Global modest fashion brand Haute-Elan enters SA with Cape Town pop-up

Cape Town boutique media launch.

Primarily a luxury online e-shopping platform with physical locations across the UK and launching in India in September, Haute-Elan showcases more than 200 emerging, independent and established modest-wear designers from all over the world.

The platform offers a customer-oriented and tech-focused shopping experience to the fashion-forward modest consumer, targeting especially the £2trillion Muslim marketplace. Haute Elan is also known for launching the Modest Fashion Awards and London Modest Fashion Week.

According to Roshan Isaacs, director of Haute-Elan South Africa, South Africans who are interested in high-end modest fashion are no strangers to Haute-Elan. “Haute-Elan receives great support from the South African market. As such we decided to augment the offering to this customer base by bringing the luxury store closer to home.”

Located in the newly launched luxury Artem shopping galleria in Sea Point, Cape Town, the Haute-Elan boutique will feature a selection of designer abayas (cloaks), Haute-Elan scarves and jewellery. South African designers, Zamaan SA and Thabo Makheta, who have both catered to the elite luxury market in South Africa but fit in with the Haute Elan ethos, will also be featured in the Cape Town boutique.

A growing market

A $254billion market according to Fast Company, the past few years have seen household names in fashion like Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana, DKNY and Mango launching modest clothing lines, often to mixed reviews. Most critiques have centred on how Western brands misunderstand the tenets of modest wear, often only offering shapeless and dull clothing.

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According to Isaacs this is what makes Haute Elan different to the new entrants into this market. “Founded in 2013 by Romanna Bint-Abubaker, having identified a niche for a truly global platform to present modest fashion, Romanna wanted to showcase that women could be beautifully elegant while maintaining their modesty whether it be for religious reasons or personal preferences. With £1 of every purchase at Haute-Elan donated to the Women’s Collective (formerly the Women’s Venture Fund) which offers support services to women-led enterprises, Haute Elan is often referred to as a social enterprise with core principles centred around supporting women across the world.”

Isaacs says that details about the first flagship stores to be launched in Cape Town will be announced shortly.