[Applause]
imagine a woman she wants to do sports
but there is no sportswear for her she
wants to go to her school prom no
evening where she is in a big shopping
mall in a beautiful summer day she wants
to buy clothes but she can’t find
anything to wear that can be a quite a
bad dream for most of you but that was
the reality for the Muslim women what to
wear you may ask what is the problem
what was the problem the problem was not
the size the problem was not the body
type and the problem was not the budget
the problem was her dressing coats her
dressing coats were simply not fitting
into the modern world’s fashion industry
standards as a woman if you want to
cover your body a little more because of
your son allergy or because of your
beliefs world was not providing you
options this quotation is coming from a
mod modern mothers lady in Turkey not in
Hawaii where 98% of the population is
Muslim and 65% of the population wearing
hijab even in Turkey that was a big
problem world was ignoring it and they
was they were not ready to provide
choice in style for the modern mothers
women we thought I thought that is the
bias
of the fashion industry and we set out
to do something about it
my name is Kieran I am one of the
founders of an online modest fashion
company in Turkey you can call it modest
fashion hijab fashion or Islamic fashion
in both ways it’s the same thing my job
is to make Muslim women make it make
Muslim women look and feel their best by
providing them choice and today I will
tell you the story about us how noticing
the obvious can let into a global
fashion platform for Muslim ladies so
why the world was ignoring the needs of
the style needs of the Muslim women it’s
a big market in the early days of my
company I was trying to make a elevator
pitch to one of the investors trying to
explain the opportunities of Islamic
fashion he said wait a minute
Islamic fashion let me guess the
favorite color this year black that was
the approach from a master side to the
industry side everybody was thinking
about the Muslim fashion as black
brokers or some type of a uniform or
some ethnic clothing they don’t bother
to cater to that need their approach was
like either you follow our rules our
fashion or good luck to you with your
black brokers on the other hand like you
can ask like the Muslim labels they know
the standards they can do something but
surprisingly there were only a handful
of labels all around the world who are
catering to the needs of the modest
modern Muslim women a handful of them
I’m
counting the mom-and-pop shops so there
were they were enjoying a big big crowds
and they were enjoying a captive
audience for themselves a big market but
they were repeating themselves over and
over again
most of them making something new and
bringing something new to the market
every season in fashion it is a risk
because you don’t know which one sells
and which one not so they were repeating
themselves but the ones that they would
sells fast selling was they are
modifying it and re-entering it to the
market again no competition no risk
appetite no variety that’s why a 55 year
old women and her 24 year old daughter
were almost wearing the same thing no
segmentation and when you think about
the modest designers there very few of
them but they were only dreaming of
being global or scaling their business
speaking because they were only catering
to the needs of their neighborhoods
so labels are not they’re repeating
themselves and the designers are small
and the Western fashion industry was not
even by a bothering to look at it for
men and for women clothing is just not
only a fabric that you put on your body
it’s more than that it’s a part of your
expression it’s a part of your identity
and it almost speaks about you when you
look good you feel good it helps your
self-esteem self-confidence and just
because they covered themselves a little
more world was not providing those
options and they had to suffice with the
same old boring clothes for years
and years we thought it sounds there and
we refuse to believe that Muslim women
doesn’t have a sense of style and they
don’t want to express themselves in
their own way so the solution was
building an internet platform a fashion
platform and we started to talk to the
labels to convince them produce in our
standards and we also gather all the
designers models fashion designers in
one platform but the first days were not
not very easy I remember myself on the
streets of Osman Bey he trying to find
long and long sleeve tunics simple but
it was in June
autumn is a garment district in Turkey
where you can find more than six hundred
outlets and you can find thousands of
clothing all I can find was 19 long
sleeve tunics
I asked why they said man it’s
summertime either they have short
sleeves or sleeveless people don’t want
it why do you need it I try to explain
it to them I was talking about the need
why they need it I said could you
produce it for me I can write you a
check they said well we can produce it
for you but we don’t accept checks we
want the money on the table because they
didn’t trust me they think that a
romantic entrepreneur was going to
bankrupt one like two three months
but right now we have gone up to the
4,200 tunics in our platform today we
have more than 300 brands in our
platform every year more than a hundred
million women Wizards outside and we
deliver to 120 countries worldwide
we have great designers we came from
scratch together but now they scale
their business globally they are selling
millions of pieces most of them women we
help them and they teach us the dynamics
of this business we grown together last
year they had the first Mother’s Fashion
Week in Istanbul and this year in a week
we’re going to be repeating it in London
London what is Fashion Week is coming in
last 7 years it was fast for us it was
also fast for the models fashion
industry so what triggered that what was
the tipping point the first thing was
internet internet was a great catalyst
for modest fashion because one Moomin
connected online they started to see
each others clothes they witness they’re
having the same dressing codes but
different styles they also discover
small boutiques and they also discovered
the designers and they said wait a
minute I like it that’s so cool
I wish I can have it in my hometown and
they started to demand it louder and
louder every day we are one of the lucky
ones who heard it who lend the ear to
that the second big thing is missing
women herself started to change they
started to take active roles
in the society they started to pursue
their goals and their dreams they’re
expressing themselves their
individuality in their own way without
compromising from their beliefs now we
see more and more Muslim women taking
active roles in the society being
present in the social life being doctors
they’re going to be all over the place
in all over the social life and they’re
going to be taking more active roles and
also proudly wearing their hijab and
those Muslim women also show the world
that they care about style they care
Nike Donna Karan Marks and Spencer the
giant brands started to listen them
started to cater to that need today and
more importantly people more and more
people recognize regardless of her
belief every women deserves the chance
to look good in whichever way she
chooses what is next for us are we done
we are not we want to help
Main Street brands to be a bridge
between the modest modern women and the
market and we also want to empower more
designers to scale their work to the
globe and of course we want to continue
to bring choice in style more choice
more fashion in style for the Muslim
women
come a long way and we’ll see their
positive reflections in the in the every
aspect of the daily life every day and
we’ll be humbled to walk the way with
them in this journey thank you [Applause]