Jamileh Kamran’s journey from Iran to iconic fashion designer and Women’s Hall of Fame

LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — The founder and head instructor of the Arkansas Fashion School in Little Rock is being honored next week as she is being inducted into the Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame.

Jamileh Kamran has a passion for fashion.

Starting the Arkansas Fashion School in 2007, she has since aspired to share her gift of fashion with others, allowing them to learn and create their own paths, and was pleasantly surprised when she learned of her nomination to the Women’s Hall of Fame.

“I could not believe that I got it. So I started working on the garments. What to wear, what not to wear?

Her story begins in the Gilan Province of Iran, where her parents encouraged her to pursue her gift for fashion and the arts.

Due to the political unrest in Iran in 1978, her family moved to America in pursuit of education, where she and her husband attended Central Baptist College in Conway.

During this time, she says many people helped them navigate life in the United States, as she continued to look for her niche.

“I’m really a self-trained designer. I didn’t go to big universities. I created, wrote my books – and when I was designing, it was one of a kind.”

Eventually she left college and started her fashion business in a tiny room in their apartment at the time.

As she was raising a baby, working, and acclimating to her new life in the United States, she says she barely slept those years, but has no regrets.

Through her hard work and motivation, she has dressed many public figures, like Hillary Clinton, which was featured in People Magazine.

“It was pretty hard because I was a woman, and I was a foreigner. But yet, I designed for Hillary Clinton. I practiced at my house for eight years because I didn’t have the budget to open a store.”

Kamran recalls what she believes to be a highlight in her career, when she joined the AIDS foundation to help fight the stigma.

She designed a fabric that was made into scarves and ties that were sold to benefit the cause.

Kamran says she her life’s journey has led her to her passion and that there were many obstacles in the way.

She had to prove what she was capable of to herself and her family and says this passion embodies who she is – she cannot see her life without it.

“If I made it, everybody can make it. If there’s passion for it and they work hard, there’s no way people can’t receive what their goal is.”