Pashmam Designs

Navigating Politics, Representation, and Aesthetics

by Ava Azadi

The word pashmam will land differently depending on which Persian demographic you say it to. Your grandparents will probably go pale at the sound of it, but it’ll resonate instantly with your cousin in Iran. Pashmam, which translates to “my body hair”, and, in some contexts, “pubic hair”, has taken on a life of its own with the help of Sophia Parizadeh and Melica Baboldashtian, students at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Santa Cruz respectively.

Inspired by the streetwear aesthetic, moved by traditional Iranian culture, and displaying the slang of the Iranian youth, Parizadeh and Baboldashtian’s clothing brand Pashmam takes traditional elements of Iranian culture and incorporates them into a modern and youthful design. The origin of the idea came about in the second home of any college student: the library. While searching the internet for hoodies related to Iranian culture, they mainly found products that displayed only surface-level symbols representing it.

I found myself reflecting on that point and thinking about the Persian representation I myself had seen in the media growing up. Raised in Southern California, where the Persian population is far from small, the Persian media my friends and I mainly consumed were memes about different stereotypes relating to Persian family dynamics, Persian romance, and Persian food. From one post about the toxic Persian boy with a BMW, to another about the Persian girl with a nose job, I came to see the concept of “Persian youth” as something to ridicule. The “Persian girl” I came to know through the media had highlights, a dad who spoiled her, gold jewelry, and only wore black. While I did like to identify with some parts of that, I also felt like my Persian identity meant more to me than the one-dimensional caricatures found online.

While looking into this topic, I tried to re-examine the Persian representation I saw, especially in relation to fashion. I found brands more focused on the traditional aspects of Iranian culture like the Persis Collection; more hip brands like LaTEE; and clothing produced more recently with Woman, Life, Freedom as its centerpiece. While some brands still felt shallow, I did find more pieces that I felt resonated with me aesthetically while still capturing the more complex elements of Iranian culture. It seems that the gap in quality Persian representation in clothing and fashion is starting to be felt and countered on a wider scale.

For Parizadeh and Baboldashtian, the gap between the youth of Iran and the Persian diaspora is where the most promise lies. “We felt like we needed to hold the diaspora to a higher standard, the Persian youth culture that’s booming right now is so khafan and cool and it’s just a shame that the diaspora isn’t really connected to that,” Parizadeh said.

The Persian youth culture she is referring to is a generation searching for individual freedom, expression, and recreation, despite the restrictions placed on them by the Islamic Republic, all while still staying committed to the culture, community, and people with which they have grown up. In using the slang of this demographic, Pashmam aims to add depth to the concept of Persian youth, and connect Iranian-American youth to an aspect of modern Iranian culture that they cannot access through their parents or through the media.

There has also been a recent spotlight on the Iranian population in American media, especially on the youth, due to the nationwide protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini and the ensuing violations of civil rights by the Islamic Republic. With this as their only representation in the media, it is far too easy for the younger Iranian generation to be reduced to politics and statistics. The Pashmam creators, aware of the problem, are interested in working against it.

“In a way it’s showing that we’re more than the trauma, we’re more than the violence,” Parizadeh said. “By giving [the Iranian youth] representation, we’re making sure that people are thinking about them, [reminding them that] those kids back in Iran are saying this stuff with their friends.” With these aspirations in mind, Parizadeh and Baboldashtian launched their first line of Pashmam hoodies on February 22nd, 2023, with the slang word “pashmam” printed on the front in Persian, and “gangashoon balas” (“their gang is up high”, i.e. strong, on the up-and-up, cool, etc.) on the back, with a painting of a group of women dressed in traditional Iranian attire.

While Parizadeh and Baboldashtian had faced setbacks in the development process, their biggest challenge came on launch day. As soon as the website went up, customers contacted them, complaining that they couldn’t purchase the merchandise.

“We got an email from Shopify with questions about our relation to Iran […] they were about whether we are working with anyone based in Iran or if we get our products from there,” Baboldashtian said. “Their policy doesn’t let us ship any of the products to Iran or send any of the funds there.”

After posting about the delay on their social media accounts, they got messages from many other Iranian creators who said they faced similar limitations. As a result of the protests in Iran and the sanctions against it, any association with the country, even in the United States, comes with complications, which have ironically confined the abilities of Iranian youth and creators trying to uplift and to represent their community.

“They froze our account and they still have not given us any updates about it, but thankfully we’ve found a loophole through PayPal,” Baboldashtian said. She talked about how Shopify’s guidelines spoiled their plans for upcoming lines, as they had planned to take the brand to Iran and show the Persian youth wearing it there.

Despite these limitations and complications, Pashmam has seen its fair share of success. The first launch has now sold out, and several of the brand’s TikTok videos have obtained more than 10 thousand views, with one even reaching 90 thousand. Comments on their TikTok account have users from all over California and the world supporting the brand and asking if the company shipped to their region.

One of the more surprising moments of their success was how responsive Tik Tok users were to Baboldashtian’s father modeling the Pashmam hoodie. “He’s just wearing the hoodie, going about his day, but the way he carries himself, his confidence, just gives off major like — like — gangashoon balas,” Parizadeh said.

Pashmam has also been very meaningful for both Parizadeh and Baboldashtian themselves in various ways.

For Baboldashtian, starting a business has always been a goal and incorporating her Iranian identity into that aspiration has changed the game for her.

“I started with hot chocolate, then scrunchies, then even shower heads, but I wasn’t excited about any of that,” she said. “With Pashmam, I love our culture, I love learning about our culture, and I just love the creativity behind it, so it’s been very exciting putting work into it.”

For Parizadeh, Pashmam has infiltrated all aspects of her life. The support for the brand has built her confidence in her creative ambitions and opened up many opportunities to socialize with the Iranian community. “This is like an escape from reality… it’s my therapy, it’s my creative outlet, it’s my social life,” she said.

The brand seems to occupy a larger space than imagined by the creators. Its story speaks of Iran’s politics, and how the oppressive regime is not only suppressing the Iranian population but the diaspora in America as well, bringing to light the collective pain they endure as a population regardless of location. The brand opens up conversations about representation, what more complex representation means, and what it does for Iranian and Iranian-American youth. It also touches on the future and the attempt by Iranian-Americans to embrace their culture in a way that is both interesting and empowering. The effort to add a modern twist to traditional components of Iranian culture ensures its propagation and extends its reach to new media and contexts, which hopefully will represent it well.

“We really loved the Iranian Student Union community [at UC Santa Cruz] and it was really hard to leave, it was really depressing,” Baboldashtian said. “But with Pashmam,” Parizadeh added, “we’ve fostered our own space that can go further than Berkeley or further than Santa Cruz.” □