Modernest launched in the UAE in September and offers modest fashion from brands such as Mango, Massimo Dutti, Karl Lagerfeld and Zara
Modernest launched in the UAE in September and offers modest fashion from brands such as Mango, Massimo Dutti, Karl Lagerfeld and Zara
Modernest launched in the UAE in September and offers modest fashion from brands such as Mango, Massimo Dutti, Karl Lagerfeld and Zara
Modernest launched in the UAE in September and offers modest fashion from brands such as Mango, Massimo Dutti, Karl Lagerfeld and Zara

Why these women are taking the modest fashion movement in a new direction online


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There’s a new home-grown modestwear platform on the block, and it’s making a lot of noise on social media – a platform where modest fashion is flourishing. Incubated by the Chalhoub Greenhouse, Modernest is locally headquartered and centres on modern modestwear, supplying the latest threads from labels such as Mango, Massimo Dutti, Karl Lagerfeld, Zara, Riva and more.

The brand is the brainchild of Musfira Suleman, who lives in Dubai and saw a gap in the industry for a one-stop shop for clothing that is at once conservative, chic and contemporary.

“It all came crashing down during the pandemic when I wasn’t able to mix and match pieces and try them on before buying a modest outfit,” Suleman tells The National. “I decided to take matters into my own hands and drafted a business plan for a concept that all women who prefer to dress modestly can see themselves fitting into.”

Modest fashion has cemented itself as an industry fuelled by tremendous demand and significant spending power; its value is estimated to reach $311 billion by 2024, according to the 2020-2021 State of the Global Islamic Economy Report.

While the market is growing day by day with new clothing labels, there’s another niche that now has increased traction: following the business model of fashion aggregators, new digital platforms are sidestepping the hassle of stocking inventory and the pressure of manufacturing.

“We aggregate modest pieces from various platforms in addition to having an assortment of foreign brands, and we’ve partnered with several local brands to leverage the ‘from the region, for the region’ proposition,” explains Suleman.

Focus on styling rather than stocking

On the other side of the globe, New Yorker Liza Sakhaie also recently launched an online platform focusing on modestwear, after realising that consumers like her weren’t being served by the industry, even though modesty has been a buzzword for some time now.

“Whether it was for faith, work, comfort, body image or even safety-related reasons, data showed that midi skirts were replacing miniskirts and turtlenecks were outdoing V-necks. And yet, retailers still haven’t caught up. The actual experience of shopping for modest clothing hasn’t changed,” she says.

Sakhaie conceptualised a solution while working for Bloomingdale’s. “At the time, I was working on the experiential retail marketing team, conceiving ideas to capture customers in innovative and interactive ways, and yet, in my own modest shopping experience, it felt like no one was doing much to try to capture me,” she explains. Understanding that creating modest looks from mainstream brands could be challenging and time-consuming, she launched The Reflective, a website anchoring a shoppable, modesty-themed newsletter.

The Reflective is an aggregator modestwear platform that curates top-to-toe looks from across the web
The Reflective is an aggregator modestwear platform that curates top-to-toe looks from across the web

“We have a team of thoughtful ‘buyers’ selecting high-fashion, elevated finds from across the web so you don’t have to do the hard work any more,” says Sakhaie. “We used the newsletter as the foundation for our marketplace, testing different styles, products, price ranges and modesty standards to inform our marketplace curation strategy.” The Reflective’s marketplace directs visitors to the websites of brands such as Never Fully Dressed and The Frock NYC, and e-tailers like The Outnet and Shopbop.

Styling and curating are central to both Modernest and The Reflective. “Consumers want to be able to see the pieces on real women with real sizes, worn in their own unique ways,” says Suleman, who calls her site’s diverse crew of influencers The Modernest Squad. Regional hijab-wearing bloggers Yaman Alrifai, Aisha Alaqeel and Mariam Sheikh are among the brand’s ambassadors, and each puts her distinctive touch on outfits from Modernest’s offerings.

Modest fashion for all

This approach of curating looks rather than simply listing and selling pages of fashion items targets the modern, multitasking, digital-savvy woman. “She wants to look put-together and remain on trend, but doesn’t have the time to scroll through hundreds of e-com sites and the budget to spend on a personal stylist,” says Sakhaie.

