In the news
“Allah’s Tailors” gaining profile in Turkey [Reuters]
City’s Muslim women go for fancy burkhas this Ramzan [DN&A]
Prepping for a Chic Idul Fitri” [Jakarta Globe]
Unveiling the Haute Hijab [Illume]
Jakarta's Change to Lead Fashion for Faithful [Financial Times]
What the Headscarf Means, When Everyone Wears One [NY Times]
Turning East, Turkey Asserts Economic Power [NY Times]
PBS: “Essay: Bordering on What? [PBS]
What is veiling fashion?
In this project Gökarıksel and Secor use ‘veiling-fashion’ to describe what is often called tesettür-fashion in Turkish. Tesettür is derived from the Arabic root s-t-r, which means covering or a curtain. It is used in Turkish to signify a set of Islamic practices wherein women cover their heads and bodies and usually avoid contact with unrelated men. But tesettür has proven to be a slippery signifier in Turkish society, especially following the emergence of a new apparel sector that uses this term to market its products. While in the 1980s and early 1990s, these commodities were limited to oversized headscarves, long overcoats, and modest dress, over time the growth of the industry, its insertion into global fashion networks, and the demand for innovation have led to the wide diversification of veiling-fashion. Today’s veiling-fashion producers market colorful and constantly changing styles, from bold and close-fitting to more conservative ones. Whether and to what extent these styles and their marketing are ‘Islamic’ is a topic of ongoing debate. Read more →
new publication
Since the 1980s, fashionable Islamic dress for women , or tesettür, has become a growing segment of the textile industry in Turkey. Yet its meaning and practice remain hotly contested. Through an analysis of a) the representation of these styles in company catalogs, and b) the ways in which covered women in Turkey view the styles, Gökarıksel and Secor provide insight into how women’s fashion and the question of tesettür become negotiable elements of everyday practice. Read "Between Fashion and Tesettür: Marketing and Consuming Women’s Islamic Dress" →