Ranny Rastati HIJAB COSPLAY TO HIJAB FASHION INDUSTRY IN INDONESIA 211 ASJI Symposium, October 2017 HIJAB COSPLAY TO HIJAB FASHION INDUSTRY IN INDONESIA Ranny Rastati chibi_ranran@yahoo.com Research Center for Society and Culture, Indonesian Intitute of Sciences (P2KK-LIPI) Abstract A few years back, the hijab fashion has a significant development both in Indonesia and the world, including Japan. The emergence of various young designers such as Dian Pelangi, Jenahara, and Hana Tajima has a high contribution to introduced hijab fashion to audiences. Japan itself held the first fashion show for Muslim women in 2016. In line with hijab fashion progress, in the cosplay world also has the same phenomenon in several years back which known as Hijab cosplay. The problem is, whether hijab cosplay can evolve into a part of hijab fashion industry. The study was conducted with in-depth interviews and observation in informants’ social media accounts; Facebook and Instagram. The result showed that hijab cosplay industry is still a household industry. Generally, has not become the main source of income and consider as a freelance job. Nevertheless, there is a great opportunity for hijab cosplay hijab to thrive into hijab fashion industry both national and international scale. Keywords: hijab cosplay, hijab fashion industry, Indonesian hijabi, Japan pop culture, Introduction “What is hijab? How it goes? Why do women wear hijab? Why do some women not wear hijab? Is it symbol of women oppression? Can women be creative although wrapped by hijab?” might be questions that surfaced in some audiences who do not encounter frequently with hijab. Hijab (ﺣﺠﺎب) or headscarf is an Arabic word means “cover”. Cover the head is showing modesty. Muslim women who choose to wear hijab have a variety of reasons. Some women wear hijab as a sign of love to God because God has instructed women to wear it in Al-Qur’an or the holy book of Muslims that include life guidance revealed from God to Muhammad through angel Gabriel. Meanwhile, some Muslim women do not cover their head as personal choice for many reasons. Culturally, Indonesia has no custom of cover the whole body including the head (Brenner in Hisham et al, 2015). In Indonesia, Islam encounter with local culture proved not to have a confrontation. Since the arrival of Islam is accompanied by ethics of preach. In the case of covering awrah (the intimate parts of the human body must be covered by clothing), Islam acculturates with local custom to cover the awrah. In Java, for example, women still wear Kebaya while adding veil to cover the hair (Hisyam et al, 2015: 23).