Hijabi celebrification and Hijab consumption in Brunei and Malaysia

ABSTRACT

Emphasis on authenticity, everydayness, relatability, ordinariness, and networking on Instagram by the young and ordinary at the expense of their privacy has helped them gain ‘micro-celebrity’ status. Such celebrification is influential in shaping the attitudes of young female Muslims towards perceived quality and status-seeking behaviours. In Brunei and Malaysia, the staggering growth of luxury retail brand, dUCkscarves had mobilised the hijab as a statute of class through the intersectionality of religion and progressiveness. Its founder, Vivy Yusof, an avid blogger turned micro-celebrity had consistently channelled brand reminders of dUCkscarves across the Southeast Asian region through Instagram. This paper looks into the influence of Vivy’s celebrity identification, emotional development, and value development towards ensuing audiences that contributed to her successful celebrification. This paper aims to demonstrate the influence of a hijabi celebrification on hijab consumption in Brunei and Malaysia from the perspectives of Vivy as a micro-celebrity. In so doing, we revealed collectivistic identities, shared voices, a sense of belonging, and overall societal transformation enabled by social media.

KEYWORDS:

• Celebrification
• hijab
• Instagram
• Brunei
• Malaysia

Acknowledgments

We thank our colleagues at FASS, Universiti Brunei Darussalam and School of Communication, Taylor’s University who have indirectly helped us in generating new ideas for this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This paper is from an unfunded study.

Notes on contributors

Siti Mazidah Mohamad

Siti Mazidah Mohamad is a Lecturer at Universiti Brunei Darussalam. Her main research interest lies at the intersection of geography, youth, and media and communication studies. Currently, her research centres on youth’s mobilities, youth’s everyday social practices, and their social realities reflected through various new social media platforms. Within this research area, she has studied: mediated Muslim cosmopolitanism; Bruneian youth self-disclosure on social media in the context of online privacy; the rise of social media influencers afforded by digital technologies and their influence on Muslim women’s hijab consumption; Muslims performance of religiosity on social media in the framework of lived Islam; and Brunei’s young Muslims ‘Generation M’ expression of identity on Instagram and YouTube. She has a special interest in youth mobilities, youth development, and affective labour.

Nurzihan Hassim

Nurzihan Hassim is an educator with industry experience in advertising, media and communication who has won various awards from over a decade of teaching and innovative methods to enhance student learning. With keen interest in research in cultural and media studies, Nurzihan had recently completed her PhD in examining the discursive practices of female modesty in Malaysian media where she has also published researches in journals and conference proceedings. Aside from media practices, her research interests lie in advertising, marketing and brand management in the ever-changing social media environment.