An Investigative Study of Modest Fashion: The case of the Western and Central Provinces of Sri Lanka

A fashion trend is emerging in Islamic culture based on the concept of modest fashion all over the world. Significant brands of the Western fashion world have already launched their Hijab and Abaya lines. The objective of the present research is to investigate the important factors of modest fashion in the Islamic culture and to detect the future world fashion trends of Islamic fashion and then to appliance the concept of modesty to the fashion market of Sri Lanka. This investigative study is based on the qualitative and questionnaire-based methods. The study is confined to questionnaires which were distributed among a sample of 150 Muslim women with diverse backgrounds to gather data and statistics around Colombo and Kandy. Secondary data were collected from books, articles, web sites and visual data such as pictures and photographs which facilitated to forward a successful research. Examination of the influence of culture on Muslim women’s dress etiquettes led to understand what Muslim women expect from their dress and led to identify potential opportunities in the contemporary market of modest fashion.