I had the pleasure to sit down with Jasmin Shokrian one breezy summer afternoon in Los Angeles to talk about her newly launched Draft no17 collection and the trunk show that we are doing together. Over a glass of chilled Rose, I uncover that she has a fine arts back ground, her new blog that will documents her studio she works out of and her secret spots in Los Angeles.

JL: So you are going to do a trunk show with us on the 27th of August.
JS: Yes, we are very excited about it.
JL: Hopefully it will be fun and successful. So tell us a little bit about where you are from and how did you get into fashion design.
JS: I was born here in Los Angeles and grew up here mostly. I left many times.  I went to a boarding school in Switzerland for a couple of years during high school, and college at the Arts Institute of Chicago.
JL: What was your major in college?
JS: Its an interdisciplinary school, that is why I chose to go there. I had originally applied to RIHS for apparel design but had decided to go to Art Institute instead because I wanted an interdisciplinary degree. I went there for painting mainly and studied film and sculpture as well.
JL: Do you still paint?
JS: I still paint. Its actually something I am doing again which I am excited about. So I always thought I was going to be a contemporary artist. I was more interested in pursuing an arts career. To be honest, I never really wanted to be a designer. I was always against it, although I was always into fashion. It was a large part of my life. My mother made my clothes when I was growing up.
JL: Why were you not into design?
JS: In art school, you were always taught that design was a bad word, at least when I was in school. The 2 things did not mix, but I don’t believe in that anymore. In fact I think they cross over in such a huge way now that it makes both mediums far more interesting.
JL: Art is more personal, and in design you have other human considerations, more pragmatic in a way.
JS: you have to be practical sometimes in both senses now. If you think about it, artists today have to be really clear about who their demographic is, which changes the understanding of what art is. But I think its shifting that way.
JL: So how exactly did you get into fashion design again?
JS: Well basically when I was growing up, my mother was always making clothes. She went to fashion school. She would get fabrics from around the world and make dresses for herself. She came from a very social background, especially in the Persian community in Los Angeles in the 70s.  There were always lots of social events and parties happening.  She would make dresses for herself and make me clothing too. It was like magic. There was this folded fabric and I would wake up and there was a dress in the morning. It was such an amazing thing to watch my mother working at her sewing machine and became really fascinated with it. So I was always very interested in fashion. I worked on many different angles: I worked in retail, as a stylist, in showrooms and as an assistant buyer. But I always shied away from being taught fashion.  That was why I went to art school for film and painting. But I started doing sculpture towards the end and working with fabric. Fabrics became a very interesting medium for me. That led me to start doing interior object with my friend Shane, who now has line Creatures of the Wind.
JL: when was that?
JS: That was in 2000 in Chicago.
JL: What was the name of the line?
JS: Shokrian Gabier. It did really well. We really wanted to make clothing but there was not a market for clothing in Chicago at the time and we both loved interior object and were surrounded with friends that did interior at the time.  And I worked for a gallery that sold interior object. In 2001 I put a little line of handmade tops together and in 2002 I came back to LA and sold to a couple of stores here. Maxfield bought it and it gave me the validation that I should continue the line. They were very supportive. In 2003, it developed into a full collection, which we then started to sell to Barneys.
JL: And you were working out of your apartment at the time.
JS: I was actually working out of my bedroom
JL: And your mom was sewing everything.
JS: yes, it was very homegrown business.
JL: You have come a long way. Now you have a very nice and huge studio.
JS: Thank you. I like my studio. It is actually one of the reasons why I stayed in LA. I have this space that I really love and to work out of.
JL: Do you miss doing other things?
JS: No, right now, and for quite sometime, it’s the best medium for my ideas. It made the most sense.  Being an interdisciplinary artist, which is how I like to think of myself still, the ideas dictate the medium. I was doing very conceptual things. I was making collections that were narrative. I would think of an idea that was narrative, I would make up a story and design surrounding the story.
JL: Can you give us an example?
JS: One of the first collections I made was based on these accidentally voicemails that was left for me.  I started thinking how you receive messages that you were not supposed to receive. I love the happenstance aspects of that. So I decided to make a collection out of this. I had people leave me messages on a voicemail that tells stories about things that had happened to them that was coincidental and I made voice patterns from the messages to make shapes for the collection. That was not something that even other people needed to know. It is not something that other people needed to know, that was just my process and a good way for me to push out interesting ideas. I worked like that for quite some time. But now it has become more artisanal. Now its more about the medium itself, the kinds of fabric itself, the kind of fabrics, the association with the fabric. I enjoy putting those together and creating interesting textures and shapes. So for my Draft collection it is about this simplistic idea.
JL: When did you start the Draft Collection?
JS: I started it this year and it retails for the first time this fall.
JL: Tell us a little bit about how that came about and what is the idea behind Draft 17.
JS: I really wanted to re-establish this freedom that I had when I first started designing. The pace of fashion is so quick and ideas get turn out so quickly that I kind of want to be able to focus on something for a longer period of time. There are many ideas that I have in my main collection that does not get explored long enough.
And I really want to work through those ideas for a longer period of time.  Especially the more casual ideas, and if people like the shape, they can get it again the following season in another color. I just like the idea that you can pack the collection into a suitcase and where it all the time, day to night.
JL: So this is an avenue for you to tap into ideas you were not able to tap into with your main collection.
JS: Yea and more people too. Its something that more people can understand and afford, and that you can get more of an everyday use out of.
JL: How do you see it developing in the future?
JS: I want to see this expanding into a lifestyle brand. Exploring other mediums under the same label, like pottery for example, so we can appreciate the artisanal quality of design.
JL: Whom are you designing for when you are working on Draft no17?
JS: At first I think about the women I know and how they like to wear the clothes and where they wear it. But I just want more people to be able to enjoy this collection. This year it’s the slip dress idea; next season will be something else. We want to continue on the idea of collaborating with artist. We did a video this year for the concept of the collection this year that will be shown for fashion week.
JL: Tell us a little bit about what is the main influence for this season.
JS: the main fabric we use this season is silk voile to expand on the idea of the silk dress. The many ways you can wear it, what would you wear under or over it, on your legs. We made sandals and overcoat jackets, for example when the weather gets cold. Again, it’s a strict formula that I am working with. And in Draft I get to explore color that I don’t get to do in the main collection. We are working on a blog for people to understand the process of how we develop
Expanding on the opportunity for people to understand how we are working in the studio. I am starting on a blog call BLACK SHEEP, black sheep herder. People can log in and see the different fabrics we are working with, things that goes on in the studio in the day, films and images that inspire me.
JL: That’s very interesting, coz you never get the process side of the designer and people are always very interested in the studios of artists and designers, the environment where they work in.
JS: I agree, I think the studio is a large part of what we do, so its important for people learn about who works in the studio, who is a part of the process.  We don’t want everyone to know everything, but there are definitely wonderful aspects to the process and the product that people don’t get to see before the finished garment. I know I would enjoy seeing in.
JL: Especially for something that is so simple. Its nice to see what thought process was put into it. So since you are from LA, can you recommend places or new discovers of the city?
JS: I definitely have my mainstays. I go to my usual galleries, and I really like the Hammer Museum in Westwood. I tend to go to 6150 gallery coz I a have a lot of friends there. Arundel bookstore on Beverly is really great, they great selections of design and photo books. The man there is really nice and lets me sit and design there sometimes. I also really like to take my car and drive out to the closest desert and forest. There are so many great places in LA.
JL: Yes, there really are. What is the nearest forest?
JS: That’s a secret. I also like the new Machine Project Gallery in Echo Park, they have fun and interesting cultural events there.