A sketch of one of the late-’20s fashion designer’s collections, which used Iranian and nomadic motifs. The current Newsweek flashes a soft light on a fashion show in Iran.

While Iran’s strict Islamic dress code requires women to wear the form—hiding manteau overcoat and a hijab that covers the hair, there is a quietly growing demand for homegrown haute couture. Despite an unprecedented security crackdown following the summer’s disputed presidential election, a network of high-end underground fashion designers, photographers, and models continue their subversive work, sketching, cutting patterns, conducting fittings, and strutting the catwalk in secret locations.

More independent-minded Iranian women remind us that showing of female skin — even modestly — is threatening to Iran’s theocracy.

While the government demands complaince, there aren’t sufficient resources in the Internet age to keep determined Iranian women dressed according to the style-dictates of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And so they take risks in the name of fashion independence and self-determination.

I want to flush out more of this story and will post over in Smart Sensuality. See Newsweek: Iranian Fashion Thrives Underground.