Ramadan-Ready Fashion

“Very simply, two different customers with different fashion preferences should have their own personalized experiences,” Edward Sabbagh

What’s in this article:

  • Just before the Ramadan holidays, there is a growing demand for “modest” fashion – enough to make them in a range of price points
  • The luxury retailer, Farfetch, is gearing up with a “capsule” collection of modest fashion

There’s growing demand for high fashion with high necklines, as well as long sleeves and skirts, and searches for it peak before Ramadan.

This year, Ramadan begins in April, and for the fashion-minded among the observant, that translates into a search for new clothes. Accordingly, luxury retailer Farfetch is gearing up with a “capsule” collection of modest fashions.

Edward Sabbagh, managing director of Farfetch Middle East told Women’s Wear Daily, that searches for modest fashions regularly jump by 29% during the month-long period of Ramadan. This year, they wanted to be ready to capitalize on that demand:

“For the coming Ramadan season, we wanted to ensure we could deliver a take on modesty with an ‘only on Farfetch’ angle by working with a variety of global and local brands across core categories that we know to be in demand during the period,” Sabbagh told WWD.

The retailer’s approach is one that involves data science to deliver the fashions in response to customer preferences. Sabbagh explained to WWD: “Very simply, two different customers with different fashion preferences should have their own personalized experiences.”

The personalized experience works somewhat like what we’ve learned to expect from the likes of Amazon and Netflix. Based on what you have selected, you will be introduced to what other customers like you also liked, which in this case would be designers they may not have heard of but whose products fit their indicated preferences.

Though the clothes are to be sold in the Middle East, they don’t necessarily originate there. Among the designers featured is Elle B. Mambetov, whose clothes are made for a California boutique under the name Elle B. Zhou.

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However, it’s not clear to me if a search from a California customer would even bring up any of the offerings for the Ramadan collection. Currently, putting in the term “modest” on the site just brings up a handful of items that are not what this collection is about at all.

However, if I click on the offerings from Valentio, I do see some blouses, skirts, and dresses that do offer the requisite modest coverage without any specific identification that they can work for Ramadan.

The styles may be modest, but the prices are not. All these pieces are priced in the thousands.

That doesn’t mean that women searching for Ramadan-appropriate clothes have to shell out four figures per outfit, though. I’ve seen examples of modest fashions on low-priced fashion sites like Shein and ASOS, which also offer headscarves and turbans.

Clearly, there is enough of a demand for these kinds of fashions now to make them in a range of price points. Obviously, it is most profitable to pursue the high-end market, though, as Farfetch has seen tremendous returns from its venture in the Middle East where they do find customers willing to pay thousands of dollars for a high fashion outfit that meets religious requirement.