While limited-edition modest fashion collections by brands have been popular in the past (often tied to Ramadan) both Suleman and Sakhaie cater to the year-round demand for modestwear. Another common point between both entrepreneurs is their decision to leave religion out of the conversation. “Despite religion being the most common reason [for dressing modestly], I believe there are women out there who have other motives but are overlooked,” says Suleman.

While the State of the Global Islamic Economy Report said one of the challenges of this market was that “there is no fixed definition or set of standards that regulate modest fashion”, catering to diverse interpretations of modesty actually helps to attract a wider audience – particularly women of faith groups who follow different guidelines. Many Jewish women, for example, avoid trousers and wear only skirts and dresses, while traditional hijab headscarves are more prevalent among Muslims, even though there is an element of veiling in Jewish traditions. Sakhaie says she saw the opportunity to help build an “interfaith” community, uniting women of different backgrounds across their “mutual core values”.

“There is so much dividing our world today and I saw modesty as a unique opportunity to bring women together rather than continuing to segment them into different groups,” she says.

Modest fashion platforms can help build an interfaith community of women, says New Yorker Liza Sakhaie who founded The Reflective
Modest fashion platforms can help build an interfaith community of women, says New Yorker Liza Sakhaie who founded The Reflective

Plus, the “religious” connotations linked with covering up are partly to blame for modesty being deemed unfashionable for so many years. “Us ‘modest dressers’ are used to being outsiders, looked at as archaic, stuck in the past or antifeminist,” says Sakhaie. “We want to break the stereotypes around modesty and support women who choose to take on a modest dress code, with ‘choose’ being the key word.”

Celebrating the collective

The modest fashion movement has given rise to numerous designers, models and entrepreneurs specialising in this realm, but while the market may seem saturated, both Suleman and Sakhaie believe this is only the beginning of a global fashion reckoning. “We expect more brands, influencers and leaders to pop up in the space. We don’t see these brands as competition. Rather we hope to use our audience and platform to amplify their voices,” explains Sakhaie.

Suleman says mainstream modesty still needs to shed some of its stereotypical, cultural stereotypes. “I believe the market isn’t even halfway there to its true potential. Today, the biggest challenge lies in brands often limiting the term ‘modest fashion’ to abayas, kaftans and tunics, when in fact there is so much more that can be explored,” she says.

Modest fashion enterprises such as The Modist, which closed during the pandemic, set the bar high for online modestwear and have been inspirational for both entrepreneurs. Moving forward, they envision the future of this market to be driven by affordability and accessibility, promoted through social media with the help of style-savvy ambassadors who can sell modest fashion to their diverse audiences.

“The answer lies in community building and connecting with consumers at various touchpoints rather than a traditional e-commerce model,” says Suleman. “I believe that advocates of modest fashion are trying to make the best out of the limited resources that we have. With our combined effort, sooner or later, we are going to get where we are supposed to be – and when we do, it is going to be revolutionary.”

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Company profile

Company: Eighty6 

Date started: October 2021 

Founders: Abdul Kader Saadi and Anwar Nusseibeh 

Based: Dubai, UAE 

Sector: Hospitality 

Size: 25 employees 

Funding stage: Pre-series A 

Investment: $1 million 

Investors: Seed funding, angel investors  

About Housecall

Date started: July 2020

Founders: Omar and Humaid Alzaabi

Based: Abu Dhabi

Sector: HealthTech

# of staff: 10

Funding to date: Self-funded

COMPANY PROFILE

Name: Lamsa

Founder: Badr Ward

Launched: 2014

Employees: 60

Based: Abu Dhabi

Sector: EdTech

Funding to date: $15 million

UAE central contracts

Full time contracts

Rohan Mustafa, Ahmed Raza, Mohammed Usman, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Sultan Ahmed, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid

Part time contracts

Aryan Lakra, Ansh Tandon, Karthik Meiyappan, Rahul Bhatia, Alishan Sharafu, CP Rizwaan, Basil Hameed, Matiullah, Fahad Nawaz, Sanchit Sharma

The specs

Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo

Power: 240hp at 5,500rpm

Torque: 390Nm at 3,000rpm

Transmission: eight-speed auto

Price: from Dh122,745

On sale: now

Company%20profile
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Who are the Sacklers?

