In the Islamic fashion industry, Turkey is big business, the world’s largest consumer of Islam-friendly clothing with a market worth $34 billion a year.

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“Most of our customers come from Turkey,” said Ulviya Hassan, who set up Hijab Queen in Azerbaijan with her cousin Farida Efendiyeva. “There are a growing number of women wearing the hijab in Azerbaijan, but the number is small. We set up business out of necessity: my cousin started covering her head and couldn’t find anything fashionable.”

About 45 per cent of Turkish women wear the headscarf, but the issue has long been a flashpoint between secularists and conservatives.

For almost 90 years, covered women were banned from universities or working in public ­office, according to rules set by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the republic and architect of its secular constitution.

When the ruling AKP, a party founded on conservative Islamic principles, lifted the ban in 2013 secularists were outraged, seeing it as a betrayal of Ataturk’s legacy.

As events like Modest Fashion Week show, Turkey’s conservatives can no longer be pushed to the margins.

Across town, ­another high-­society event took place at the weekend: the ­wedding of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s daughter Sumeyye to Selcuk ­Bayraktar. It was less a family event than a showcase of Turkey’s influence across the Islamic sphere. Guests included Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and former Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri. The bride wore white silk and rhinestones from head to ankles. It was a scene unthinkable 20 years ago.

“In the 1990s if you were ­devout in Turkey and wanted to be stylish you had to get a tailor,” Professor White said.

“Modest Fashion Week shows the self-confidence and creativity of the industry and the women it dresses. Elite Muslim fashion is a billboard for the AKP’s success.”

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