Faith & Fashion
The Faith & Fashion public talks programme hosts conversations on the relationship between religious cultures and fashion cultures.
Listen to London College of Fashion's Professor Reina Lewis lead compelling discussions with speakers from within the fashion industry globally, from diverse faiths and spiritual backgrounds as well as different secular and political perspectives.
Faith & Fashion events take place at LCF in London as well as with partners in the UK and around the world.
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Join our mailing list for the latest on future events, contact: faithandfashion@fashion.arts.ac.uk
Past events
LCF Global X Faith & Fashion: Material Witnesses: Everyday Fashion Activism
23 May 2023
Prof Reina Lewis discusses everyday fashion activism in the expression of religious, secular, and philosophical belief with Dr Christine Checinska, Lead Curator of the Africa Fashion exhibition at the V&A, designer Humeera Dar, whose graduate menswear collection draws on her Kashmiri heritage in the expression of support for Human Rights, and artist, designer and educator Alisa Ruzavina, whose socially-engaged practice and community work is informed by vegan philosophy and animist beliefs.
Watch the video for LCF Global X Faith & Fashion: Material Witnesses: Everyday Fashion Activism
LCF Global X Faith & Fashion: Saudi and UK Fashion in Dialogue
9 March 2023
LCF’s Professor Reina Lewis discusses the richness of Saudi textile heritage in contemporary fashion and the opportunities for British and Saudi brands generated by current approaches to modesty and sustainability, with Shahd AlShehail of Abadia, vintage expert Rae Joseph, Loai Naseem of Lomar, and Sacha Newall of My Wardrobe HQ.
Watch the video for LCF Global X Faith & Fashion: Saudi and UK Fashion in Dialogue
LCF Global X Faith & Fashion: PC Williams in conversation with Reina Lewis
17 November 2022
PC Williams talks to Professor Reina Lewis about her BAFTA award-winning costume designs for We Are Lady Parts, 2021’s hit TV series about a Muslim women's punk band, and reflects on her determination as a professional to help create spaces for young people of diverse backgrounds in the creative industries.
Watch the video for LCF Global X Faith & Fashion: PC Williams in conversation with Reina Lewis
Faith & Fashion: Collecting Arab Dress, Chronicling Multiple Faiths
19 May 2021
Professor Reina Lewis hears from Dr Reem El Mutwalli about her curatorial mission to use dress to explain the evolution of regional cultures across the Arab world. The Zay Initiative collects garments from the diverse populations of the Arab world, using dress to tell a story of affinities and distinctions that span multiple faith and secular traditions and histories.
Watch the video for Faith & Fashion: Collecting Arab Dress, Chronicling Multiple Faiths
Faith & Fashion: Fashion, Culture, and Saudi Arabia Vision 2030
8 November 2019
Professor Reina Lewis brings Faith & Fashion from London College of Fashion to Riyadh for Saudi Design Week.
As the Saudi government’s Vision 2030 brings more Saudi women into the workplace, Reina is joined by artist, art historian, and curator Dr Eiman Elgibreen to discuss changing workwear needs and how designers can contribute to women’s comfort at work in the context of Saudi Arabian and regional codes of modest dress and behaviour.
Listen to Faith & Fashion: Fashion, Culture, and Saudi Arabia Vision 2030
Modest Fashion Media and Markets: Perceptions and Realities, at Istanbul Modest Fashion Week
20 April 2019
LCF’s Professor Reina Lewis takes Faith & Fashion to Istanbul Modest Fashion in collaboration with Modanisa, to explore the impact of modest dressing on global brands, regional markets, and mainstream and niche fashion media.
Watch the video for Modest Fashion Media and Markets: Perceptions and Realities, at Istanbul Modest Fashion Week
Embodiment, Gender, and Religious Visibility, with the Woolf Institute, Cambridge
30 January 2019
Reina takes Faith & Fashion to Cambridge, in a collaboration with the Woolf Institute. She is joined by Professor Kristin Aune of Coventry University, Dr Lea Taragin-Zeller from the Woolf Institute and Azadeh Moaveni, author of Lipstick Jihad, to discuss the interplay of body management, gender, and religious cultures.
