Turin Modest Fashion Roundtable

Global Muslim consumers spent on clothing and footwear $266 billion in 2013, 11,9% of global expenditure. If this market were a country, it would be ranked third after the largest two markets in the world – the United States spending 494 billion and China spending $285 billion. Muslim clothing and footwear expenditure is expected to reach $484 billion market by 2019. Top countries with Muslim consumers clothing consumption (based on 2013 data) are Turkey ($39.3 billion) United Arab Emirates ($22.5 billion), Indonesia ($18.8 billion), Iran ($17.1 billion), Saudi Arabia ($16 billion) and Nigeria ($14.4 billion). The fast growing Islamic Fashion industry led Thomson Reuters and DinarStandard to introduce a Modest Fashion Indicator (MFI) in the 2014 State of Global Islamic Economy Report, which evaluates Modest Fashion ecosystem health and development in 72 countries.

The indicator weights specific metric categories such as supply drivers relative to country size (clothing export to OIC countries), awareness (number of new articles and events), social (clothing pricing index and labour fairness index). On July 28th a round table organized by the City of Turin together with Thomson Reuters, Dubai Chamber and supported by the Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre (DIEDC) will go through main strength an weak point of the entire value chain, analysing leading brands case history operating specifically under the Modest Fashion label and the new trends in this sector. The event will seek to set a global Islamic/Ethical certification akin to Fair Trade, a set of minimum ethical standards the industry players need to adhere to.

Starting from an analysis of local markets the discussion will lead delegates to identify global level issues and key challenges and opportunities of a fast growing market that has already attracted several not Muslim designer and manufacturers. At the end of the day, delegates will arrive to best practices, proposals and conclusive recommendations, that will be collected in a post-event whitepaper that Thomson Reuters will share with its worldwide network to promote a new global collaboration network in the entire value chain.