Dolce & Gabbana’s Abayas and Hijabs
Italian luxury, Middle Eastern style.
Italian high-fashion house Dolce & Gabbana has expanded its line to include a new collection of hijabs and abayas, which just debuted on the Arabian faction of Style.com. The garments are targeted to Muslim women, some of whom wear the veils daily in accordance with their religious beliefs, and who represent a youthful and growing consumer market increasingly of interest to high-end labels. Indeed, a 2014–2015 Thomson Reuters report estimates approximately $374 billion Canadian was spent on clothing and footwear by Muslim shoppers in 2013. “ … The media and mainstream political response to [manifestations] of religiously related fashion continue to regard the veil, in all its forms, as a controversial symbol, not as fashion,” writes Reina Lewis, professor of cultural studies at the London College of Fashion, in her 2015 book, Muslim Fashion: Contemporary Style Cultures, noting an observable change in tide as the vibrancy of Muslim fashion gains increasing visibility in the tastemaker realm. This past summer, Japanese line Uniqlo released a line of hijabs available in trendy patterns and colours, and in autumn Sweden’s H&M launched its first ad campaign featuring a model in a hijab, while Middle East-based designers such as the United Emirates’s Annah Hariri have sold high-end abayas and scarves throughout their careers. Dolce & Gabbana’s new collection nods to the line’s spring/summer 2016 runway show, with daisy, rose, and lemon motifs over sheer georgette and satin-weave charmeuse fabric trimmed in lace. Their design, as Style.com Arabia reports, “celebrate[s] the inimitable dolce vita that is distinct [to] the Arab world.”
