Oz designers strive to `tailor Muslim fashion to modernised modesty`

The Powerhouse Museum will open its new exhibition featuring Sydney-based fashion brands that have “modernised modest dressing”.

Melbourne: Australian designers are said to be causing a stir in the world of Muslim fashion.

The Powerhouse Museum will open its new exhibition Faith, Fashion, Fusion: Muslim Women’s Style In Australia, featuring Sydney-based fashion brands that have “modernised modest dressing”. Tarik Houchar’s Hijab House boutique in Bankstown was one of the first Muslim women’s fashion stores to open in a mainstream shopping centre in 2010. Less than two years later, and with a second store in Merrylands, his Facebook page attracts clients from around the world. “When we first started out we were very traditional and our garments were very loose and full length,” the Daily Telegrah quoted Houchar as saying. “But the market is really asking for something that is more fashionable . . . they want to look more mainstream,” he said. One of the first big hits for Hijab House was the “button dress”, a metallic green number with buttons down the front. “It was so immensely popular that we still have people trying to put their name on a list to get one,” Houchar said. Delina Darusman-Gala started her Muslim Street Fashion blog two years ago to show off her own creative looks and celebrate the diversity of Muslim women. “We’re all the same, we just wear a scarf around our head whereas you just wear a scarf around your neck,” she said. ANI