The Islamic fashion business is booming
fashion trend is already here.
Spending on high-end Shariah-compliant clothing by Muslims is surging, just as Islam is growing and on track to become the world's largest religion by the middle of the century.
Muslim consumers spent about $266 billion on clothing in 2013, the latest year for which data is available, according to the State of the Global Islamic Economy 2014-2015 report commissioned by Thomson Reuters and Dinar Standard. They are expected to spend about $484 billion by 2019, Reuters estimates.
This growth will coincide with an explosion in the Muslim population from 1.6 billion to nearly 3 billion by 2050, the Pew Research Center recently estimated.
In comparison, U.S. consumers spent $395 billion on clothes in 2013, according to Reuters.
Designers around the world have taken notice. The Islamic Fashion Festival, started in 2006 in Kuala Lumpur, has been held 17 times from New York to London, Jakarta, Dubai, Singapore, Monte Carlo and other cities, according to the group's website.
