Paris has held its first ever Modest Fashion Week, and the event landed in the middle of a long-running fight over who gets to decide what people can wear in public. Nearly 30 designers showed loose, long-cut garments and headscarves inside Hôtel Le Marois, a mansion just off the Champs-Élysées, while France’s rules on religious clothing kept hanging over the whole spectacle like a warning from the apparatus.
Who Gets to Dress, Who Gets Policed
The event took place in a country where the headscarf and other religious symbols were banned in state-run schools more than 20 years ago, and where more recently loose full-length robes known as abayas were prohibited in schools too. The base article says this stems from laïcité, the French brand of secularism which decrees the state and public institutions should be free of religion. One consequence is blunt: people cannot wear religious clothing and work in public-sector professions like teaching or the civil service.
That is the hierarchy in plain view. The state sets the terms, public institutions enforce them, and ordinary people are left to navigate the consequences. Against that backdrop, the Paris show centered on florals and nature-inspired hues, with designers presenting clothing that made room for modest dress rather than treating it as a problem to be managed.
Hicran Önal, the founder and designer behind Turkey-based brand Miha, wore a printed floral tulle dress and said romance was key to her collection. Her outfits blended water-like teals and blue with natural floral pinks. Indonesian designer Nada Puspita followed with cleaner lines. Aisa Hassan, the designer behind Australian brand Asiyam, said she had also been inspired by nature, with warmer references including deeper greens and almost autumnal reds, and a bucket hat nodding to her Aussie heritage. The softness in Hassan's outfits contrasted with the sporty aesthetic that remains prevalent in the industry.
What People Built Anyway
French brands Soutoura and Nour Turbans showed nylon, black, jewel-toned and boxy garments heavily influenced by Gen Z streetwear, a style also championed by sportswear giants Nike and Adidas. Nour Turbans styled a model with a beret over a headscarf. Turkish swimwear brand Mayovera showcased burkinis, described as a mix of the terms "burka" and "bikini," covering everything except the face, hands and feet. The item is banned in most public swimming pools in France but allowed on beaches.
Rukaiya Kamba, the creative director of Nigerian brand Flaunt Archive, said the decision to present her collection in Paris came from a "very intentional place." That choice matters because the event was not just a runway show; it was a public refusal to let the state’s dress codes define the limits of visibility. Fatou Doucouré, Soutoura's founder and creative director, said having the event in Paris filled her with pride and that she had struggled with her hijab in France but today felt it was not holding her back. Doucouré said exhibiting her collection in Paris made her feel that Muslim women who cover their hair or dress modestly could "take on any role in any society."
The Market Finds a Way Around the Rules
Some young attendees told the BBC they felt the event demonstrated a more inclusive French culture taking shape. One young French attendee of Malian heritage said the event had brought her joy as someone who had previously faced discrimination due to wearing a headscarf, and that seeing a major show full of international designers in the heart of Paris had made her "never want to leave." Another attendee said it felt like something had changed in France, with her hijab no longer feeling like the centre of political discussion, and that on the streets people had begun to see beyond it.
France is home to around 5-7.5 million Muslims according to estimates, and Özlem Şahin, head of the organisation behind Modest Fashion Week, described Paris as "one of the leading modest fashion capitals in Europe." The event had particular significance in France, where hijabs and other religious clothing have frequently made headlines and are restricted in certain settings.
The market for modest fashion has grown rapidly in the past decade, with global consumer spending expected to exceed $400bn by next year, according to research firm DinarStandard. While the industry initially catered to Muslim women specifically, it is increasingly appealing to other religious communities and secular shoppers too. Even here, the logic of the market moves in alongside the logic of the state: one polices bodies, the other packages the same bodies as a growing consumer category. The runway in Paris showed both at once.