Most workwear advice assumes there's one question: is the blazer sharp enough? For women who cover, there are several more. Will the sleeve stay put when you reach for the whiteboard? Will the fabric turn sheer under office lighting? Will your scarf still be where you left it at 4pm? That last one sounds small. It isn't.
Modest fashion has matured into a serious market, and the good news is that the answers now come from very different places: specialist labels in London and Dubai, a vast Istanbul marketplace, and mainstream brands that happen to solve modest problems better than they advertise. This ranking is built around the working week. It rewards pieces that survive commutes, meetings and repeat wear, not the ones that look best on a mood board.
The ten at a glance
| Rank | Brand | Home base | Price band | What it does best | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aab | London, UK | Mid to premium | Understated tailored separates in muted colours | A capsule wardrobe that lasts years |
| 2 | Bouguessa | Dubai, UAE | Luxury | Architectural blazers, column dresses, sharp trousers | Senior and client-facing roles |
| 3 | M.M.LaFleur | New York, USA | Premium | Washable suiting and a styling box service | Law, finance and consulting |
| 4 | Modanisa | Istanbul, Turkey | Budget to mid | Huge range from hundreds of designers | Choice and value |
| 5 | Uniqlo | Tokyo, Japan | Budget | AIRism layers, knits, trousers, hijabs | The base layer of a covered wardrobe |
| 6 | Inayah | London, UK | Mid | Drapey co-ord sets | Hybrid days, desk to dinner |
| 7 | Sabirah | London, UK | Luxury, made to order | Limited pieces from end-of-roll fabric | One statement piece a season |
| 8 | Argent | New York, USA | Premium | Structured suiting with real pockets | Keynotes, courtrooms, boardrooms |
| 9 | Haute Hijab | New York, USA | Budget to mid | Performance hijabs and undercaps | The detail other brands ignore |
| 10 | COS | Stockholm, Sweden | Mid | Minimal shapes with volume and long hems | Quick in-store replacements |
Aab takes first place by refusing to change
Consistency is the least glamorous quality a label can have, and it's exactly why Aab wins. The London brand has spent well over a decade refining a tight vocabulary of tailored abayas, longline waistcoats, wide trousers and shirt dresses in stone, ink, olive and clay. It doesn't reinvent itself every season. So a jacket bought in 2023 still sits properly beside a skirt bought this year, which is the whole promise of capsule dressing and something fast fashion rarely keeps. Its slow-fashion stance also comes with real sourcing effort, including its Green Modesty push on responsible materials. Plenty of working women made Aab their default years ago. This list is just catching up.
Bouguessa reads as designer before anything else
Faiza Bouguessa founded her Dubai label in 2014 and arguably set the template luxury modest wear has chased ever since: severe, architectural, almost defiantly plain. The French-Algerian designer, whose atelier is in Dubai Design District, learned pattern cutting from a seamstress grandmother, and you can see it in the shoulders. What started as a reworked abaya is now full ready-to-wear, with longline blazers, high-waisted trousers and shirt dresses, plus leather goods and bespoke services. For senior women the appeal is precise. These clothes read as designer first, which matters in rooms where outfits get judged before anyone speaks. Expect investment prices, and note that sizing runs lean.
M.M.LaFleur never set out to be modest
That's what makes it interesting. Founded in 2011 around an idea it calls Power Casual, the New York brand solved problems modest dressers feel most: machine-washable suiting, jersey that survives a flight, higher necklines, and the Jardigan, a cardigan with a blazer's authority. Its Bento Box service sends a curated selection with stylist notes, cutting out hours of hunting for coverage in a mainstream catalogue. The company nearly didn't make it, losing half its sales in the pandemic before women investors refinanced it back to profitability. One practical tip: filter for sleeves, because a good chunk of the range is sleeveless.
