Moslema In Style Fashion Forward rebrands as Kuala Lumpur Modest Fashion Week to attract bigger market

KUALA LUMPUR -  In a sign of the growing appeal of modest fashion Malaysia’s Moslema In Style Fashion Forward has rebranded as Kuala Lumpur Modest Fashion Week to attract the wider industry beyond the Muslim women demographic, its founder Emy Yuzliza Yahya told Salaam Gateway.

After three annual Moslema In Style Fashion Forward events since 2013, Yahya was advised by the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia to hold a dedicated modest fashion event from this year.

“We rebranded the name to modest fashion instead of Muslimah to reach an even bigger audience since modest clothing is not dedicated to Muslimahs only. This is the first KLMFW, and that is not limited to just a Muslimah audience,” said Yahya.

Leading up to the event, KLMFW 2016 went on a promotional tour to London, Istanbul, Moscow and Tokyo where the response from non-Muslim designers has been encouraging, according to Yahya. 

Moslema In Style staged the first ever Tokyo Modest Fashion Show in collaboration with the two-day Halal Expo Japan last week. 

“There has been growing interest among non-Muslim designers to design modest clothing as the increasing demand among Muslim consumers create a fresh new segment within the fashion industry,” she said. 

B2B

Yahya expects each show at this year’s event to attract around 400 participants. Overall, KLMFW 2016 hopes to attract 7,000 participants.

The event will  focus on  business-to-business networking and partnerships between designers, brands, buyers, and other industry players, said Yahya.

To ensure that the runway shows reach their target audience participants must purchase tickets priced at 60 Malaysian ringgit ($14) per show.

“From our past experience, we find that when there are charges imposed, we manage to pull in quality audiences, which is the objective of this event, to promote brand awareness among industry players,” she added.

The two-day event next week will host eight modest fashion runway shows by local as well as foreign designers from Indonesia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore.

PUSHING EXPORTS

Locally, Malaysia’s modest fashion industry has grown over the last five years to now register over 1,000 brands. Most sell within the country. Among the handful of homegrown brands that have made inroads into international markets are Naelofar, Adijuma Hijab, and Siti Khadijah.

“We hope to see more local brands export their products instead of competing with each other within the country. KLMFW is a good platform for them to network with fashion buyers and industry players from other regions,” Yahya said.

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