Covered Up

Has modest dressing branched out beyond its religious roots?

- Natalie Westernoff

Halima Aden is one of the most public faces of modest dressing and arguably, one of the pioneers that helped put the concept into global focus. It was in 2011, at the very beginning of her career, that she entered a MISS USA pageant wearing a hijab and burqini. This was a time in America when modest dressing had only ever been associated with being Muslim. Her outfit opened the conversation; not just for Americans, but for people all over the world.

Another seismic shift came in 2018, when the Young Museum of Fine Art hosted an exhibit in San Francisco titled Contemporary Muslim Fashions. The exhibit strived to change the preconceptions about Muslim women in fashion; director of the museum, Max Hollein, said: “There are those who believe that there is no fashion at all among Muslim women, but the opposite is true, with modern, vibrant, and extraordinary fashion scenes, particularly in many Muslim-majority countries.”

Since her headline-making entrance, Halima has been both criticised and celebrated for wearing the hijab and has spoken out often about her “personal choice” to wear the religious scarf. The model, who has walked for the likes of Max Mara and Kanye West’s Yeezy label, has also been vocal on her Instagram about particular trends that she could not necessarily adopt because of her hijab. Like Rihanna’s red hair, for one. “When Rihanna dyed her hair red in 2010 and all the girls followed suit but I had to just buy a red hijab. I was fuuuuuming,” she wrote, creating an open and humorous international narrative about women who choose to wear a headscarf.