Islamic fashion

Fashion is art, and like all art forms- music, performance, literature, etc- fashion is a way for us to reflect upon, challenge and attempt change dominant social and cultural paradigms. In this respect, fashion is political, and through the ages has stood as both the ultimate inhibitor and in tandem the ultimate liberator of women across all socio-economic classes, ethnicities and religions. That's not to say that fashion is the ultimate arbiter of women's rights but I think it's essential for any school of feminist theory to have and understanding of how fashion impacts women, perceptions of women and the subversive politics of gender power play.

I came across an article by The Age writer Janice Breen Burns on The Vine website about Muslim fashion, and to me, this article illustrated that the power of fashion to eventuate societal change has never been greater. The article tells the story of 18 year old Jakartan fashion designer, Dian Pelangi, and her innovative take on Islamic clothing. With her name literally meaning 'rainbow' the vivacious young designer has busied about creating a line of clothing for Muslim woman that at once embraces the languid beauty of femininity and takes subtle hints from current trends while remaining loyal to Muslim standards of modesty and female decorum.
Pelangi is now a staunchly held favourite amongst many Indonesian women, who, before discovering Pelangi's left-of-centre designs, were committed to black monotony and alienated from the fashion foray. This week, at the Melbourne Indonesian embassy, Pelangi and fellow Jakartan and respected fashion figure Iva Lativah, showed off their designs at the Grand Hyatt in an intimate yet arguably revolutionary fashion show. Pelangi's designs, bursting with colour and bringing an element of avant garde decadence to the traditional hijab, are made from hand loomed, hand dyed silk, and Pelagi 'shyly' described her designs as "creative, trendy and fashionable." For more information about her designs, you can check out the article here.

While extreme Islamic culture dictates that women must be fully covered from head to toe in loose dark coloured gowns without pattern or embellishment, Pelangi's designs give sartorial hope to the thousands of more liberal Muslim women; many of whom live in Western countries and are marginalised by mainstream consumerism and fashion.

The Muslim faith is problematic to feminism, as it's attitude towards women is based on restriction and control. It's all well and good for Western society to 'tisk tisk' what we perceive as morally abhorrent, patriarchal oppression, but we forget that Muslim women have a voice too, and that we, as non Muslim women, cannot assume to understand or justly represent this voice without the bias of our own beliefs and cultures.

Pelangi's work treads the middle ground with poise and dignity. It embraces Islam with wholehearted affection, and unlike many Western readings of the religion, does not alienate Muslim women by dictating that their belief system is wrong or that it treats them badly. Instead, it opens up an all inclusive discourse whereby Muslim women can not only openly love their culture and simultaneously participate in fashion (which, let's face it, is dominated by a largely white, blonde, middle class liberal and highly sexual aesthetic), but where Western women can approach Islam without trepidation, and (as horrible as I feel saying this, but it is largely a home truth, no matter how tolerant you think you are) regard Muslim women as equals and respect their religious choices.

Here, social barriers and prejudice are being broken down by the very medium that at first created them, and I wonder why we don't spend more time fighting for this cause than worrying about Karl Largerfeld's people skills, Stephanie Carta's weight or Peaches Geldof in general