Paris has hosted its first Modest Fashion Week, bringing together more than 30 designers from Indonesia, Turkey, Nigeria and beyond.
The event, from April 16 to 18, was presented as a celebration of diversity, inclusion and of Muslim women.
Modest fashion is clothes that cover the arms, legs and often the hair, originally aimed at Muslim women. Today, it’s a booming global market, worth around $400 billion (€340 billion), now targeting a much wider audience, including other religious communities and secular shoppers.
Holding this event in France is significant. The country has spent years debating the place of the hijab and other religious symbols in public life. Headscarves have been banned in state schools for over 20 years. More recently, abayas were banned, too.
In many public jobs, visible religious clothing is simply not allowed. That’s laïcité — the French idea that public spaces should stay free of religion.
The event took place at the Hôtel Le Marois, near the Champs-Élysées, with soft, elegant collections inspired by flowers and nature.
One look, from the brand Asiyam Nour Turbans, showed a model wearing a beret over a headscarf. It was meant to mix French culture with modest fashion.
Özlem Şahir, one of the event’s organisers, described the French capital as one of the leading modest fashion hubs in the world, an ironic claim for a country historically associated with more revealing fashion, such as the invention of the bikini.
Another designer, Fatou Doucouré, founder of Soutoura, told the BBC she felt proud to present her work in Paris. She said she had struggled with wearing the hijab in France before but this event made her feel it was no longer holding her back.
Still hard for many to ignore what’s happening elsewhere. In countries such as Iran, women are still punished for not wearing the headscarf properly. Some are arrested, some are killed. In that context, turning the headscarf into a fashion statement on a Paris runway feels disconnected to observers. This event created a lot of controversy online and criticism
What am I looking at? Don’t tell me I know. The slow but certain creep of turning oppression into acceptability.
“Modest Fashion Week” has been held in Paris.
This is “covering women up week” and it is a very dangerous route.
“Modest” implies those of us who don’t cover our…
— Jean Hatchet (@JeanHatchet) April 24, 2026
