...Let Me Count The Crimes

How much do I love you, darling, you dare ask? Well, at least enough to cough loudly (twice) so that I could rip a page out of the magazine I was reading in the cafe today and ferry it away home to bring to your attention this evening.

It's from the March issue of W, a magazine I rather like (but obviously not enough to pay for it, natch), and an article entitled "Starting the Course", (pg. 230) about young gifted female designers. I was most intrigued by the work of Jasmin Shokrian. Noted:

"Accidentally Yours," began the ad tucked in the classified section of a local Los Angeles newspaper, The LA Weekly. The listing provided a phone number and cryptically asked for nothing more than messages -- from anyone.

Few would have guessed that the ad was the basis of designer Jasmin Shokrian's elegantly avant-garde, eponymous spring collection. "It was based on a six-degrees-of-separation idea," she explains. "One girl called to tell me that her grandfather had passed away that day. It was sad and beautiful that she wanted to talk about it in a recording." She also gave the number to friends, encouraging them to leave messages too. Each day, Shokrian, 31, digitally converted the messages into soundwaves that then became the basis of her paper dress patterns. "I'm also just amazed by the power of sound," she says. "You know the way a song has the ability to completely transport you?"

I find this concept and its integration of technology with artistry to be totally dreamy in a very refreshing manner. I nicked the photo of the groovy dress here (not sure if this one was designed via voicemail, as its from the Fall 2005 collection) from the gorgeous flickr portfolio of someone who goes by 990000 (noted: 990000 also has a v. cool blog I'm currently digging).

Jasmin's official site is blessed with clean lines but is way out of date, although I do love that her bio notes, "Everyday life is my muse."