Headscarves, the new trend

Headscarves are becoming the new hot trend in Western fashion, with famed designer labels and industry biggest names explaining the appeal of the headwear as a comeback of elegance and chastity to the runways.


"We wanted to revamp the headscarf," Domenico Dolce, co-founder of the Italian fashion house Dolce and Gabana, told The Telegraph on Wednesday, July 16.


"[We want to] give it a new life and introduce it to a younger generation."


The famous Luxury fashion house D&G and other big names in the industry, like Paul Smith, Vera Wang and Jean Paul Gaultier, are now leading the new fad with their designs.


On the catwalks for autumn/winter, many of the industry's noted brands offered the headscarf.


"Our aim was to give it a modern and cool twist," says Dolce.


The trend is also appealing to the customers.


Hermès, the French high fashion house renowned for its range of designs of silk headscarves, has seen a rise in the sales recently.


Vivienne Alexander says the company has been selling out to "a much younger crowd than usual."


And with the rocketing demand, designers are coming out with a wider variety of the head covering in their collections.


"I do think we will be seeing a fair amount of headscarves around over the next few months," says Gaia Geddes, executive fashion editor of Harper's Bazaar.


Industry experts agree the new headscarves trend is about bringing a touch of modesty and chic to the runways.


According to Dennis Nothdruft, curator of London's Fashion and Textile Museum, the headscarf resurgence is about a new sense of "chastity" in fashion.


He affirms that the trend is not all new after all.


"Women wore headscarves in medieval times to maintain their modesty," he explains.


Others believe the headscarf is lending a sense of elegance to woman's appearance.


They contend that customers want to imitate the caliber of famous women who have emphasized the headscarf's glamorous and sophisticated look, like the American movie star Grace Kelly.


Alexander, of Hermès fashion house, says that a sizable proportion of their customers are Muslims, who wear their products as hijab, Islam's obligatory code of dress for women.


But she affirms that the large bulk of the clients are non-Muslims who are seeking a modest, elegant look.


"This is more about a return to that elegant Grace Kelly era than anything else."


Source: Islam Online (English)

9 comments:

Dag said...

Why not? There was a long spate of suicide among Welsh teens just recently, one killing himself and others following like cars behind a train engine. Life imitates death. What a leap.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, let's bring back chastity. And pigtails on grown women, and rubber galoshes, and hey, why not throw in some baby bottles? Pedophilia is hot!

I dare anyone to find me one single photo of Grace Kelly in a headscarf in which she was neither in a convertible nor next to a helicopter or a plane with propellers going, or in the rain. She only wore it to preserve that 1950's helmet hair when necessary, not as a fashion statement.

Anonymous said...

Hijab and scarves are trendy like never before :) Check styles at my page :)

Dag said...

Trendy is the whole thing, isn't it? For those who have no lives of their own, trends make all the difference. Find out what others do, do that before most do, and one can claim to be "almost" at the cutting edge of coolness. Almost, but not quite. Never actually step out from the crowd and be oneself but be part of the latest cool trend, still safe in a crowd, though a small one, an elite one.

Follow a fashion. Don't think to create one, or even better follow no fashion at all but ones own lights. Give up and do what others do, and in that find safety and identity and power in the collective protection.

Hate, perhaps even kill those who challenge the rigid safety of conformity. WOW. What a bargain. Can't get a life? Get a gun. Kill everyone. How trendy.

Anonymous said...

Dag; uhm... Your comment is very depressing. I celebrate the individual, even though I have a hijab fashion blog. Fashion is not about following the mainstream trends, but to be creative and express yourself and your personality.

I feel that you might need to have a more positive approach to life, people and certain subjects? But what do I know, maybe I just misunderstood you?

Dag said...

We had a lot of good laughs over this story at Covenant Zone, writing C.Z. being one of my main occupations on the Internet. For those interested in what is more revealing about me, there is No Dhimmitude.

At both sites you'll find me unsympathetic to totalitarianism and even to its lesser manifestation, unreflective conformity to the inauthentic norm. Other than that, I'm a nice enough guy; and I suspect you gather from my comments above that my positions are perfectly clear to you, as you perhaps know from following links to my blog to yours via a site tracker. However nice a guy I might be, though, I do not tolerate taqiyya, do not tolerate stealth- da'wa, and do not tolerate sentimentality, i.e. false emotional appeals.

We laughed at your work-- which is a far better reaction than one has come to expect from jihadis of all sort-- in that we didn't attack anyone, didn't set fires, didn't behead anyone, didn't go to court to sue, and didn't attempt to intimidate anyone with ludicrous accusations of inappropriate speech.

In short, we laughed at your attempts to pass off jihad as tame and non-threatening. Islam is an uncompromising totalitarianism, as we know from the Qur'an, the ahadith, and the Sirat. Any feminine approach by stealth is still jihad. Dress it up as you will, we're not impressed.

If you care to leave a comment, plase feel free:

http://covenantzone.blogspot.com/2008/07/
dedicated-follower-of-phashun.html

As always, I wish to thank Esther for her excellent reportage and dissemination of the best stories available on the Internet.

And Bas., don't take it all too seriously. Laugh a little, even though fun is not allowed in Islam. No, not even if you're a Sunni.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Dag. Humor, fun and laugh is no stranger to Islam, the prophet himself was known for his good sense of humor :)

Dag said...

"O followers of Muhammad! By Allah, if you knew what I know, you would weep much and laugh little." Sahih al-Bukhari, Vol. 8, #627

I never saw the Messenger of Allah laugh fully to such an extent that I could see his uvula. He would only smile, ... Sunan Abu Dawood, Vol. 3, #5079

He (the Prophet) used to sit at the place where he observed the morning or dawn prayer till the sun rose or when it had risen; he would stand, and they (his Companions) would talk about matters (pertaining to the days) of ignorance, and they would laugh (on these matters) while (the Prophet) only smiled. Sahih Muslim, #1413

But why put up with my choices of hadiths? Let's ask an expert who actually knows his stuff:

"Allah did not create man so that he could have fun. The aim of creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and prayer. An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam. There can be no fun and joy in whatever is serious." Ayatollah Khomeini

There are other quotations to make the same point. There are 1,400 years worth of them floating around.

One thing I find lacking humor, a thing that leaves me unsmiling, is what I term "whimmitude." That is the specifically female version of living as a second-class person in a Muslim polity (dhimmitude). Donning a hijab, doing so not only voluntarily but encouraging others to do so, is akin to prostitutes soliciting younger women into the act in order to please their pimps.

I have nothing bad to say about Bas and her attempts to be fashionable at a personal level, of course, and I have some eye for aesthetics, seeing some real talent in Bas's work. But the same holds true of my experience with Riefenstahl or Maplethorpe. Pretty to look at, perhaps, but evil.

Muslima attempts to "normalise" the hijab is an attempt at da'wa by stealth: "You are much happier looking like a Muslim. Why not go a step further and think like a Mulsima." This is a sneaky form of jihad, a stealth jihad.

No thanks, Bas. Fashions change.