Veiling in Fashion: Space, Materiality and the Hijab in Minority Communities

Veiling in Fashion explores the worlds of women who wear the hijab, for reasons ranging from religious observance to making fashion statements. It comprises rich ethnographic investigation of everyday veiling practices in the city of Helsinki. Drawing upon a wide range of theoretical resources, it shows how veiling involves a complex mixture of phenomena, including the interplay of space and gender, diverse forms of material culture, and dynamics of globalization, trans-national migration and community-building. The book provides an innovative approach to studying veiling by connecting varied realms of practice: It shows how domains as apparently separate as fashion, materiality, city spaces, private life, religious beliefs, and cosmopolitan social conditions are all tightly bound up together in ways that only a sensitive multi-disciplinary approach can reveal. The book will appeal to scholars and students in fashion, gender, religion, globalization, material cultures, and the construction of space