From veils on the cover of Vogue to ankle-skimming hemlines: we chart fashion's new conservative mood

Skin is out and propriety is in, says Katrina Israel
Katrina Israel14 September 2017

Raise a hand if you have run into one of these wardrobe predicaments recently: those easy-to-wear work dresses, previously worn to knee-length, suddenly feel like they need several inches more fabric. That mannish shirt, which once bloused over trousers, now seems tapered and corporate. Even those stalwart Breton tops appear to have shrunk in the wash.

In the year since your autumn wardrobe was packed away in mothballs, there has been a seismic shift in proportions. 2017 may mark two centuries since the death of Jane Austen but in some ways the aesthetic of her era feels more prevalent than it has for years. It isn’t just the enveloping sheaths recently seen in The Handmaid’s Tale — on the catwalks, designers are championing a more conservative, buttoned-up approach to modernity, with the likes of Roksanda and Victoria Beckham embracing high necklines and sweeping hemlines, Sonia Rykiel and Erdem offering ankle-skimming dresses, while ruffled necklines romanced at Valentino and Preen by Thornton Bregazzi. And then, of course, there is Alessandro Michele’s on-going retro romance at Gucci, dominated as it is by pretty-but-prim blouses and three-quarter-length pleated skirts of which grandma would no doubt approve.

In short, skin is out and propriety is in.

‘Designers are exploring a modern update on the Victorian look,’ agrees Selfridges’ director of womenswear, Lydia King. The department store stocks Antwerp’s Veronique Branquinho (who, for autumn, sent models down the runway clad in floor-length coat dresses teamed with pie-crust blouses and abaya-like gowns) and Russian designer Alena Akhmadullina (think opulent, faintly gothic trouser suits and dresses) to ‘better represent this new modesty movement’, along with exclusive pieces by Merchant Archive and Philosophy.

Emilia Wickstead
Yannis Vlamos /

What is going on? In tempestuous times such as these, it might be tempting to surmise that this is the Hemline Index in action. First presented by the American economist George Taylor in the

1920s, this holds that hemlines rise in times of prosperity and drop when the going gets tougher. But if the hemline index is playing a role, other factors are clearly at work, too. ‘From a socio-political perspective there’s been an embracing of diversity,’ says Ghizlan Guenez, founder of new fashion e-commerce platform The Modist, which advocates more modest versions of designer runway hits.

Guenez, a Muslim former private equity director who is based between London and the UAE, dreamed up the site when she grew frustrated by the lack of stylish, modest clothing available, even in Dubai. It launched with 75 designer brands including Mary Katrantzou, Peter Pilotto and Christopher Kane. Whenever possible Guenez’s buyers work with brands to exchange a sheer panel for another that’s matte, or simply drop a hemline. ‘We’re sort of being that bridge between the designers and a huge customer segment that they haven’t necessarily spoken to in a very focused and personalised manner.’

The site’s offerings speak to the growing influence of the Middle Eastern market. Over the summer, Fenwick of Bond Street launched an exclusive project with Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council to create a pop-up space that celebrated the work of nine Emirati designers and brands. The hugely successful showcase represented 30 per cent of sales within the business’s designer category. So-called ‘Muslim fashion’ is one of the industry’s fastest-growing sectors, estimated to be worth more than £280 billion by 2021, according to a 2016 report published by Thomson Reuters.

Indeed, just before The Modist’s launch this past spring, Halima Aden — the 19-year-old, Somali-American model from Minnesota who competed in her state’s selection round of the Miss USA competition — walked the AW17 runways of Kanye West’s Yeezy show in her hijab, as well as those of Alberta Ferretti and Max Mara. ‘Halima is ambitious, confident and beautiful. Her intelligence, determination and courage absolutely correspond to the brand’s values,’ explains Ian Griffiths, a native of Derbyshire who has headed Max Mara for 32 years. Aden has since graced the cover of Carine Roitfeld’s CR Fashion Book, as well as Vogue Arabia and Allure, for which she sported the Nike Pro Hijab power mesh that has just been shortlisted for The Design Museum’s Beazley Designs of the Year award.