The Sackler family is a transatlantic dynasty that owns Purdue Pharma, which manufactures and markets OxyContin, one of the drugs at the centre of America's opioids crisis. The family is well known for their generous philanthropy towards the world's top cultural institutions, including Guggenheim Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate in Britain, Yale University and the Serpentine Gallery, to name a few. Two branches of the family control Purdue Pharma.

Isaac Sackler and Sophie Greenberg were Jewish immigrants who arrived in New York before the First World War. They had three sons. The first, Arthur, died before OxyContin was invented. The second, Mortimer, who died aged 93 in 2010, was a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma. The third, Raymond, died aged 97 in 2017 and was also a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma. 

It was Arthur, a psychiatrist and pharmaceutical marketeer, who started the family business dynasty. He and his brothers bought a small company called Purdue Frederick; among their first products were laxatives and prescription earwax remover.

Arthur's branch of the family has not been involved in Purdue for many years and his daughter, Elizabeth, has spoken out against it, saying the company's role in America's drugs crisis is "morally abhorrent".

The lawsuits that were brought by the attorneys general of New York and Massachussetts named eight Sacklers. This includes Kathe, Mortimer, Richard, Jonathan and Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, who are all the children of either Mortimer or Raymond. Then there's Theresa Sackler, who is Mortimer senior's widow; Beverly, Raymond's widow; and David Sackler, Raymond's grandson.

Members of the Sackler family are rarely seen in public.

The bio

Favourite vegetable: Broccoli

Favourite food: Seafood

Favourite thing to cook: Duck l'orange

Favourite book: Give and Take by Adam Grant, one of his professors at University of Pennsylvania

Favourite place to travel: Home in Kuwait.

Favourite place in the UAE: Al Qudra lakes

The Orwell Prize for Political Writing

Twelve books were longlisted for The Orwell Prize for Political Writing. The non-fiction works cover various themes from education, gender bias, and the environment to surveillance and political power. Some of the books that made it to the non-fiction longlist include: 

  • Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the Road to War by Tim Bouverie
  • Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me by Kate Clanchy
  • Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
  • Follow Me, Akhi: The Online World of British Muslims by Hussein Kesvani
  • Guest House for Young Widows: Among the Women of ISIS by Azadeh Moaveni
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
AI traffic lights to ease congestion at seven points to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Street

The seven points are:

Shakhbout bin Sultan Street

Dhafeer Street

Hadbat Al Ghubainah Street (outbound)

Salama bint Butti Street

Al Dhafra Street

Rabdan Street

Umm Yifina Street exit (inbound)

Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026

1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years

If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.

2. E-invoicing in the UAE

Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption. 

3. More tax audits

Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks. 

4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime

Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.

5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit

There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.

6. Further transfer pricing enforcement

Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes. 

7. Limited time periods for audits

Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion. 

8. Pillar 2 implementation 

Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.

9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services

Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations. 

10. Substance and CbC reporting focus

Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity. 

Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

Our legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

What is dialysis?

Dialysis is a way of cleaning your blood when your kidneys fail and can no longer do the job.

It gets rid of your body's wastes, extra salt and water, and helps to control your blood pressure. The main cause of kidney failure is diabetes and hypertension.

There are two kinds of dialysis — haemodialysis and peritoneal.

In haemodialysis, blood is pumped out of your body to an artificial kidney machine that filter your blood and returns it to your body by tubes.

In peritoneal dialysis, the inside lining of your own belly acts as a natural filter. Wastes are taken out by means of a cleansing fluid which is washed in and out of your belly in cycles.

It isn’t an option for everyone but if eligible, can be done at home by the patient or caregiver. This, as opposed to home haemodialysis, is covered by insurance in the UAE.

HOW TO WATCH

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TikTok: @thenationalnews 

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THE SPECS

BMW X7 xDrive 50i

Engine: 4.4-litre V8

Transmission: Eight-speed Steptronic transmission

Power: 462hp

Torque: 650Nm

Price: Dh600,000

MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League, Group B
Barcelona v Inter Milan
Camp Nou, Barcelona
Wednesday, 11pm (UAE)

Stamp%20duty%20timeline
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Indoor cricket in a nutshell

Indoor Cricket World Cup – Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai

16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side

8 There are eight players per team

There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.

5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls

Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership

Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.

Zones

A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs

B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run

Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs

Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full

Updated: November 08, 2021, 10:31 AM