Jasmin Shokrian: In Detail
Tuesday, May 19, 2009 at 8:57 PM 
Photo by Yuri Gripas / Reuters
Is it just us, or does Mrs. O's wardrobe grow more exciting by the day? The recent introduction of new names and aesthetics thoroughly delights. One such fabulous example: Jasmin Shokrian.
Last week Mrs. O wore a skirt by the L.A. based designer for her appearance in front of the Corporation for National and Community Service.
Trained at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in film, sculpture and painting, Ms. Shokrian infuses her varied artistic background into her designs.
Podium-pained, we were unable to get a clear view of Mrs. O's skirt, but intrigued by its description: “The fabric is primarily a vintage double silk crepe. The sheer part of the skirt is a band of handmade caught burlap thread encased in silk chiffon and navy silk charmeuse stripes juxtaposed with bands of natural cotton muslin.”
Fortunately, Ms. Shokrian had a collection photo on hand (pictured after the jump), which gives us a better sense of the wonderful detail in this piece. She was also so kind to answer a few of our questions:
Q: Mrs. O's skirt is part of your A/W 2009 collection. What was the inspiration?
JS: For me, this season was about elements of craft mixed with something futuristic. I often piece together narratives to create an imaginary story and work from that. It may be a difficult time for the world, but when we look back I think we'll find that it was a great time of evolution and creativity. This is was really got me thinking about the mix of heritage hand-crafted items and more sleek futuristic aspects. We can slow down a little and take a deeper look at what we are capable of doing and what really makes us happy. I wanted to look at all of these elements, textures I am drawn to and the feelings art can bring us.
Q: What made you mix burlap and silk chiffon, muslin and silk charmeuse?
JS: I often like to incorporate "high and low" textures, but honestly I just felt it was more symbolic at this time. I love to play with the associations that different fabrics have. Muslin and burlap are working fabrics and a bit humble, rough and architectural by association, especially in comparison to silks and delicate fabrics like chiffon. The juxtaposition is what I'm interested in. I feel it's kind of a reflection of our everyday lives. A detailed collection photo of the Jasmin Shokrian skirt follows after the jump.
Image used with kind permission from Jasmin Shokrian
Jasmin Shokrian in Outfits
Reader Comments (116)
There is such a beautiful black and white photo headshot of Michelle at time(dot)com. The interview is also posted. Wow, she looks beautiful!
Excerpt from the Time interview---it's a great read, interesting questions, and you'll start your day off with a smile---we have a wonderful First Lady, and I never worry these days about how she handles clothing criticisms and the like:
Regarding her choice to go sleeveless at the address to Congress:
"No, well, that's part of the process. But does that change what I do, who I am? No. The one thing that I said in one of the interviews, which is one of my personal philosophies and it didn't come from this experience, it just came over life, is that in life you've got to make choices that make sense for you, because there's always going to be somebody who'll think you should do something differently.
So you might as well start with what you like, and what you care about, what your passions are, what makes sense. That's my message to women, if anything, over the course of this, is, find your space. Find your spot. Wear what you love. Choose the careers that may have meaning to you, because there's always somebody who will say, I wouldn't have worn that color, or why didn't you work at that job.
But if you're comfortable in the choice and it resonates with you, then all that other stuff ... it's just conversation. People have the right to have conversations. But I think that's one thing we as women sometimes do; we don't make choices that have meaning to us. And then when those things fall apart, you have to have yourself to fall back on. You have to own the choices that you make, and hopefully they're yours to begin with."
Don't forget to look at the sideshow of her at Time.There are some new pictures in it well at least to me they are.
Whatevs. Leah D it seems like your not going to budge in your opinions or even considerthe truth behind some of the other point of views given so I'm just going to drop the subject and move on to lighter things.
Anyway, Michelle looks great in Time mag. I love the new behind the scenes photo from her recent trip to NYC.
OK. River Rush - I would choose the tight black dress and little black cardigan from the date night in Prague. The shape was sumptuous and Mrs O's hair and make-up on that occasion was breathtaking - it'd be wonderful to have that captured in a portrait.
@ Leah D - Truce. I understand where you are coming from. I hope you can understand where black folks are coming from too regarding celebrating Mrs. O's skin tone and success.
Neither do I know how this thread got sidetracked from the skirt into this black-white thing...but...at risk of beating a dead horse, just let me say how glad I (as a white woman--no surprise, eh?) am that Mrs. Obama is the focus of such attention in the white AND black communities. For far too long, for reasons I have yet to understand--too much attention has been paid by both parties to AA actresses, singers, celebrities, and women who have accomplished little, contributed little, and earned little but the most base attention. In Mrs. Obama, whether one cares for her/her husband's politics or not, we all have someone to admire for her professional and personal accomplishments, her dedication to husband and family, and yes, even her self-discipline (see: 90-min workouts!!).
I was just going to let Leah D's "explanation" go without comment because I think her reasoning has such a very obvious and disingenuous flaw. But here goes anyway -- the obvious flaw:
If Whites had not dominated in all those areas for centuries, there would have been no need for minority groups to have their own award shows, etc.
This is my last comment on the subject.
"You have to own the choices that you make, and hopefully they’re yours to begin with.”
Fantastic! Sums it all up doesn't it?!
Willow, yes. Completely got that.
I would like to ask another question though. Would you talk to me about it via email or are you really through with this conversation? Completely understand if you are.
Erm, what else was I going to say? Oh yes, that I love that Mrs T has put the "Wear what you love" quote up on the front page. Now perhaps we won't have to have endless conversations about whether Mrs O makes choices for Reason A, B, C, D, or E, but we know that really, she wears what she wants to. And hurrah for that, I say.
Posh Tater - I'd love to talk with you about this. I'm not sure what you mean by "via email". Do you mean here? Do you mean by private email? If you'd like to go off-line with it, that would be great, but I'm not sure how to proceed with that without making at least one of email addresses public. Let me know. Love your posts.
I just got a call from my "African Son". Love that. My "son" (who spontaneously began to call me "mother", so we've adopted each other) is a brilliant, small-statured man in his early 40's who looks about 25. He is black as the night and gorgeous. He has the cutest accent, and a very painful and heroic life-story. Anyway, I love having him and his family in my life. I just wanted to share that with whoever might read this.
Looking forward to hearing from you, Post Tater.
Mrs T, would you be so kind as to put Willow and I in touch via email? Many thanks. PTx
As long as this thread has been a bit derailed, I am going to share an amusing site I just found. Those who are interested in fashion history - or in just reminiscing about their own fashion past - will enjoy this:
http://www.fashion-era.com/index.htm
Can Mrs. T do that? It would be great. Very little gets through my spam filters. I have added @Mrs.-O.org to my whitelist, hoping that if I get an email from Mrs. T., it will get through. Then, I will need to add you to my whitelist as soon as I know your email address, so I can get yours.
Hopefully we'll be in touch soon. (smile)
Yes she can. She's a veritable marvel.
Jasmin Shokrian is having a trunk show at Creatures of Comfort in Los Angeles tomorrow Thursday August 27 from 6pm to 9pm, we hope to see you there:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=145835177931&ref=nf