Repost: Islamic Fashion Trends.

(this post was originally typed into my other blog. Jeanne said she liked it, so it is here for your reading pleasure, but with a few corrections. Enjoy.)

If Shibuya/Namdaemun (South Korea)/Taiwan (I cannot decide!) are fashion hotspots for East Asian fashion, Paris/NY being the fashion capitals of the Western world, then Jakarta must be the fashion capital for the Muslim world!

I'm going WOW. The texture! The way the cloth falls gently past the knees! The bunched up cloth in the hair forming flowers!

For example:



See the headgear? The model on the right is sporting the most fashionable way of wearing the Islamic headgear right now. That's just one way of doing that. The models in the magazines can wear many different types of 'flowers' in their hair. There's the sunflower, the rosemary etc... You get the idea.

And it is really flattering to wear long tops which extend past the knees. I may go to Bandung (also known as the Paris of Indonesia) to buy those tops for myself too! It'll look great for work!
If they had tops in my size, that is. Girls are so petite here.



Another thing I like about Muslim fashion in Indonesia is that it absorbs many different influences from different cities and made it uniquely Indonesia!
I'm not sure where this print is inspired from, but I think it's from one of the traditional prints from West Java.

And, oh!



I think the prints might be from Thailand.
AWESOME, right?



The embroidery! And her headgear looks like Princess Leia's hair. Hmm. Not sure if I'm liking it. But I like the texture of this outfit.

Who says Muslim women have to dress in black drab outfits?
The Koran part that says Muslim women have to cover their face and eyes is iffy and still heavily contested in the Islamic world.

Why is there a post on Islamic clothing (since I may never don one of those headgears in my life)? Well, because one of my independent research papers is on the extent of the magazines' influence on the women of this city. And I'm concentrating on how fashion trends are spread from Jakarta to Yogyakarta via magazines.

Edit: I never finished the report. It takes a local to do the interviews and the in-depth snooping required in that report. (either that, or I have to stay in Java for about 5 years to fully understand this fascinating industry.) However, I am still greatly fascinated by the influences found in Busana Muslim (Islamic fashion) and I still want to get my own set of Busana Muslim. Evidently, my shiny yellow kebaya (tailormade in Yogyakarta) isn't enough.)