Guardian of the Galaxy

For Jasmine Sokko, fashion is an extension of her music, marking every change of season. The singer, songwriter and music producer shares insights into her creative vision and futuristic fascinations in worldbuilding and artificial intelligence with this exclusive access inside the Sokkoverse

- Hashirin Nurin Hashimi

Sci-fi. Futuristic. Star Wars. Dune. These are the keywords that Jasmine Sokko shares with the Tatler team on the mood board for the photo shoot for this story. Rarely do we meet a cover subject who gives such specific input, but Sokko is faithful to her creative vision, often looking to the cinematic universe for inspiration, be it in her music or fashion.

Apart from the big picture, the singer, who is known for her monochromatic ensembles and signature masks, respectfully leaves the creative direction, including the splash of Dune-esque neutrals inspired by the two-part film adaptation of Frank Herbert's 1965 sci-fi novel of the same name, to the team. And looking at the images in the spread, we can safely say that the team, along with artificial intelligence (AI) artist Karyn Lim, who created the futuristic backgrounds, delivered to brief.

"I'm a very conceptual person," Sokko tells us when we sit down for this interview. The soft-spoken soloist, who also writes and produces her own music, is chirpy and cheerful, showing no signs of tiredness despite an almost eight-hour shoot. "I always start with the big picture-and that gives me something to work towards. For the execution, it's actually not too different from what I'd imagined for a magazine shoot. I create tons of decks [and mood boards], and go to great lengths about research."

Sokko offers further insight into her creative process. "So let's say I'm making a song about the solar system. I'd dive into all the songs that have been written about the topic, all the books, all the fashion, and all the different projects," she shares. "I like to think of myself as a machine learning robot. While I'm creating and working on a concept, I'm actually learning a lot on my own, as I input all of this data."