Watch the video for Embodiment, Gender, and Religious Visibility, with the Woolf Institute, Cambridge
Contemporary Muslim Fashions exhibition in San Francisco, with Yasmine Sobeih of UNDER-RÂPT
20 September 2018
Consulting curator of Contemporary Muslim Fashions Professor Reina Lewis, from London College of Fashion, brings her expertise to the de Young Museum. She and Yasmin Sobeih, British designer and founder of UNDER-RÂPT, speak about the relationship between fashion and faith. They also discuss the opportunities and challenges presented to independent brands because of the now global modest fashion infrastructure.
LGBTQ sexualities and religious cultures
16 November 2017
As Britain commemorates 50 years since the partial decriminalisation of male homosexuality in England and Wales, Faith & Fashion explores how and why queer visibility within religious communities remains rarely uncomplicated. Reina is joined by Asad Dhunna, founder of the Big Gay Iftar, the Reverend Sally Hitchiner, and Dr Sarah-Jane Page of Aston University.
Listen to the podcast episode LGBTQ sexualities and religious cultures
Dress, Politics, and Belonging post-Brexit
30 November 2016
What does it mean to be a visible minority in a post-Brexit Britain given the rise in racism, anti-semitism and anti-Muslim prejudice increasingly evident in the West? Professor Reina Lewis is joined by Jewish educator and artist Jacqueline Nicholls, James Welch, legal director of Liberty, Ruth Yimika Awogbade, founder of Magnify magazine and author Elif Shafak at Asia House to examine this question.
Listen to the podcast episode Dress, Politics, and Belonging post-Brexit
Modest Fashion as Community and Commerce
13 November 2016
Reina visits Princeton University, for a collaboration of Faith & Fashion with altMuslimah.com and the Princeton Muslim Life Program. Days after Donald Trump was elected president, our four panels explored modest fashion as community and commerce: with fashion blogger Whitney Bauck (Unwrinkling.com), designers Mimi Hecht and Mushky Notik of MimuMaxi, Laila Alawa, founder of media company The Tempest and Asma T Uddin of altMuslimah.com.
Listen to the podcast episode Modest Fashion as Community and Commerce
Fashion, Design, Identity in Beirut
26 May 2016
Professor Reina Lewis takes Faith & Fashion to Beirut Design Week for a symposium collaboration with Lebanese American University (LAU).
Panel 1: Fashion Mediation: cultural translation of fashion and dress identities within and beyond the region: Dr Yasmine Taan, LAU, Ritu Upadhyay, Middle East correspondent for Women’s Wear Daily, designer Johnny Farah and Sarah Beydoun, founder of social enterprise Sarah’s Bags.
Panel 2: Fashion Politics: religious and regional taste cultures on the international market: Shelina Janmohamed of Ogilvy Noor, designer Cynthia Chamat and Kendall Robbins of the British Council.
Listen to the podcast episode Fashion, Design, Identity in Beirut
Religion, Dress and Politics, Montreal
16 March 2016
LCF’s Professor Reina Lewis collaborates with DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art to discuss the politics of dress and religion in the Quebec and Canadian contexts. DHC/ART curator Dr Cheryl Sim share the platform with Professor Jasmin Zine of Wilfrid Laurier University, Professor Yasmin Jiwani of Concordia University, and media artist Farheen HaQ.
Listen to the podcast episode Religion, Dress and Politics, Montreal
Ethics, Morality, Sustainability
24 February 2016
How has the concern about social and environmental impact of fashion transformed into a red carpet style trend?
Creative entrepreneur Ayesha Mustafa, founder of socially conscious fashion brand Fashion ComPassion, and Professor Dilys Williams, Director of the LCF Centre for Sustainable Fashion, join Professor Reina Lews to explore the overlap between ethical and aesthetic standards.
Listen to the podcast episode Ethics, Morality, Sustainability
Muslim Fashion: recent histories, future directions
20 October 2015
To mark the publication of Reina's book Muslim Fashion: Contemporary Style Cultures, a panel of experts gather to explore the past present and future of Muslim Fashion. They include: Shelina Janmohamed, Vice President of Ogilvy Noor Islamic branding practice, Marilyn Booth, Professor of the Study of the Contemporary Arab World at Oxford University, and Samia Khan and Adviya Khan, founders of modest style and lifestyle blog Hijablicious.
