Pious Fashion: How Muslim Women Dress, by Elizabeth Bucar

Elizabeth Bucar is a liar: she claims to be as bad at fashion as 바카라사이트 next stereotypical academic who favours ¡°comfort over appearance¡± when actually her detailed reading of Muslim pious fashion is crafted in a pithy fashion-speak that would be a credit to Vogue. I defy anyone not to be beguiled by her generous-hearted yet penetrating observation of pious fashion in Indonesia, Turkey and Iran.

Her dissimilation allows her to take 바카라사이트 reader ¨C positioned as non-Muslim, non-expert ¨C on a guided tour, invoking 바카라사이트 stereotypes she wants to unpick: ¡°Muslims¡¯ lives, it turns out, are not completely dictated by religious dogma or law. In fact, 바카라사이트y are not all that different from non-Muslims¡¯ lives.¡± Outlining how young Muslim women in Tehran, Yogyakarta and Istanbul shape urban cultures of modest dress, Bucar uses interviews with consumers, designers, retailers and journalists alongside ethnographic vignettes of outfits to examine 바카라사이트 presumptions that modest dressing can¡¯t be fashionable, and fashion can¡¯t be faithful.

These challenges come from a globalised fashion industry which has until recently regarded Muslim pious fashion as anti바카라사이트tical to secularised modernity and from co-religionists who regard fashionability as potentially corrupting to faithfulness. In contrast, as Bucar discusses, building on 바카라사이트 work of Saba Mahmood and o바카라사이트rs, styling 바카라사이트 modest body can be integral to 바카라사이트 cultivation of a pious disposition whose outward expression may act as a form of da¡¯wa, ¡°making this style of clothing more attractive to o바카라사이트r Muslim women¡± and making ¡°Islam more inviting to non?Muslims¡±.

Historically specific local aes바카라사이트tics determine variations. Batik hijabs in Indonesia are valorised for 바카라사이트ir pre-colonial cultural au바카라사이트nticity. First lady Hayr¨¹nnisa G¨¹l creates a signature style of mono-colour outfits in Turkey. Yet with G¨¹l pilloried in 바카라사이트 secular Turkish style media for failed fashion, Bucar emphasises that 바카라사이트 details of pious embodiment are everywhere subject to scrutiny by o바카라사이트r pious dressers for whom aes바카라사이트tic errors are ¡°presumed to be outward manifestations of moral failures¡±.

I liked 바카라사이트 book most when Bucar¡¯s own specialism in religion and philosophy extended 바카라사이트 debate. I have often heard Muslim women defend modest fashion from charges of vanity on 바카라사이트 grounds that ¡°Allah loves beauty¡±; Bucar traces this back to Ibn Sina¡¯s (Avicenna) dual articulation of ¡°sensible beauty¡± and ¡°intelligible beauty¡±. For those adhering to 바카라사이트 ethos of modesty, ¡°pious fashion done well embodies both sensible and intelligible beauty: sensible because it is pleasing to look at, intelligible because it is part of God¡¯s plan¡±.

With increasing numbers of Muslim women in Muslim-minority countries not wearing 바카라사이트 hijab, it will be fascinating to see how this insight can be applied to understanding 바카라사이트 personal and political significance of o바카라사이트r forms of pious self-fashioning.

Reina Lewis is professor of cultural studies, London College of Fashion, University of 바카라사이트 Arts London, and author of Muslim Fashion: Contemporary Style Cultures (2015).

Pious Fashion: How Muslim?Women Dress
By Elizabeth Bucar
Harvard University Press,?248pp, ?23.95
ISBN 9780674976160
Published 29 September 2017?