Japanese retailer Uniqlo launched a “modest wear collection” in February featuring hijabs, loosely fitting pants and long-sleeved dresses. With the launch, Uniqlo becomes the first major retailer in the United States to cater to Muslim women.
In collaboration with British designer Hana Tajima, a practicing Muslim, the collection was first released in Southeast Asia last summer but is now available online across the United States and in New York City’s Fifth Avenue flagship, the only Uniqlo location carrying the limited edition clothing line in the country. A week after the launch, however, the collection was no longer available in the store. The manager said on Sunday the new line had been selling fast and that the in-store merchandise had been transferred to e-commerce to meet the demand.
According to a recent Thomson Reuters report, Muslims worldwide spent $266 billion on clothing and footwear in 2013. International brands like DKNY, Tommy Hilfiger and Mango have developed exclusive lines for their Muslim clientele in the Middle East. But Uniqlo is the first to have broken into the U.S. market, where an estimated 3.3 million Muslims reside.
“Uniqlo’s Hana Tajima modest wear collection has tremendous potential in the U.S. Market,” said Yasmine Yasmine, a Muslim scarf and wardrobe stylist.
“This collection fills a market demand among Muslim women for clothing designed by a visually identifiable, practicing Muslim that is affordable and available in a major retail location.”
For some young Muslim American women the collection comes as a welcome addition to their shopping options, as regular stores do not always consider the needs of Muslim shoppers who don’t want to be exposed, favoring loosely-fitting over form-fitting attires.
“The long dresses with long sleeves, that’s almost [non]existent,” said 19-year-old Azza Awad, referring to Uniqlo’s “Drape” long-sleeved dress now offered in three different colors. “I’d probably buy it.”
Shajeda Ahmed, a 20-year-old biomolecular science student from Manhattan, said she hadn’t heard about Uniqlo’s collection, but that more efforts to incorporate modest clothing in fashion lines would make a significant difference.
“Nowadays you can go to regular stores and find something that works,” she said. But she remains constrained to specific clothing lines like H&M’s professional section, which offers less revealing outfits.
“It would make it much easier if there was a line out there,” she said.
Awad remembered when she had to buy an XXL dress to get the loosely-fitted style she was after. Although more options are now available, the lack of variety continues to be a problem for the electrical engineering student. Specialized boutiques in Brooklyn and Queens have imported modest clothing, but their prices are steep, as sellers know the supply is limited.
“The little bit of clothing I do find is very monochromatic, and I don’t have that range,” she explained. “There aren’t many patterned dresses or different materials. You only find chiffon.”
But not everyone agrees. Muslim fashion blogger Sabrina Enayatulla said regular brands do offer clothing suitable to Muslim women wishing to cover up for religious beliefs.
“I don’t think they [brands] are excluding me,” said the 32-year-old New York based blogger. For Enayatulla, Uniqlo’s modest collection symbolizes a need to diversify the fashion industry.
“It’s moving in the right direction not just because it is something Muslim women can wear, it’s also taking the power from a small group of hands,” she said.
“It’s about a young Muslim woman being recognized for her talent,” she added, referring to the line’s designer.
More Muslim fashion bloggers are making themselves known online, garnering thousands of followers on Instagram and YouTube. Dina Tokio, a Muslim-British fashion blogger, has more than 300,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel.
“It’s changed the playing field because Muslim women who wear the scarf have long been kept out by the gatekeepers of the media, and now online there’s nobody censoring and keeping them out,” said Mariam Sobh, a Muslim American who’s been blogging about fashion since 2007.
The modest fashion trend is not exclusive to the Muslim community, but increasingly appealing to a global audience, too. Sobh said the universality of Uniqlo’s collection reflects that.
“The clothing is so general that you wouldn’t see it and think ‘Oh that is specifically a modest fashion item.’ It would work for anybody,” she said.
“There is a push overall from women to have more options with fashion where they don’t have to show off all of their body parts.”