ABSTRACT
The recent development of a niche market for ‘modest fashion’ produced, worn and discussed by Muslim women and women from Christian and Jewish backgrounds provides an ideal case study for a consideration of embodied everyday religion, gender and power. Arguing against the presumption that fashion is inevitably trivial, this chapter examines how commerce and dialogue about modest fashion have created opportunities for women to emerge as influencers whose significance goes beyond style into matters of religion, spirituality, ethics and politics. Focusing primarily on Muslim women in Western Europe and North America in a comparative frame with Jewish and Christian producers and consumers – and with some reference to the religious fashion market in Muslim majority countries – this chapter melds empirical data from ethnographic-style individual interviews and site observation with textual analysis of modest fashion media using methodologies from feminist cultural studies, consumption studies and the sociology of religion. The chapter asks if forms of modest fashion capital can be recognised within and without religious communities as future assets for gender equality, community advocacy and social cohesion.
