, and others believe modesty is more about one’s inner demeanour than their outer appearance.

How can veil be a powerful style statement, as veiling was followed by Greek, Roman, and Byzantine cultures and Abrahamic religions?

Veiling has influenced women’s dress codes since time immemorial, at times marking social status, and at other times, piety, across the Abrahamic faiths. Veiling has also been a powerful sartorial statement – from the ornately-wrapped turbans worn throughout history in African cultures, and loosely-tied head scarves donned by Hollywood celebrities epitomising high-society glamour in the 1960s, to the uber-trendy modest fashion bloggers we see on Instagram today, who experiment with a plethora of stylish head coverings.

Which hijab-wearing women are top draws on Instagram and why?

Social media is something of a double-edged sword when it comes to the modest fashion movement. On one hand, the movement owes platforms like Instagram for its rapid growth and popularity – veteran modest fashion bloggers like Ascia Al Faraj and Dina Torkia can be credited for helping to put modesty on the global fashion map. But on the other hand, what may have started out as well-meaning intentions to shatter stereotypes around modesty and increase positive representation of women of faith, in many ways has become a race to post selfies, increase followings and earn “fame”. Many modest fashion bloggers on Instagram are just those – fashion bloggers, who simply post images of their clothing and makeup. I like to think that we’re all becoming more selective with who we follow and who were “influenced” by, so I prefer following women who are doing more with their lives than just posting photos of themselves.

joydeep@khaleejtimes.com