Over cups of black cardamom tea, a group of young women try on glamorous high-fashion dresses and discuss which ensemble would be best for Friday's mehmouni, or party.
The women are in an Iranian maison – "house" in French – a private retail space of a type often located in the proprietor's home, making way for headscarves to come undone, revealing blonde highlights and carefully crafted hairdos. Manicured nails, groomed eyebrows, and faces full of thick make-up all go to show the extent to which Iranian women will go to look good everyday.
Tucked away behind closed doors, maisons cater to a middle- and upper-class clientele, providing a more comfortable shopping experience than do publicly accessible boutiques. They also afford Iranian women a prime opportunity to generate income in a patriarchal society where they are discouraged from working or have to struggle to secure a decent job. Many women involved in the retail business start out selling from home to avoid the expense of renting a store. With its relatively low startup costs, the maison scene facilitates the emergence of new fashion talent, as well.
"All over the place, every week you hear new names and especially young ladies who don't even have that much money," says Dorsai, who ran Moonlight, a custom clothing design business, from 2004 to 2009. "They start with a few garments. They sell them to their friends and family from home and gradually their business grows. It's a new revelation for Iranian women – making an income and being a bit more independent."
Dorsai ran Moonlight from her home in northern Tehran. Now living abroad, she frequently travels back to Iran and stays connected with the maison scene. Comfort, in her view, is the number one benefit that derives from selling and shopping for clothes in a domestic setting. "Iran is an Islamic country, so women have to kind of suffer in heat to have hejab all the while when they are out," she says. "The best part of working at home is you and your costumers are free."
Moonlight specialised in everyday clothing for women looking for fashionable styles of Islamic dress. After studying at the London College of Fashion, Dorsai came back to Iran with ideas about how to spruce up the traditional dowdy manteau – a long, form-concealing coat, customarily black. She used bright, rich colours and embellished garments with characteristically Persian patterns inspired by the fabled architecture of Isfahan and clothing styles from the Safavid and Qajar periods.
Dorsai promoted her designs by advertising in local magazines and making calls to existing customers. Much of the time, maisons grow by word of mouth. "My customers themselves, they were my best advertisers. Around town they looked good, different, and people asked them where they got their manteaus," she says.
Doing her own sewing at first, Dorsai eventually hired a staff of five male tailors to quickly produce her in-demand manteaus, which sold for 40,000 to 120,000 tomans (roughly $50 to $150 at the time). Due to sanctions' effect on fabric imports, the prices varied over the years. Overall, maison prices at the high end are similar to those at boutiques, especially for custom-made designs like those at Moonlight.
Since last year, Parinaz has owned the maison Günes, which means "sun" in Turkish. As an Iranian of Turkish decent, she decided to make her brand stand out by selling clothes only from Turkey. The items in her line, mostly fancy party dresses and youthful urban wear, used to come to Iran through a qhachaqhchi, or smuggler, who brought them illegally across the Turkish border – a well-trafficked smuggling route. The last such transaction fell through, however, when the qhuachaqhchi failed to deliver. "Half of our clothes did not arrive," says Parinaz. "It is a hard thing to do. These are the risks." Now, she will travel to Turkey to bring the clothing back herself and run the possibility of paying a fine at the airport.
Due to the failed deal and the rising rent of the office space in northern Tehran where her maison was originally located, Parinaz recently moved Günes into her home. She and her husband remodeled their house to keep store operations separate from their personal space. Anyway, she says, she is serving fewer customers as women cut back on luxury purchases – another issue that can be traced back to the effect of sanctions.
"Most of the famous maison holders that I know are either single or widowed ladies who are doing this business to support themselves," says Neda, who sings and plays the tambour in a traditional music ensemble. She is a client of the Ferdows Collection, whose proprietor, Narciss Akbary, makes clothing in a style that melds modern bohemian and traditional eastern, in vogue among Tehran's monied intellectuals and artists. Her collection, which she both designs and produces in India, features bright tunics, long dresses, harem pants, and scarves adorned with Indian prints.
For the last five months, Akbary has sold her Ferdows line out of a branded boutique located in northern Tehran's Alborz Mall. The mall is currently being remodeled, and Akbary's store is one of just a few that remains open on its upper level. She plans to temporarily move her sales operation back home, and rent a new storefront once the mall starts filling up again. Having previously sold out of her home for about eight years, she still appreciates the advantages of operating in a private residence.
"The house has no problems," she says. "In Iran, people really like to socialise. When you go to a store, you have to buy something and leave and you can't socialise. When you go to a home, you can drink tea, eat your pastry, and talk to your friend. It's cooler in temperature. They can take off their headscarf, look at the clothes, buy some clothes, and it's very fun."
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