Reframing Fashion Show Management as a System: A Shariah-Compliant Perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24191/idealogy.v11i2.1009Keywords:
Fashion show management, Shariah compliance, backstage and front stage, modest fashion, Malaysian fashion industryAbstract
This paper reconceptualises fashion-show management as an integrated operational system from a Shariah-compliant perspective within the Malaysian fashion industry. Existing fashion-show scholarship has predominantly focused on spectacle, branding, visual communication, and audience experience, while modest- and Islamic-fashion studies have largely emphasised garments, identity, consumption, and representation. Consequently, limited attention has been given to the integration of backstage management, front-stage management, and Shariah principles within a unified management framework. Adopting a qualitative conceptual research design, this study employs an integrative literature review and thematic synthesis of relevant scholarship on fashion-show production, backstage and front-stage operations, modest and Islamic fashion, and Islamic ethics. The conceptual synthesis generates four principal findings. First, backstage and front-stage management function as interdependent operational domains connected through people, garments, information, technologies, and production decisions. Second, backstage management represents a particularly sensitive ethical-operational domain involving dressing procedures, spatial and privacy management, staff and model coordination, and media access. Third, visual modesty does not independently demonstrate comprehensive Shariah compliance because operational processes may require separate ethical evaluation. Fourth, Shariah principles should function as an embedded governance layer informing both backstage and front-stage management through modesty and aurah protection, privacy and dignity, ethical responsibility, and gender-sensitive interaction. Based on these findings, the paper proposes a preliminary conceptual framework that shifts Shariah-compliant fashion-show assessment from a garment-centred perspective towards a system-level management approach. The framework provides a theoretical foundation for subsequent empirical examination and may support the future development of ethically informed management practices and industry guidelines in Malaysia.
Keywords: Fashion-show management; Shariah governance; backstage management; front-stage management; modest fashion; Malaysian fashion industry
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