Dolce & Gabbana abaya line: Yay or nay?

Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana unveiled last week its first ever collection of hijabs and abayas, instantly catching the fancy of Muslim fashionistas across borders.
However, not all Saudi fashion designers and bloggers are impressed.
“It’s a bad advertisement, very poor art direction, the model chosen was not good and the abayas are out of fashion,” said Saudi designer Nabila Nazer.
“It is a good step by big brands such as Dolce & Gabbana to recognize our culture and the buying power of Gulf women but they did not do it in the right way,” she added.
Nabila said the collection is probably not meant for Gulf women because “the style of wearing the hijab is not ours, it’s not sophisticated.”
“Had they studied the market well they would have known that those types of abayas are not new here. I like the concept but not the way they did it,” she said.
The abaya range, which according to Style.com/Arabia ‘celebrates the inimitable dolce vita that is distinct to us in the Arab world’ comes in black and neutral hues with a smattering of print.
D&G’s signature lace embellishments, bright floral details and a vibrant lemon print make a strong presence in the collection made in sheer georgette and satin weave charmeuse fabrics.
No information has been released as yet on the prices or regional availability of the collection.
Ghalia Mahmoudi, whose popular blog Vogue Overdosed has around 39,000 followers on Instagram, said D&G failed to cater to the tastes of Muslim women and women in the Gulf, specifically.
“The GCC is the biggest market for most high-end brands so catering to them sounds just right from a business point of view. I am not very impressed by the collection, the designs are not as luxurious as the abayas designed by local designers in the GCC. D&G being a high-end brand, it is expected to design for the elite, however, I don’t think the elite will actually invest in these abayas when they can find better abayas locally,” she said. 
Catering to the Muslim market is a growing focus for luxury designers and high street brands alike as more Muslim women struggle being stylish while modest.
Muslims spent $266 billion on clothing and footwear in 2013 and the figure is predicted to increase to $484 billion by 2019.
The sales of personal luxury goods in the Middle East hit $8.7 billion in 2015 — up from $6.8 billion the year before.
Dolce and Gabbana is not the first high-end brand to target the Muslim market. Tommy Hilfiger and DKNY launched capsule collections for Muslim customers while Monique Lhuillier designed a range of Kaftans for the luxury online retailer Moda Operandi. High street brands Zara and Mango have also offered specially themed collections for Ramadan while H&M’s ad campaign last year featuring their first ever hijab-wearing model was all the rage.
Designer to the stars and co-founder of D&G, Stefano Gabbana, who announced the launch of the collection on his Instagram page, with the hashtag #dgabaya, was flooded with a barrage of comments.
“Do we occidental women need to start wearing the veil, too?” asked one follower in Italian. Gabbana responded (translated from Italian), “@Fatimapetrucci it is only for the Middle East; don’t worry, no one will oblige you to wear a veil… we don’t have that culture, but we should accept the Middle East’s.”
Meanwhile, some are hailing the capsule collection as good news for Muslim women with a fine taste.
Sarah Sabeh Ayoun, a Jeddah-based abaya designer behind the brand ‘Fashion Passion by Sarah’ said although the abayas did not suit her taste, each one of them was a ‘piece of art because of the detail oriented work’.
“I see some great work — the abstract prints combined with the funky ones in addition to the classic flourishes of lace, making the abayas simple but elegant,” she said.
“D&G is helping women in the Middle East to complete their wardrobes consisting of trendy handbags and shoes now with branded abayas,” Sarah added.
Blogger Abeer of Abeer Daily (with around 65,000 Instagram followers) said: “When Juicy and Tory Burch released abayas I hated branded abayas because they were not brand related. But I loved D&G abayas — they’re so brand related, you could easily know that it’s a Dolce and Gabbana abaya. They’re so stylish, I would definitely wear one of them.”
So can we see more Western houses creating collections for the Middle East market? That will probably depend on whether the D&G collection proves to be a hit or a miss. Given the mixed local reactions to the abaya line, for now, it is safe to say the jury is still out.
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