Amani Abdallah

The growing visibility of modest attire in Fashion Week events over the past few years has led to broader consciousness of different cultures in the fashion industry. Big brands such as Burberry, Gucci, and Dior have begun introducing modest clothing in their collections during Fashion Week. Diversity has played an important role in the growing acceptance of modest attire in the West, despite controversies such as the recent debates about garments like the headscarf in France. My thesis explores Paris’ fashion system and the presentation of modest clothing during Paris Fashion Week, examining the key elements of the Oriental Fashion Show—the models, the garments, and the space. The Oriental Fashion Show, the focus of this thesis, has become a hub for Eastern and Western fashion in Paris. Presented during Paris Fashion Week since 2004, the show promotes Eastern fashion by exhibiting modest garments from the Middle East and Central Asia in a Western—specifically French—context. The issue of face covering in the West has been complicated by the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, to which France responded by mandating the wearing of face masks in public spaces. This thesis explores the way the pandemic has shaped views of face covering in Western settings.