Our favourite hijabi model, Halima Aden, headlined the first Modest Fashion Week in Dubai earlier this month, 11 December 2017, along with Turkish supermodel Tülin Şahin, and used her platform to promote a message of greater interaction and tolerance between diverse groups of people.
Modest fashion is a multi-billion-dollar industry, which caters to tens of millions of women who prefer to dress elegantly, yet more conservatively. Speaking at the three-day event, which took place at the Burj Park, an outdoor location at the foot of Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, Halima Aden said: “The world needs all of us to be less judgmental. We should be embracing each other, not labelling and pushing away people just because they are different to us.”
There’s no doubt that women who wear hijab are still viewed negatively in many spaces. Illustrating their message of appreciating diversity, both Aden and Şahin, who come from Muslim backgrounds, quickly bonded despite practicing their faith very differently. Şahin demonstrates a more liberal dress, while Aden, maintains her conservative dress on and off the catwalk, and is the poster girl for young Muslim women after becoming the world’s first hijab-wearing model.
Halima continued:
“The world needs all of us to be less judgmental. We should be embracing each other, not labelling and pushing away people just because they are different to us.”
Şahin added that there was a need for “greater connectivity between diverse people”. She said: “People should respect the choices others make about how they dress and choose to live their lives.”
The first Modanisa-backed Modest Fashion Week took place in Istanbul in April 2016 and we were thrilled to be media partners at the second event in London last year. We absolutely adore the modest fashion trend, and couldn’t agree more with Aden and Şahin’s positive message of embracing difference and diversity.
Below are some images from the catwalk at the event:
Find out more about: www.dubaimodestfashionweek.com
