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Fashion for Veiling in Contemporary Turkey 289

of consumption culture is a reflection of an ‘American dream’ of the Islamic
bourgeoisie (Aktas¸, 1995: 195). Sociologist Ümit Meriç, describing clothing, uses
the following analogy. According to Meriç, clothing, therefore veiling, unlike
fashion, is not humankind’s second skin, but rather is ‘home’ (Meriç, 1987: 33,
36). Some Islamist authors even try to advise women how to avoid the seduction
of the fashion for veiling. They claim if one loses one’s dignity, it is because of
fashion. Therefore, they suggest women should not display their body. They
define fashion as forcing a nation to lose its roots, its ethics and its primary objec-
tives (Ormanlar, 1999: 86). As discussed earlier, Islamic discourse generally
equates fashion and the fashion for veiling with a loss of religious faith and
Islamic principles. 5

The Fashion for veiling 6

History

The analysis of the advertisements in the Islamist women’s magazines points to
the shifting meaning of the practice of veiling, as we have previously discussed. The
progress of the fashion advertisements indicates the existence of two phases: the
first phase coincides with the period when clothing companies discovered
a potential market for veiled women. The absence within the advertisements of
some essential terms and concepts of the fashion industry typifies this period.
The majority of the companies preferred to announce their names, distribution
addresses and the types of products they sold. For instance, the advertisement
titled ‘Tesettürde Hayrun Nisa Giyim’ (Bizim Aile, 1991), gives information about
items available to customers. The advertisement itself does not contain any writ-
ten information about the practice of veiling, but the illustration of the female
in the advert depicts the ideal customer of this clothing company (Figure 21.1).
In another advertisement for ‘Tesettürlü Ceran Manifatura’ (Mektup, February
1990) religious messages are introduced, such as ‘veiling is not a tradition, but, a
law of Allah’. In this advertisement it is also emphasized that the clothing com-
pany aims to serve ‘Muslim sisters’. Referring to the practice of veiling and its
political meaning, this advertisement uses exclusively illustrations of females,
drawn in black clothes and without faces. The text of the advertisement, while
insisting on the political meaning of veiling, refers also to a search for quality
and variety; thus the advertisement invites female customers to buy.
The major characteristic of these first phase advertisements is the use of illus-
trations in which the female face is generally not pictured, instead of photographs.
The absence of faces might be a result of the Islamic prohibitions concerning
women, or a denial of female sexuality in order to conceal ‘intimate’ female
bodies from the male gaze. This first phase dates back to the late 1980s, and the
first fashion show for veiling products organized by the Tekbir Clothing
Company marks its conclusion. The owner of the Tekbir Clothing Company,
Mustafa Karaduman, in one of his interviews with Islamic women’s magazines,
tried to legitimize his fashion shows. ‘In this fashion show’, he said, ‘our goal is to