Modest fashion scorching growth rate plays to emerging market strengths

Photo credit: By Fahad Faisal - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

Manufacturers in developing economies find themselves strategically placed to cash in on increasing competition between dedicated Islamic modest fashion brands and the apparel industry’s largest names with ‘modest wear’ lines.

One way to consider the Islamic modest fashion market is to look at it through the prism of global Muslim consumer spending on apparel, estimated at $244 billion in 2015, according to Salaam Gateway’s February 2016 report tackling Current Consolidation Activity and Potential in Islamic Modest Fashion.

Obviously, $244 billion is a massive number; in fact, viewed in the context of global spending on clothes, the Islamic market would be the third largest ‘country’ after the United States ($400 billion) and China ($310 billion) by 2014 numbers, according to the State of the Global Islamic Economy Report 2015/16.

Another way is to look at the galloping growth witnessed by this sector in just the past five years. A simple online search in 2010 for ‘Muslim fashion’ would have thrown up just the Wikipedia entry. Today, the industry’s largest names—at least 25 at last count—have thrown their haute hats into the ring to join start-ups and dedicated Islamic modest fashion brands that have seen the potential of the market. The February report identifies more than 1,000 apparel manufacturers based in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries, 146 key modest fashion brands, and 85 e-commerce retailers.

MODEST FASHION MOVING INTO MAINSTREAM 

Avis Charles, a UK-based strategic consultant who advises fashion designers and companies on all aspects of bringing a product to market, including design, merchandising, creative direction and product development, says Islamic or modest fashion now comprises 25 percent of her portfolio.

”There cannot be a day when I don’t get calls ... Now I’m being asked to look at putting together a presentation that encompasses modest fashion by the outreach programme of the London College of Fashion. People are looking to put it on the curriculum, asking me to put together some courses,” Charles says.

The specialisation is percolating into academe as well. As Charles explains, ”…if you study sportswear at [the] London College of Fashion, your internship would not be at Zara but at Nike or Puma.”

There is a lot of evidence of modest fashion occupying its place in the fashion vernacular. In September 2015, Swedish fast fashion retailer H&M featured a model wearing hijab in one of its video ads. In 2014, New York–based DKNY put together a women’s capsule collection for Ramadan, followed by fashion brands Tommy Hilfiger, Oscar de la Renta, Zara and Mango launching similar collections in 2015.

Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo went one step further to partner with UK-based Muslim fashion blogger and designer Hana Tajima to launch a modest wear collection of contemporary clothing.

Indeed, in 2016, it would seem that Islamic modest fashion—or its cousin with a broader appeal, modest fashion—is everywhere. 

Kerim Türe, who in 2011 launched the pioneering Islamic modest fashion retailer Modanisa.com, which offers hijab fashion and Muslim women’s dresses exclusively, says fashion companies with a dedicated offering are growing fast. ”We’re not talking about Muslim women buying clothes once a year for a wedding, or only during Ramadan. It’s a lifestyle. It’s their outer life and we cater to that need.”

For Islamic modest fashion, as for any other retail, e-commerce is a great platform for growth. Modanisa now retails in 75 countries and now has two bricks-and-mortar stores as well.

The convergence of the Islamic and the mainstream is expected to continue and even deepen, some industry analysts say. Others believe that the Islamic niche will strengthen and spin off into its own established distinct sector.

Large mainstream fashion houses and retailers are cognisant of the growing Islamic consumer base and are even responsive to the idea of creating a separate new prêt-à-cover category in an initiative launched in late 2015 by the IFDC in partnership with Beximco, a Bangladesh-based textile manufacturing company whose mainstream clients including Zara, H&M, Tommy Hilfiger, Top Shop, Calvin Klein, Mango, C&A and Macy’s.

”We’re in talks with major retailers to add a prêt-à-cover department in addition to their haute couture, prêt-à-porter and activewear lines. You are sure to invite new traffic that you would otherwise not have had in your store, opening up a new revenue stream,” says Alia Khan, Founder and Chairwoman of the IFDC.

The IFDC says that prêt-à-cover will offer works of designers that best fit the merchandising needs of each participating retailer, covering everything from street wear to sportswear to couture, designed by both modest wear and mainstream designers.

The argument for convergence, or the creation of dedicated departments for modest wear, is likely to find favour with an increasing number of apparel multinationals. Retailers are looking seriously at emerging markets, many of which are countries with sizeable Muslim populations, such as Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, Qatar and the UAE.

APPAREL BOOM IN EMERGING AND DEVELOPING MARKETS

A September 2014 report by McKinsey and Company says the size of the global apparel business is expected to generate double-digit growth till 2020, with much of it coming from developing markets, notably from the new Asian economic powerhouses. The report talks about “the exploding buying power among Asian consumers, who are migrating into the middle class and starting to view clothes as an extension and expression of their new lifestyle.”

Emerging markets in Asia and South America currently account for roughly one-third of global revenues for women’s apparel retailers. By 2025, the report says, 55 percent of mid-market apparel sales will come from emerging markets, up from 25 percent in 2004.

Global spend on apparel was worth an estimated $1.7 trillion in 2015, according to Salaam Gateway’s February report, with exports accounting for 30 percent of the global apparel market, or $517 billion in 2015. Five key OIC markets account for 12 percent of apparel exports in 2014, the largest being Bangladesh.

The top 10 consumers of Islamic modest clothing are Turkey, the UAE, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Russia, Egypt, Pakistan, India and Iran, according to the State of the Global Islamic Economy Report 2015/16. Companies in emerging markets are strategically placed to exploit this opportunity. They already enjoy the status of apparel manufacturing hubs and supply to OIC countries.

FIRST PRET-A-COVER LINE BY MAY 2016

Bangladesh’s Beximco is evidence of this. The clothing manufacturer and exporter launched its retail stores under the brand name Yellow in 2014. Seen as modest elsewhere, in Beximco’s home market, where 90 percent of the population is Muslim, prêt-à-cover caters to the ‘aspirational’ consumer who would not think twice about splurging $750 on a single garment.

Bishwajit Roy, Executive Director, Yellow, Fashion Retail, a division of Beximco Group, says his company currently sources high-value fashion garments from designers in neighbouring India. But by May 2016, Beximco is likely to be the first to launch the world’s first prêt-à-cover line, he adds. For a Bangladeshi company, prêt-à-cover represents the global face of fashion in the traditionally ‘modest’ local market.

Beximco’s experience also highlights one of the potential pitfalls of retail convergence: standardisation. Charles works with both designers exclusively designing modest fashion as well as those who want to include it in their product range. She says that she cautions them against over-standardisation, one of the hallmarks of convergence.

‘The first thing I would say is that not one size fits all ... as with any collection you have to put together, look at your target customer. It’s not just about hijab and abaya. It’s really being specific about [the] region,’ she says. For example, clothes designed in Indonesia for the local market need to be different from those designed specifically for export to the U.A.E, for example.

Charles also urges manufacturers and retailers to individualise their offerings in other ways, such as using innovative wraps for a hijab, or in even the way products are displayed in store windows. ‘All these nuances need to be taken into account,’ she says.

© SalaamGateway.com 2016