Listen to the podcast episode Muslim Fashion: recent histories, future directions
Muslim/American Fashion with New York Public Radio
20 May 2015
Faith & Fashion is in New York for a discussion with WNYC on the creativity and controversies of Muslim fashion in America. Reina Lewis joins Asma T Uddin, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of altmuslimah.com; fashion blogger and cultural commentator Nadia Azmy (Winnie Détwa), and designers Nyla Hashmi and Fatima Monkush, of fashion brand Eva Khurshid New York.
Listen to the podcast episode Muslim/American Fashion with New York Public Radio
Faith & Fashion on the school run
12 March 2015
In a collaboration with JW3 Jewish community centre in North London, Professor Reina Lewis considers faith school uniforms and their impact on students, teachers, and parents. Joining the discussion are: Claire Drucquer of Three Faiths Forum, Patrick Moriarty, Headteacher of pluralist Jewish Secondary School JcoSS, Aliya Azam, Head of Science at the Al Sadiq and Al Zahra Schools, and Rachel Fink, Headteacher of Hasmonean High School for Girls.
Listen to the podcast episode Faith & Fashion on the school run
What to wear when you work for God
27 November 2014
Reina explores how a pioneering generation of women across the faiths have been developing vocational and professional dress for religiously related roles. The panel includes: the Reverend Sally Hitchiner, Anglican priest and broadcaster; teacher and community worker, Sister Christine Frost, of the Sisters Faithful Companions of Jesus; and Muslim chaplain, Amra Bone - currently the only woman in Europe to sit on a sharia council.
Listen to the podcast episode What to wear when you work for God
Roadshow: Writing Fashion, Styling Faith, Making Communities
27 September 2014
Faith & Fashion goes to the Bradford Literature Festival, where Reina is joined by Samia Khan and Adviya Khan, founders of modest fashion lifestyle blog Hijablicious. Together they examine how writers and readers of religiously related fashion blogs are melding literary and visual expression as well as how social media creates new forms of dialogue.
Listen to the podcast episode episode Roadshow: Writing Fashion, Styling Faith, Making Communities
Men, Fashion, Faith: the missing link?
22 May 2014
Reina Lewis, Professor of Cultural Studies at London College of Fashion, is joined by Sikh blogger Pardeep Singh Bahra of Singh Street Style and Peter Hopkins, Professor of Social Geography at Newcastle University. They explore masculinity, modesty and modishness as well as how religious and ethnic identities are communicated and contested through men’s wardrobe choices.
Listen to the podcast episode Fashion, Faith: the missing link?
Branding Modesty for Nation: Indonesian Muslim fashion as national asset
6 March 2014
Designer and social media star Dian Pelangi and cultural anthropologist and Indonesian fashion expert, Professor Carla Jones of the University of Colorado, join Faith & Fashion's Professor Reina Lewis, to discuss how the promotion of Muslim fashion by the Indonesian government is changing the market for designers and dressers.
British Asian Design: many faiths, many styles, many meanings
25 November 2013
LCF's Professor Reina Lewis joins designer and entrepreneur Mani Kohli of Khubsoorat collection and Asiana Wedding magazine editor Anisha Vasani to explore how British South Asian fashion caters to different religions and ethnicities - creating diaspora designs that trend around the world.
Listen to the podcast episode British Asian Design: many faiths, many styles, many meanings
Arab design on the international modest fashion market
25 June 2013
Faith & Fashion hosts a talk in conjunction with the Shubbak festival of contemporary Arab culture. Professor Reina Lewis explores the importance of fashion in cultural as well as commercial exchanges with Emirati-Afghan designer Rabia Zargarpur, of Rabia Z, and British blogger Jana Kossaibati of hijabstyle. With inside scoops on developments in the Gulf fashion industry, the panel considers if and how fashion plays a role in faith.
Listen to the podcast episode Arab design on the international modest fashion market
A new language for women’s interfaith dialogue
5 March 2013
Reina Lewis joins Debbie Danon, from the Three Faiths Forum, Janet Adler of Women’s Interfaith Network, and designer Barjis Chohan to discuss: why and how fashion has become central to the expression of personal faith, spirituality and ethics for women from many different faiths as well as for women who see themselves as secular.
Listen to the podcast episode A new language for women’s interfaith dialogue