Max Mara

Gigi Hadid’s cover of Vogue Arabia’s first-ever issue in March — for which she wore an encrusted veil — garnered a more critical reaction. Some accused the part-Palestinian model of cultural appropriation (particularly for an inside shot of her in a hijab) and others pointed out that while Hadid was free to remove her hijab when she chose, there were women who lived in societies where they didn’t have that option. Which raises the broader debate: is encouraging women to ‘cover up’ oppressive?

The new modesty

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Guenez, for one, argues it isn’t. ‘I believe there was a point in time when women associated empowerment with baring all,’ she says. ‘If you’re strong, you’re out there with “it’s my body” and “I should be able to show it”. And we’ve gone through that phase. I think that maybe we’re becoming a little smarter and understanding empowerment for what it truly is, which is whatever makes you happy and comfortable — and whatever your choice is, exercising it is empowerment, whether it’s covering or baring.’

Gigi Hadid on Vogue Arabia’s debut issue

Mary Katrantzou, who did her first Middle Eastern presentation with matchesfashion.com in Qatar in 2011, concurs. ‘Each of my collections is designed to embolden women to stand out with confidence,’ she explains. ‘My collections are not necessarily about being physically revealing, but revealing the aesthetic and personality of our women. I want my work to empower women to embrace fashion as a means of expressing themselves — and define their own taste and aesthetic to feel confident in all the roles they occupy each day.’

At any rate, the ‘new modesty’ isn’t just a matter of catering towards religious or cultural strictures. ‘The reality of this woman is that she’s not a particular nationality or religion,’ says Guenez. ‘She’s really diverse and it’s for various reasons, but there isn’t anyone addressing her needs in a fashionable way.’ More than half a million people have already tagged #modestfashion on Instagram, representing an aesthetic shift away from tighter, more revealing outfits which, frankly, just feel a little dated. Perhaps the pendulum is swinging back on our overexposed world, dominated by social media oversharing. Who expected former Victoria’s Secret Angel Miranda Kerr to wed her tech titan fiancé, Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel, in such a traditional, long-sleeved Dior couture gown? Or the global street-style trend for dresses worn over jeans?

Roksanda Ilincic
Dave Benett/Getty Images for Por

‘I think it’s a zeitgeist thing and everyone is just letting their personality speak,’ says Rachael Proud, creative director at Raey (the in-house label launched in 2015 by matchesfashion.com, which had us embracing seriously oversized chinos this summer and lusting after XXL turtlenecks for winter). ‘I think women dress more for themselves now than they ever have before, and with that comes wanting to not worry about which bits of you are being exposed… I feel sexier in a longer dress, more confident and ready to tackle a full-on work day and then head to meet friends in the evening.’

Roksanda Ilincic, whose designs have long championed a more covered-up aesthetic and who has paired high necklines with ankle-skimming skirts and dresses worn over long boots for autumn, agrees: ‘I find myself constantly questioning how beauty is perceived and I think women now more than ever are looking for something that fits with their aesthetic and busy lifestyle. This means modesty is often key.’

Molly Goddard
Mike Marsland/WireImage

All of which may not be bad news in a city that, thanks in part to the English ‘summer’ and the reality of living in a large (beach-less) metropolis, is not especially synonymous with the bearing of flesh. Our LFW front row is better known for clever tailoring and directional silhouettes. Look at Yasmin Sewell’s penchant for a turtleneck and oversized layers, or Laura Bailey’s love of billowing shapes — the latter a look that is also embraced by local designers Molly Goddard, Simone Rocha and Shrimps’ Hannah Weiland, who all favour voluminous dresses that work effortlessly from breakfast meetings to an evening cocktail do.

Samantha Cameron is another Londoner who understands the appeal of figure-flattering —rather than figure-hugging — pieces that fit seamlessly into our busy lives. ‘Modest dressing can be about covering up bits of our body we don’t like or can’t reveal for religious reasons,’ she says, ‘but it is also about fashion, style, adding a bit of femininity and also some mystery.’ For her label Cefinn, Cameron has intuitively brought back the zip-to-collar dress for winter, allowing her woman to adjust the ‘temperature’ at will.

The Modist founder Ghizlan Guenez

‘I think the point is that there is a move away from oversize clothing being frumpy,’ reflects Proud, a notion that Ilincic agrees is now being championed in both the design room and buying meetings. At the end of the day, she says, ‘the woman is the thing’. And who would disagree?

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