How Islamic is the business of modest fashion?

Photo: The 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh killed over 1,100 garment workers and cast a shadow over the ethics of the business of the clothing and fashion industry / Dhaka Savar Building Collapse by Jaber Al Nahlan is licensed under CC by 2.0

As a concept, ‘Islamic fashion’ is still in development, but the way the industry is managed has already been put under the spotlight. Key players are examining their supply chains to find ways to better meet Islamic codes related to doing business.

In 2011, when Kerim Türe launched the modest fashion retailer Modanisa.com, he had to pay cash to get their first line of clothing made according to Islamic specifications.

“It was summertime and everyone was going with short sleeves and miniskirts,” he told Salaam Gateway. “We convinced mainstream people to produce [clothing] based on the rules of Islam. We paid cash to produce the stuff; we took the risk. They had to change their production line to cater to the needs of modest fashion.”

But when the second season came around, those manufacturers were already tuned in to consumer demand for Islamic products. “They did it once and saw that there was a market for it,” Türe says. “For the next season, they started producing on their own.”

As the market grows, the focus is expanding to Islamic ways of doing business. According to the State of the Global Islamic Economy 2015/16 Report, Muslim consumer spending on clothing hit the $230 billion mark worldwide in 2014, accounting for 11 percent of global expenditure, with a growth rate of 3.8 percent over 2013.  

Companies like Modanisa are increasingly setting the standards for the way modest fashion companies do business, manage human resources, raise and deploy finance, and choose vendors and partners.

END-TO-END ISLAMIC VALUE CHAINS

As the industry evolves, companies at the forefront of the sector are preparing to be closely scrutinised regarding Islamic norms in their supply chain.

At Shukr Clothing, a Jordan-based international online retailer set up in 2002, this means manufacturing 95 percent of their products in-house. Anas Sillwood, Managing Partner at Shukr, told Salaam Gateway that the company makes sure that the clothing is produced according to Islamic standards at their own factories.

“We benchmark according to Islamic standards, which we find, if properly understood, include and go beyond global practices. Only 5 percent of our production is outsourced to a factory in India, which we have visited to ensure the ethical production practices we embody in-house were also applied there,” he says.

Still, the industry relies on individual understanding of the norms. For Shukr, says Sillwood, this translates, among other things, into upholding local labour laws, paying above-average wages, an annual medical allowance covering workers, spouses and children, and an eye-care allowance.

Modanisa has an extensive checklist of 20–25 items for producers, Türe says, some of which are similar to “mainstream production codes”, but they also have their own “specific needs and codes for Muslim-friendly fashion.”

Türe enjoyed an early advantage in being funded by investors whose ethics matched his own—Aslanoba Capital invested $1 million in the first year and $2 million at a later time, followed by STC Ventures (Saudi telco’s venture-capital fund).

“It was in my heart that borrowing money for interest is not my style—this is also true for my religion. If I need to invest in something, I don’t want to do it by borrowing money but would rather share the risk; I would rather have someone carry the burden with me.”   

Now that the company is expanding with an ambition to be what Türe calls the “Marks & Spencer of Islamic fashion”, Modanisa has already opened two offline stores and has ambitions to go public. Asked about the nature of future finances, he said, “I think we will be looking for either the London or the New York Stock Exchange. It’ll be a regular IPO.”

Türe is not a fan of labels. “I don’t call my company a Muslim company—it’s a global company that caters to Muslim women. Ethics are universal. If you’re making 12-year-olds work for a dollar a day and making a profit from that, it’s not ethical for a Christian or a Hindu or a Muslim.”

ISLAM AND ETHICS

This approach is evident across the industry, resonating in Islamic fashion’s overlaps with the existing standards for fair trade or similar certifications.

Alia Khan, Founder and Chairwoman of the Islamic Fashion and Design Council (IFDC), a U.S.-headquartered consultancy with offices in Italy, South Africa, France and the UAE, says, “Islamic fashion would not argue with the mandate of fair trade guidelines or any of the humanitarian movements.”

For Khan, the notion of Islamic fashion is inherently linked with ethical practices. She comments, “The way I see it, you cannot be Islamic without being ethical. It does not work. You have to think of human value: how your dress was made and under what conditions. You can be cognisant of that starting from the retailer or manufacturer. The consumer also has a responsibility. As a woman I would look at the humanitarian and fair-trade approaches and comply with that.”

STRUGGLING WITH STANDARDS AND SEMANTICS

However, there are no set formal standards for Islamic fashion, which adds to the complexity of determing the ‘Islamicity’ or ‘Islamic-ness’ of the industry.

The food industry has decades of experience institutionalising the halal-ness of food, beverages and ingredients across its entire value chain, including the fast-developing halal logistics sector. 

Islamic banking and finance is highly regulated by national and global authorities, with the ‘Islamicity’ of products and services guaranteed by Shariah Supervisory Boards at the financial institution and/or national levels. Standards of what are considered Islamic in Islamic banking and finance are also set by global industry infrastructure bodies such as the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) and the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB). 

On the other hand, halal travel is now increasingly identifying itself as family-friendly tourism, which appeals to a larger demographic.

In fashion, the fledgling industry is already using the more generic term ‘modest fashion’.

“The rise of the word ‘modest’ has come hand in hand with the rise of Islamic fashion,” Khan says. “It’s like the Islamic fashion industry has taken ownership of the word, which was not really used in the fashion industry earlier.”

“But it can vary in its meaning,” she adds. “For example, in California, where I come from, someone covering their belly button on a hot summer day would be modest ... In certain stores, they will say modest is three-quarter sleeves. That wouldn’t cut it per Islamic guidelines. You would have to define it.”

For Sillwood, the term reflects “a tension between religion and commerce” in finding the right balance between modesty according to Islamic values and the production and marketing of attractive clothing. He observes, “The re-branding of the Islamic fashion industry by many key players as [the] modest-fashion industry is, in fact, a tacit acknowledgement that what is being produced and marketed isn’t fully Islamic, and so it’s best to call it modest instead.”

While the IFDC uses due diligence in vetting the designers it connects with, standardisation is still a nascent discussion. Khan says, “We want to be careful. We don’t want to seem like we are policing them.”

GROWTH MARKET

The industry is certainly following an upward trajectory if the many dedicated fashion festivals it is spawning are anything to go by.

The IFDC is the exclusive modest fashion partner to the Global Sustainable Fashion Week, which will be held in Budapest from 12 April to 14 April, 2016. Indonesia has an Islamic Fashion Fair, Malaysia hosts an Islamic Fashion Festival and the United States has a Headwrap Expo. Turkey is getting ready to host its first Istanbul Modest Fashion Week on 13 and 14 May, 2016, with Modanisa as the main sponsor.

Türe believes market sizing needs to be done by the country. He observes, “In Turkey, for example, the overall fashion market for men, women and children would be valued at $39 billion. Women are responsible for half this value—about $20 billion. But only about half of the women prefer to follow Muslim fashion. Some of them are conservative but do not wear headscarves; some may wear headscarves, but they wear jeans. So, in Turkey, we’re talking about a $9–10 billion Islamic fashion market for women.”

The market in countries such as Iran is much larger, he says, since certain types of modest clothing for women are mandated by law.

© Copyright SalaamGateway.com 2016