Retailers are increasingly aware of the demand for modest fashion. Mariah Idrissi photographed for Hyphen by Kid Circus

Modest fashion through the ages

What would it have looked like to wear a hijab and be on trend in the 1960s? Here’s how the past influences the way we dress today

Mariah Idrissi

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7 June 2022

When I was growing up, movies and television had a huge influence on my fashion taste. From Lizzie McGuire to That’s So Raven, I looked to their stars for style inspiration. Luckily, along with art and drama, my parents always supported the idea of me expressing myself in the way I dressed — no matter how eccentric it may have seemed at the time.

Twelve years ago, at the age of 17, I made the decision to start wearing the hijab. It was then that I realised mainstream fashion options, both in stores and online, had become much more limited for me. It was especially noticeable in summer, now that I needed to cover up. Over time, and largely thanks to the explosion of social media, awareness of the demand for modest fashion has increased and the choice of appropriate clothing has grown to a point where I find it pretty easy to shop. High street retailers such as H&M, Mango and online retailers like Asos have many options available. They also include hijab-wearing models and modest edits which wasn’t something I had seen when I first began my hijab journey.

One day, a few weeks ago, I was drinking mint tea and binge-watching season two of Bridgerton with my mum. Immersed in the fictional lives and loves of 19th-century British high society, I found myself wondering what I would have worn if I was cast in the show? In fact, how would any hijab-wearing woman have dressed in the London of the 1800s?

Then, I began to think about my mum growing up in the 1970s and the choices available to her, had she opted to wear the hijab back then. I picked up some family photo albums and flicked through pictures of her, taken in the 1970s and 80s and was immediately struck by how cool she looked in her mum jeans and leather jackets. However, it was hard for me to imagine what it would have been like to keep up with the trends of the day and wear the hijab at the same time. After searching on Google and not finding much there, I had the idea of creating my own take on modest fashion from the 1960s to the 1990s and seeing how those decades inform how we dress today.

The psychedelic 60s: Bold prints, chunky jewellery and lots of mascara make for a quintessential 1960s look. This was a period of rapid change and that was reflected in its style, jumping off from the sophisticated designs of the 1950s and gradually evolving into the hippy movement in the latter part of the decade. I went for this look because I love prints and feel that the dress, headscarf and beaded bag all combine to highlight the femininity and quirkiness of the era.