Mana Fashion is excited to present Haute & Holy on Monday, September 12, 2022, featuring a series of events to address equality, diversity, and inclusion in the fashion industry. This event is free and open to the public only via RSVP.
12:30 – 1:30pm | The Faith & Fashion Panel
Tobi Rubinstein’s best-selling book The House of Faith and Fashion: What My Wardrobe Taught Me about G-d and the specific chapter called Haute & Holy was the catalyst for this panel discussion, focusing on religion and modest style. The panel will explore how people of all denominations and faiths are represented in fashion. Our panelists are a cross-section of thought leaders in religion, spirituality, and style. Together they will explore the history and heritage of Middle Eastern and Euro-Asian women’s fashion by examining the role of garments within our current culture. What we wear communicates socially constructed ideas, including femininity, sexuality, modesty, race, class, power, and modernity, and illuminates those changes in the broader social landscape. Clothing is an essential component of our social structure and what we wear serves in understanding how women express their personal identities.
Questions for the discussion are provided by fashion icon Iris Apfel, who is renowned for her flamboyant fashion, fierce individuality, and bold outfits.
Panelists
Tobi Rubinstein
Norsham Mohamad- Garcia
Norsham Mohamad-Garcia is an entrepreneur and a Muslim US immigrant born in a small village in Linggi, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. In 2019 she founded the first Modest Fashion Week (Miami) in the US, encompassing the unique and innovative FAITH VALUE FASHION concept and striving to spread a culturally diverse and vibrantly united positive lifestyle.
Kate McGuire
Kate McGuire is a British entrepreneur, ‘refashion designer,’ and sustainable fashion activist. Through her platform and Instagram, Converted Closet, Kate showcases her design-led upcycled couture, inspiring and empowering her followers to give a second life to their unworn clothes while reducing the need to buy new ones.
Sandra Wilkins
Sandra Elizabeth Bell Wilkins has worked in the fashion industry for over 45 years. Sandra joined the faculty of VCU Richmond in 1978 and continued to be a respected member of the School of the Arts roster. After moving to Qatar in the fall of 1999, she was named the Best Professor of Fashion Design in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia by The World Education Congress. She continues to be one of the most respected Fashion Educators in the US and Middle East.
2:00 – 2:30 pm | A World of Modest Fashion Group Runway Show
It’s only been a few years since the conservative Islamic state has introduced long-awaited advances towards women’s equality. Until recently, women have had little opportunity to use fashion as a public expression. The accepted norm was the abaya, a black floor-length cloak covering their clothes. Over the last decade, new designers have sprouted from the arid desert.
Modest fashion, the term used to refer to clothes designed to meet spiritual and stylistic requirements, has long been a household expression on social media — in the USA, Israel, Germany, Turkey and even in the Arab countries. The target groups are Muslim and Orthodox Jewish women, who are developing growing purchasing power. Four years ago, Muslims worldwide spent an estimated $254 billion on clothing. According to the Global Islamic Economy Report, that should hit $373 billion by the end of 2022.
Mana Fashion is pleased to offer the opportunity to a new generation of fashion designers from around the world to showcase their collections in a group show themed “A World of Modest Fashion,” curated by Miami Modest Fashion Week.