Modanisa wins on sheer scale
Range is a service, and nobody offers more. The Istanbul platform draws tens of millions of visits a month, ships to more than 130 countries and hosts hundreds of designers and suppliers, most of them women-owned. It created the Modest Fashion Week format, which debuted in Istanbul in 2016 and has since reached London, Dubai, Riyadh and Paris, and it landed Goldman Sachs backing before the category was fashionable. For work, the depth in blazers, tunics and trousers is the draw: a young professional can build five outfits for the price of one designer jacket. The catch is inconsistency. Fit and fabric vary by seller, so read reviews first.
Uniqlo supplies the invisible layer
Every covered wardrobe relies on things nobody notices: the thin long-sleeve under a short-sleeve dress, the opaque trouser, the knit that doesn't cling. Uniqlo has become the biggest source of that groundwork, and its AIRism fabrics tackle the heat that extra coverage brings. A decade-long collaboration with British-Japanese designer Hana Tajima built its credibility. In August it went further with a standalone hijab collection, scheduled for 17 August, in satin, georgette and AIRism UV protection styles, with georgette in up to twelve colours. Crucially, it's positioned as permanent, not seasonal. For a category big retail has often dropped after one try, that matters most.
Inayah makes draping do the work of tailoring
Draping is underrated office technology. Inayah's satin and jersey co-ords, matching tunic and trouser sets and fluid pleated skirts carry the visual weight of tailoring without the stiffness, which makes them ideal for days that start at a desk and end at a client dinner. The look leans romantic and a little vintage, so it suits creative, academic and public sector jobs better than conservative finance. The brand has also committed publicly to carbon-neutral operations. A plain warning, though: some softer fabrics need gentle care and won't forgive a hot wash.
Sabirah is where the memorable coat comes from
Deborah Latouche launched Sabirah in London in 2020, frustrated that high fashion had nothing to say to women who cover. Pieces are made to order from end-of-roll luxury fabric, so waste is low and exclusivity is built in. Tellingly, many customers don't dress modestly at all. They just want the clothes, which says a lot about how far modest design has moved into mainstream luxury. You won't build a working wardrobe here. You'll buy the one piece people remember, and for women whose visibility is part of the job, that can do more than a whole rail of separates.
Argent is for the big days
Argent set out to fix women's suiting, and modest dressers benefit more than most. Blazers cost about $400 and trousers sit in the $200s, buying serious structure and pockets deep enough to use. Growth roughly tripled between 2022 and 2023 after a pandemic slump, and its clients include executives Mary Dillon and Anjali Sud as well as journalist Katie Couric. Think of it for milestones: the promotion, the keynote, the major trial. The range includes sleeveless and shorter pieces, so stick to trouser suits and longline blazers.
Haute Hijab fixes the thing that actually goes wrong
Putting a hijab specialist beside tailoring houses is deliberate. The most common failure in a professional modest outfit isn't the dress; it's a scarf slipping mid-presentation. Haute Hijab treats that as an engineering problem, using performance jersey, chiffon and technical weaves with grip-lined undercaps built for a full day of movement. It has also spent years pushing workplace conversations on discrimination, dress codes and representation, in the same period that products like the Nike Pro Hijab brought the category into the mainstream. The clothes get noticed. The scarf decides whether you look composed.
COS earns its spot on convenience
Availability sounds like a dull reason to make a list, until a hem tears on the morning of a hearing. The H&M Group label has built a minimalist range of voluminous column dresses, wide trousers, oversized shirts and long coats, and fashion writers often mention it, alongside Max Mara, for shapes that suit covered wardrobes without ever being sold that way. Stores in most major cities mean same-day replacements and, better still, the chance to check drape and opacity in person. Do that. Several COS fabrics look sheer under office lights, so try before you buy.
Putting the list to work
No single brand covers everything, and that's fine. A sensible approach looks like this:
- Foundation: Uniqlo layers and a Haute Hijab undercap you trust.
- Everyday core: Aab or M.M.LaFleur separates, topped up from Modanisa or COS.
- High-stakes days: an Argent suit or Bouguessa blazer.
- The wildcard: one Sabirah or Inayah piece that feels like you.
Think a brand deserves a higher spot, or that one is missing entirely? Have your say in our fan vote on the best clothing brands and back the labels you actually wear to work.
