Tehran artist Mahsa Merci creates unsettling work for troubled times.

"Naturally every artist is inspired by and takes her art from where she grew up — and right now our story is about Iran," she says, as she looks up from glueing thousands of tiny eyelashes onto a pair of white high heels.

The finished product is a little disconcerting — Jimmy Choo meets a giant caterpillar.

"Don't worry," she says, "They're not real eyelashes. I bought them from the beauty salon."

The 29-year-old artist does not make political statements in her work — dissent is not tolerated in Iran — but her art does reflect her nation's troubled times.

"It's all about power and money — and we're victims," says Merci. "We're onlookers, standing around and looking what is happening to us."

Sanctions are biting. They've caused a huge spike in the cost of the raw materials she uses for her art.

"This has been going on for a long time now, for 40 years. I think it's a big game — we're all being played by bigger powers. Iran is a powerful country — it's not like Pakistan or Iraq — and we know the US is a superpower," she says.

Sanctions have ebbed and flowed over the decades, but Merci has lived her entire life under the shadow of US-Iran confrontation.

The relationship between the two nations has been on the rocks since 1979 when religious students stormed the US embassy and imprisoned more than 50 staff members for 444 days.

Fashion statements work around religious requirements

Tehran scarf designer Niki Esmaili says economic sanctions have made it more difficult to source raw materials and keep her prices down. ( ABC News: Tom Hancock )

Iran is not a free society. It makes headlines for its hard-line policies, like crackdowns on mixed-gender parties, or arrests at private yoga classes, or even the detention of environmentalists as spies but some aspects of life in Tehran are less conservative than you might expect.

Women must wear headscarves in public, but the rules about covering hair aren't uniformly enforced or adhered to. Headscarfs are often barely there, draped over the back of the head, with no real attempt to cover hair.

Religious police stationed in public squares regularly stop women to tell them to adjust their scarves, but on the streets of progressive areas like North Tehran women mostly wear the scarves as they want.

Tehran scarf designer Niki Esmaili says only the most conservative women wear their scarves as a religious statement.

Iranian women often opt for the 'barely there' look with their headscarfs. ( ABC News: Tom Hancock )

"The people who are very religious must not show a single strain of hair," she says.

"They wrap their scarf all the way around their head and use a pin or something to tie.

"But apart from all the people who believe in the religious aspect, it doesn't really say anything. How you wear it just depends on how relaxed you are, or how you're used to wearing it."

While women in Iran are required to wear headscarfs, the rules about covering hair are not uniformly enforced. ( ABC News: Tom Hancock )

She, too, says her business is affected by US sanctions.

"In my job, I need to have access to raw material. Previously I could always find Iranian fabric for cotton scarves, but for silk, I would have to use imported goods. Right now, because of the limitations, material like this is harder to find and more expensive to get," she says.

"It's hard to sell things for reasonable prices and keep customers happy."

Women still cautious despite wriggling room

One woman who enjoys skating in central Tehran says her life could be difficult if she was identified. ( ABC News: Tom Hancock )

We also find some young women skateboarders in central Tehran. Incredibly, one 21-year-old skates without a headscarf.

This would have been unthinkable for most of the past 40 years since the Islamic Revolution and elevation of Ayatollah Khomeini to Iran's Supreme Leader.

"Skating gives me a good feeling. It's relaxing, all this energy I've got inside me I can get out of my system, " says the young skater.

"I can do it only in Tehran," she says.

"In other major cities, girls can't do this without getting harassed by officials. Hopefully, in Tehran, we can do this.

"It's not accepted in our society to see women do sports like this. I do it without wearing the hijab — and not all the people like that I do it."

After we finish the interview and take a portrait photograph, the young woman has second thoughts and asks us not to identify her.

"It will make life very difficult for me," she says.