One of the world’s largest fashion retailers H&M is expected to launch a new advertising campaign featuring a Muslim woman wearing a hijab.
This will be the first time any reputed fashion retailer will be using a hijab-wearing model to showcase its collections. In the past, American fashion retailer GAP had used a turban clad sikh model to highlight its new collection.
H&M, a very popular fashion retailer on British high street, has hired Mariah Idrissi, 23, to appear in its advert, which is trying to encourage people to recycle clothes.
Idrisi, a British model, told the BBC that she believed “the fashion industry was changing to cater better for women wearing the Muslim headscarf.”
She added, “I think it’s very important for Muslim women to make people aware that we do take care of ourselves. Lot of the World think that just because we cover our hair we are a bit negligent; we are not at all. It is part of our religion. The Prophet (pbuh) did teach that we need to take care of ourselves.” She also added that clothing retailers are adapting, providing more options for modest dressing.”
Fashion retailers the world over are beginning to realise the growing significance of fast changing cultural landscape and H&M’s latest ad appears to be a timely response to the multicultural society of the West.
Cultural sensitivity aside, H&M’s decision also appears to be a shrwed marketting move as, Muslims across the world reportedly spent over $266 billion on clothing and footwear in 2013.