The Evolution of Muslim Fashion | Kerim Ture | TEDxAUBG
[Music] [Applause] [Music] imagine a woman she wants to do sports but there is no sportswear for her she wants to go to her school prom no evening where she is in a big shopping mall in a beautiful summer day she wants to buy clothes but she can't find anything to wear that can be a quite a bad dream for most of you but that was the reality for the Muslim women what to wear you may ask what is the problem what was the problem the problem was not the size the problem was not the body type and the problem was not the budget the problem was her dressing coats her dressing coats were simply not fitting into the modern world's fashion industry standards as a woman if you want to cover your body a little more because of your son allergy or because of your beliefs world was not providing you options this quotation is coming from a mod modern mothers lady in Turkey not in Hawaii where 98% of the population is Muslim and 65% of the population wearing hijab even in Turkey that was a big problem world was ignoring it and they was they were not ready to provide choice in style for the modern mothers women we thought I thought that is the bias of the fashion industry and we set out to do something about it my name is Kieran I am one of the founders of an online modest fashion company in Turkey you can call it modest fashion hijab fashion or Islamic fashion in both ways it's the same thing my job is to make Muslim women make it make Muslim women look and feel their best by providing them choice and today I will tell you the story about us how noticing the obvious can let into a global fashion platform for Muslim ladies so why the world was ignoring the needs of the style needs of the Muslim women it's a big market in the early days of my company I was trying to make a elevator pitch to one of the investors trying to explain the opportunities of Islamic fashion he said wait a minute Islamic fashion let me guess the favorite color this year black that was the approach from a master side to the industry side everybody was thinking about the Muslim fashion as black brokers or some type of a uniform or some ethnic clothing they don't bother to cater to that need their approach was like either you follow our rules our fashion or good luck to you with your black brokers on the other hand like you can ask like the Muslim labels they know the standards they can do something but surprisingly there were only a handful of labels all around the world who are catering to the needs of the modest modern Muslim women a handful of them I'm counting the mom-and-pop shops so there were they were enjoying a big big crowds and they were enjoying a captive audience for themselves a big market but they were repeating themselves over and over again most of them making something new and bringing something new to the market every season in fashion it is a risk because you don't know which one sells and which one not so they were repeating themselves but the ones that they would sells fast selling was they are modifying it and re-entering it to the market again no competition no risk appetite no variety that's why a 55 year old women and her 24 year old daughter were almost wearing the same thing no segmentation and when you think about the modest designers there very few of them but they were only dreaming of being global or scaling their business speaking because they were only catering to the needs of their neighborhoods so labels are not they're repeating themselves and the designers are small and the Western fashion industry was not even by a bothering to look at it for men and for women clothing is just not only a fabric that you put on your body it's more than that it's a part of your expression it's a part of your identity and it almost speaks about you when you look good you feel good it helps your self-esteem self-confidence and just because they covered themselves a little more world was not providing those options and they had to suffice with the same old boring clothes for years and years we thought it sounds there and we refuse to believe that Muslim women doesn't have a sense of style and they don't want to express themselves in their own way so the solution was building an internet platform a fashion platform and we started to talk to the labels to convince them produce in our standards and we also gather all the designers models fashion designers in one platform but the first days were not not very easy I remember myself on the streets of Osman Bey he trying to find long and long sleeve tunics simple but it was in June autumn is a garment district in Turkey where you can find more than six hundred outlets and you can find thousands of clothing all I can find was 19 long sleeve tunics I asked why they said man it's summertime either they have short sleeves or sleeveless people don't want it why do you need it I try to explain it to them I was talking about the need why they need it I said could you produce it for me I can write you a check they said well we can produce it for you but we don't accept checks we want the money on the table because they didn't trust me they think that a romantic entrepreneur was going to bankrupt one like two three months without paying them it took some time but right now we have gone up to the 4,200 tunics in our platform today we have more than 300 brands in our platform every year more than a hundred million women Wizards outside and we deliver to 120 countries worldwide we have great designers we came from scratch together but now they scale their business globally they are selling millions of pieces most of them women we help them and they teach us the dynamics of this business we grown together last year they had the first Mother's Fashion Week in Istanbul and this year in a week we're going to be repeating it in London London what is Fashion Week is coming in last 7 years it was fast for us it was also fast for the models fashion industry so what triggered that what was the tipping point the first thing was internet internet was a great catalyst for modest fashion because one Moomin connected online they started to see each others clothes they witness they're having the same dressing codes but different styles they also discover small boutiques and they also discovered the designers and they said wait a minute I like it that's so cool I wish I can have it in my hometown and they started to demand it louder and louder every day we are one of the lucky ones who heard it who lend the ear to that the second big thing is missing women herself started to change they started to take active roles in the society they started to pursue their goals and their dreams they're expressing themselves their individuality in their own way without compromising from their beliefs now we see more and more Muslim women taking active roles in the society being present in the social life being doctors lawyers at least entrepreneurs and they're going to be all over the place in all over the social life and they're going to be taking more active roles and also proudly wearing their hijab and those Muslim women also show the world that they care about style they care about fashion right now Nike Donna Karan Marks and Spencer the giant brands started to listen them started to cater to that need today and more importantly people more and more people recognize regardless of her belief every women deserves the chance to look good in whichever way she chooses what is next for us are we done we are not we want to help Main Street brands to be a bridge between the modest modern women and the market and we also want to empower more designers to scale their work to the globe and of course we want to continue to bring choice in style more choice more fashion in style for the Muslim women come a long way and we'll see their positive reflections in the in the every aspect of the daily life every day and we'll be humbled to walk the way with them in this journey thank you [Applause] you