Ebook
Increasing numbers of women are engaging in the development and discussion of modest dressing; a movement matched by a growing media and popular demand for intelligent commentary about the topic. Modest Fashion sets out to meet that need.As a trend, modest dressing is spreading across the world, yet it is rarely viewed as 'fashion'. Studying consumers and producers, retailers and bloggers, Modest Fashion provides an up to the minute account of the art of dressing modestly - and fashionably.Leading scholars in the area, along with journalists, fashion designers, entrepreneurs and bloggers discuss the emergence of a niche market for modest fashion among and between Jewish, Christian and Muslim faith groups as well as secular dressers. Crossing creeds and cultures, analysing commentary alongside commerce, the book probes the personal and the political as well as religious, aesthetic and economic implications of contemporary dress practices and the debates that surround them.
Modest dressing, both secular and religious, is a growing trend across the world. This book examines the growing number of women who, for reasons of religion, faith or personal preference, decide to cover their bodies and dress in a way that satisfies their spiritual and stylistic requirements.
1 Preface – Linda Woodhead
2 Introduction: Mediating Modesty - Reina Lewis
Part One – Faith-based fashion and the commercially fluid boundaries of confession
3 Fashion forward and faith-tastic! Online modest fashion and the development of women as religious interpreters and intermediaries - Reina Lewis
4 'Discover the beauty of modesty': Islamic fashion online – Annelies Moors
5 Meeting through modesty: Jewish-Muslim encounters on the internet – Emma Tarlo
6 Hasidic women's fashion aesthetic and practice: the long and short of tzniuth – Barbara Goldman Carrel
Part Two – Modesty without religion? Secularity, shopping and social status through appearance
7 Modest motivations: religious/secular contestation in the fashion field – Jane Cameron
8 The modesty of clothing and immodesty of religion – Daniel Miller
9 'Can we discuss this?' – Elizabeth Wilson
Part Three – Manufacturing and Mediating Modesty: the industry and the press
10 Modesty regulators – punishing and rewarding women's appearances in mainstream media – Liz Hoggard
11 Insider voices, changing practices: press and industry professionals speak
Index
Reina Lewis is Centenary Professor of Cultural Studies at London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, UK. Her books as author include Gendering Orientalism: Race, Femininity and Representation (1996), Rethinking Orientalism: Women, Travel and the Ottoman Harem(I.B.Tauris, 2004)and Re-Fashioning Orientalism: New Trends in Muslim Style (forthcoming 2014).