By Maira Butt
Flowing skirts, long-sleeved blouses, wide-legged trousers and chiffon scarves. These are items that you wouldn’t typically associate with one religion over another.
But in the European market, the Muslim demand for modest clothing has led to a boom that is projected to be worth £62.8 billion by the end of 2025.
A recent study by Bath University suggested that Islamic clothing for women has now been integrated into the mainstream consumer market. Diverse demographics look to looser-fitting “feminist” items — to avoid objectification — or simply for practicality and comfort.
In fact, the burgeoning industry owes its success in large part to its ability to influence fashion across the world including western secular societies, where headscarves have dominated runways, all the way to wealthy Gulf states where consumers searching for luxury modest items have found the market wanting.
Ayah, 33, set up her company Key Modesty because she found that she was bulk-buying dresses on holiday in Turkey.
“I realised it was a big gap in the market,” she says. Ayah ensures her garments are fully lined and sells dresses, abayas, and co-ords — trousers and tops made of the same material and matching in colour. “You could go to any high street and buy a dress, only to realise it has a long slit down the side or the back and there’s never a fully modest option.”
She has found that many of her customers are not Muslim. “It’s beautiful knowing our customers aren’t just Muslims, and there are lots of non-Muslims who love modesty as much as us,” she says.
For Tasmia, 30, modest clothing is more than just a fashion statement. It was also a journey of self-discovery as she learnt more about her faith and started wearing the hijab head covering two years ago. She thinks of modest fashion as “empowering”.
She has taken inspiration from her friends and the growing swathes of modest fashion bloggers, such as Dalal AlDoub, and mixes her former clothing style with modest alternatives. She prefers jeans, skirts and tops but with longer sleeves, higher necklines and has ditched the cropped pieces.
“I’m still very much a high street girl,” she says. “I love mom [high-waisted] jeans, but why are there so many rips in every pair? It would be good to have high street clothing with modest versions. There are often nice basic T-shirts that go with everything but then the material is see-through and then that requires layering.”
Modest fashion companies can cater for these issues, but Tasmia notes that they come with a hefty price tag: “Some of the bigger modest brands charge so much for basic pieces because they know it’s not available elsewhere,” she says. “Currently, it’s all luck and just working with what is on the market and having to plan an outfit a little longer than I’m used to.”
Part of the reason is because modesty as a concept is broad and subjective across religions and communities. There is a religious injunction in Islam for both men and women to dress modestly, and this can go beyond simply covering skin to denote an austerity of style that is not ostentatious or flashy.
Yumna, 20, a sales adviser, is keen on ethical consumption when it comes to modest fashion. “I’m very passionate about being a conscious consumer,” she says. “I rarely buy new clothes and most of my clothing is either years-old or given to me.”
When searching for outfits she finds herself “mainly seeing whether or not clothing is see-through, because it almost always is”. She explains: “I really do not like layering my clothes, so I prefer finding full sleeves or longer items of clothing.”
She finds that the current market is “very accommodating” in modest clothing, although she agrees with Tasmia that a gap remains in the high street.
Brands such as Nike have launched modest sportswear including the Pro Hijab in 2017. A year earlier, Dolce & Gabbana launched an abaya and hijab range. However, casual items remain difficult to find at affordable prices. Some companies such as H&M have offered modest options and Ramadan collections.
The explosion in Islamic fashion has also been aided by social media where influencers have confidently expressed their identities through fashion, interpreting mainstream trends in modest ways.
A 2023 study by Bournemouth University found that “increasing stigma” in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks led to Muslims “choosing modest clothing items” to solidify their sense of identity.
Simrah, 20, who was born and raised in Dubai and moved to London to study, founded Imaan Se Couture in May 2024. The company creates custom bridal wear and offers modest options for brides who opt for it, but it does not cater solely fer the modest market.
“Many designers don’t offer as many modest options,” says Simrah, who wears a hijab. “When you’re scrolling online, you might fall in love with an outfit so much but you have to think a hundred times about ‘How can we make this modest?’ or ‘Can we make it modest?’ It was important to me that people do not feel excluded in this way.”
Discussing the variety in her clientele, she says the “spectrum” of modesty also includes people who are working towards modesty and may be in between levels of covering.
The response to her work has been “overwhelmingly positive” because, Simrah says, there is “anxiety” about ordering internationally where delays around weddings can cause chaos, particularly where modest alterations are concerned. “There are a billion options and combinations of details,” she says, referring to fabrics, embroidery and designs.
Her company seeks to combine centuries-old tradition and craftsmanship with modern designs to allow women living abroad to connect with their cultural roots.
She has noticed a surge in popularity for modest clothing. “With the internet, women are able to research why they should dress modestly rather than being told to do so by older generations. I would not be as motivated to wear the hijab if I had been born 50 years ago.”
Modesty also includes adherence to less obvious rules, which for Simrah includes not embroidering animals or faces in accordance with Islamic teachings that prohibit the recreation of images of people or other living beings.
While online shopping can be convenient, Tasmia believes brick-and-mortar stores can supplement the virtual offerings to prevent “sizing uncertainties”. “Balancing modesty with comfort, affordability, and personal style becomes the main struggle,” she says. “Especially when modest fashion still isn’t widely represented in mainstream campaigns.”
For many women, the search for modest clothing is the age-old struggle across cultures to express themselves through their fashion choices. “For me, it’s all about something that is still fashionable and on trend, but with less skin showing,” she says.
“An outfit that shows my style and self-expression, but in a way that aligns with my religion and new personal boundaries I have set for myself to remain modest and continue this journey for as long as possible. I want my outfit to represent what matters most to me and one of those factors is my modesty.”
