HIJAB STYLING IS IT FASHION OR MODESTY? ITS’ PORTRAYAL IN THREE POPULAR HIJAB BRANDS IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

At the present time, Hijab is no longer be merely a symbol of religion commitment but a fashion statement. Hijab styling has been influenced not only by traditions, culture and religion but trends of modern fashion. Thus, the paper 1attempts to find out the extend of Hijab wearing with modesty requirement of Islam in three popular local Hijab brands in Malaysia. The research employed content analysis of Instagram posts and analysed image representations of Hijab wearing used by the three brands. The unit of analysis inclusive the presence of a human model. The samples chosen were analysed based on the definition of Islamic clothing which include (1) headcovers that is covering of chest; (2) apparel that are loose-fitting and non-transparent which covers the whole body except for the hand and face; and (3) not exposing their accessory to be adorned by others. Based on the findings, it is found that the portrayals of models of the three local Hijab brands in their Instagram posts reflect the three important implications. Firstly, being corporate organizations, the brands focus on the mission of profit making by selling Hijabs that are striking and appealing enough to lure Muslimah into buying their Hijab. Secondly, the brands are also religion conscious whereby most of the postings analysed reflect the notion of modesty. Thirdly, the postings also exhibit a strong sense of keeping up with fashion trends in designing Hijab as that leads to having different ways in styling of Hijab. With that being said, the concept of modesty would potentially evolve as fashion changes in every season and resulted modesty to be turned into a fashion statement instead.