Photographer: Gabriela Herman for Bloomberg Businessweek
As Sex Ceases to Sell, Modesty Has Its Fashion Moment
The retail market for women who prefer to dress conservatively could be worth more than $350 billion in two years.
The first time Maria Alia wore a hijab was her first day as a freshman at Baker High School in Mobile, Ala. Her father is Sunni Muslim, and all the women in her family wore a head covering, including her Puerto Rican mother. Alia loved clothes, but she never saw anyone who looked like her on style blogs or in magazines. In high fashion, “beautiful” has rarely been depicted as a hijab-wearing Muslim.
Once she started posting selfies to her Instagram account, however, other Muslim girls started reaching out to her, asking for tips. Alia, now 26, has more than 400,000 followers on Instagram, making her one of the platform’s popular “modest fashion” influencers. She’s been hired by Tiffany, Giorgio Armani, H&M, and other brands, often wearing a headscarf printed in a riot of colors or patterns. Sometimes she’ll wear a long Carolina Herrera dress; other days she’ll pair jeans with Nike M2K Tekno sneakers. She’s one of several online stars who, in the last two years, have turned “modest fashion” into the unlikeliest buzzword since “fanny pack.”