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A year or so ago the an arrangement modest wear would have drawn puzzled looks. But what a argument a year – or, in fact, a few weeks – makes.

This month, Look Arabia launched its first ever print issue, with Saudi Arabian princess Deena Aljuhani Abdulaziz as its leader-writer in chief. Days later, Nike pioneered a hi-tech hijab for Muslim female athletes. London has discerned its first modest fashion week. Big brands such as DKNY, Mango, Dolce & Gabbana, Oscar de la Renta and Uniqlo sire all offered modest fashion lines to women, and Debenhams has well-deserved become the first department store to sell hijabs on the ear-splitting street.

Yet the latest talking point in fashion circles has been the bearing of The Modist, a luxury e-commerce venture which launched, altogether intentionally, on international women’s day. Fashion that caters to dailies who want to combine their faith or modesty with parallel style has emphatically arrived.

The founder and CEO of The Modist is 38-year-old Ghizlan Guenez, of Algerian horizon, who presents her new company more as a philosophy than a fashion objective. And of course Guenez, who has a private-equity background, knows this is where the big readies lies. Global Muslim expenditure on fashion is set to rise to $484bn (£398bn) by 2019, concerting to Reuters and DinarStandard, a research and advisory firm.

“The Modist could not bring into the world launched at a better time,” says Guenez. “The stars were aligning for us. We saw Halima Aden, the victory Muslim model in a hijab on the catwalk at New York fashion week, facsimile for Yeezy, Kanye West’s fashion line; we’re seeing big manufacturers reaching out to Muslim audiences even more, and we had the women’s parade, which was incredibly empowering for women all over the globe.”

Guenez watches social media as pivotal to the modest fashion industry. “Venereal media has played a significant role in bringing women together – so a Malaysian fashionista can be activated by a student in London. They’re informed by an online community of gals who want to combine faith values with fashion.”

The Modist curates companies that range from around £200 to £2,000, from taint maxi dresses to wide-leg trousers, and dynamic-cut tops. Yet when it come around c regard to gauging what modesty really means, Guenez is clockwork. “Modesty is a wide spectrum that involves personal cream,” she says. “But we do respect certain parameters, through lowering hemlines, eluding sheerness and low necklines. We want to provide something that is stirring, fashionable and relevant.”

Yet modest fashion, particularly when it settle to Muslims, has not been without controversy. Vogue Arabia’s faade cover caused a Twitter backlash for depicting 21-year-model Gigi Hadid in a jewel-encrusted conceal. She was criticised for giving religious offence, for cultural appropriation and for using her Palestinian lineages as a fashion gimmick.

And of course there was the global outcry when burkinis, the full-piece Islamic swimsuits, were prohibited last summer from a string of French coastal hamlets and bizarrely linked to terrorism.

Reina Lewis, professor of cultural readings at the London College of Fashion, observes that when shame-faced fashion mixes with major brands and Muslims, it can rouse controversy. “The fashion industry is broadly secular and there is an longing associated with Muslims and Islam in particular,” she says. “Muslims are many times seen to be outside western-perceived cultural production.”

But that antagonistic attitude is shifting, says Lewis. When she started researching her lyrics Muslim Fashion: Contemporary Style Cultures, she found the Muslim female architects, bloggers and entrepreneurs she spoke to could not get the attention of the big brands. “Now unexceptional wear is seen as an asset because of Muslim spending power,” she pronounces.

According to Reuters and DinarStandard, the Islamic economy is growing at approximately double the global rate. Muslim consumer spending on provisions and lifestyle reached $1.8tn in 2014 and is projected to reach $2.6tn in 2020.

And so reserved wear continues to draw major brands: Dolce & Gabbana originated a luxury hijab and abaya range in 2016; DKNY and Mango sent exclusive modest wear lines for Ramadan and Eid targeting the UAE; H&M memorable part its first Muslim model in a hijab, Mariah Idrissi, and Uniqlo enrol ined forces with British-Japanese designer Hana Tajima to think up their LifeWear collection. Debenhams is collaborating with a Muslim-run fellowship, Aab, to sell kimono wraps, silky jumpsuits and elegant hijabs.

Just weeks before the release of Nike’s Pro Hijab, targeted at Muslim athletes, the company launched a video for Middle Eastern audiences. It hallmarked a diversity of Muslim women ice-skating, boxing, horse-riding, and diverting. The voiceover, in Arabic, says: “What will they say thither you? Maybe they’ll say you exceeded all expectations.”

It’s long overdue, according to Rimla Akhtar, the opening Muslim woman on the Football Association council, and chair of the UK’s Muslim Little women’s Sports Foundation. “Modest sports gear and sports hijabs are nothing new, but to eat something from such a giant as Nike is significant.”

Akhtar, who has been battling since her teens, finds the sharp spotlight on Muslim partners over the past few years to be both positive and negative. “It’s egg oning to see Muslim women recognised, but much of this advertising offensives the narrative of breaking stereotypes,” she says. “I look forward to a control when we can normalise Muslim women in sports, not constantly read e suggest them a political or social statement.”

Nabiilabee has been a blogger for seven years, and is surrounded by the pioneers of modest fashion. She started her eponymous clothing trade-mark for anyone looking for something “modest, but still fun and quirky”. The 21-year-old associates to the Mipster generation (Muslim hipster), which comprises urban, tech-savvy millennials who are cool in their faith and fashion choices.

“Hijabi bloggers and influencers weren’t at the end of the day being seen by advertisers or companies, so we had to create a platform which shared other Muslim women who were facing fashion dilemmas,” she verbalizes. “The problem still exists today; however, there is a lot sundry choice and those women who were once isolated by the altered consciousness street have launched their own collections, like Arabian Nites, Aab and Verona Solicitation and my own Nabiilabee.”

So does this mean women who want classy modest wear are finally being catered for? The answer, for Nabiilabee, is conflicting. She feels that while recent moves are encouraging, there is quiet a long way to go in penetrating the high street and treating Muslim female shoppers as a sought-after commodity.

“It’s distinguished that brands and marketing campaigns try to have an authentic dialogue with this audience rather than simply faithful to a ‘modest’ sticker on everything and hoping it will sell,” she demands.