American Eagle Outfitters Sells Out of its Denim Hijab, Made With TENCEL® Fibers
The garment, featured in ads with 20-year-old Somali-American model Halima Aden, quickly sold out due to high demand.
The fashion world has long been international and diverse, which in part comes from the fundamental creative drive that benefits from discovery and desire.
As Muslim women worldwide increasingly demand both performance and style from their garments, for example, designers, manufacturers and retailers are responding. One example is Nike’s recent video promotion of its new performance hijab — the head covering that is traditional dress for many female practitioners of Islam — which went viral earlier this year. As news of the garment spread worldwide, many women athletes of all ages described how they’ve had to cope with training for and participating in athletic events as observant Muslims, without the benefit of the appropriate athletic garb.
For decades, denim, too, has crossed multi-cultural lines, long ago expanding from its original, limited utility as men’s work dungarees to also encompass apparel for all genders, ages and vocations. Designers borrow from other cultures when it comes to color, cut, fabric and technique. And textile makers add to the mix with manufacturing, spinning and weaving advancements that enhance performance, color and all manner of possibilities in design.
In order to rise to the demands of fashion and function, however, denim over the years has benefited from fabric blends that help bring its indigo character to many varieties of clothing. Few have been as advantageous as Lenzing’s wood-based TENCEL® lyocell branded fibers, which help impart a softness and drape that isn’t always possible with other denim fabrics.
Earlier this year, American Eagle Outfitters demonstrated the versatility, worldliness and character of denim with its production of a limited-edited denim hijab, made with TENCEL® fibers, as part of the 2017 denim line. The garment, featured in ads with 20-year-old Somali-American model Halima Aden, quickly sold out due to high demand, the retailer said.
“American Eagle Outfitters is strongly committed to inclusivity and cultural diversity, which is core to our brand,” AEO said in a statement to Carved in Blue. “Many have been inspired by the background of Halima, the model for the campaign, who has overcome obstacles to achieve her dreams.”
Aden was born in a UNHCR refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya, grew up in St. Cloud, Minn., USA and boasts more than 260,000 followers on Instagram — many of them girls and women asking her for advice about staying modest while expressing themselves. It’s an embrace of the multi-faceted approach to life that denim also exemplifies.
“Every little girl deserves to see a role model that’s dressed like her, resembles her, or even has the same characteristics as her,” she said in a video for Vogue Arabia earlier this year. “I think beauty is for everyone and I think everyone can look beautiful, you just have to be confident. Yeah!”