New Look, New Identity: Re-Inventing Muslim Women through Fashion

Malaysia is a multi-ethnic country that admires traditions and its traditional costumes. Muslims living in Malaysia are encouraged to incorporate the Malay traditional wear in schools and also offices especially those under the government sectors. However, globalization has brought upon many contesting ideas about what is right to wear and what garments are unacceptable. The rapid development of the Islamic fashion industry, from its designers to the modelling agencies; the fashion revolution has empowered women in ways of projecting their personal identities through the choice of fashion available. While being influenced highly by the global consumer culture, understandings of Islam and its beliefs on “covering” become transformed into new interpretations that reject traditional perceptions of women subjugation and submissiveness. The objective of this paper is to identify how Muslim women re-negotiate their power relations through fashion. Secondary materials that emphasized on fashion issues and its effects on identity amongst Muslim women were studied. This paper reveals that clothing becomes specifically regulated and scrutinized within spaces. The understandings of covering are becoming more individualistic, personalized and accustomed to one’s own identity formation. Nevertheless, tensions between the rising consumer desires in participating within the global fashion movements of the West becomes activated as ones obedience to stay loyal to the local culture and it perseverance of national identity becomes effected with the decision processes of consumption. In short, Muslim women use fashion in order to re-negotiate their roles and ascribe their personal identities as a way of power play in the modern society thus, making them more visible