Bijan dies suddenly of stroke at age 67

The Iranian-born Pakzad, who was known universally simply as Bijan, made high-end clothing for numerous celebrities, politicians and other notables.  He suffered a massive stroke last Thursday and was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.  

“Today, Saturday April 16th 2011, at 8:05 am our dear Dr. Bijan Pakzad passed away peacefully with his family members at his side,” said a recorded audio statement prepared by the luxury clothing store that the multi-millionaire designer ran in Beverly Hills.  Bijan’s Rodeo Drive boutique is reputed to be the most expensive store in the world.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 2003, Bijan—who at the time enjoyed more than $70 million in annual reported sales from his fragrance lines, clothes and custom jewelry—said, “What was important to me was not to have 2 million clients, like Versace, but to have 20,000 clients.” 

Bijan said he had invoices of clients who spent $800,000 on a single visit to his boutique.  “The cornerstone of my success has been to do less but to do it better than anybody else,” he said.

Bijan’s fabrics, like his clientele, were exclusive; the cotton used to create the clothing he designed was ordered from Egypt and produced in Switzerland. The English wool was woven in Yorkshire, England, and his garments cut in Carrera, Italy. No more than 16 copies of each clothing design were made, making his pieces highly unique.

When he moved to the US in 1973, he initially wanted to set up a shop in New York, but ultimately settled in Los Angeles because he saw southern California as a greater challenge.  He told Town and Country magazine, “I saw an even bigger challenge to establish myself as a tastemaker in California, where the uniform is the T-shirt and shorts.”

But Bijan still had his eye on New York, and he opened his second showroom on New York’s Fifth Avenue in 1983.

In addition to designing clothing, he teamed up with Rolls Royce to custom-design 30 Limited-Edition models costing more than $1 million each. Reflecting Bijan’s taste and creativity, these luxury vehicles were custom-designed for the world’s most powerful people spanning 20 different countries.

His clients included Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, actors Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Cruise and Anthony Hopkins.  His clientele also included royalty like the Queen of England, tech moguls like Bill Gates, sports stars like Michael Jordan and fellow fashion designers Giorgio Armani, Tom Ford and Oscar de la Renta.

Nicolas Pakzad, the late designer’s 19-year-old son, told the Los Angeles Times, “He’s dressed over 40,000 clients.  We have a picture of all five living presidents wearing his suits.” 

Bijan boasted of his Iranian heritage, saying that his “roots and thoughts” are Iranian.  In an interview with the Iran Times in October 1998, Bijan said: “My nationality as an Iranian has helped me 100 percent in introducing a level of taste and energy. Many avenues have been opened for me to meet and talk with very important political leaders of the world regarding my country.”

Cynthia Miller, the former in-house art director at Bijan Fragrances, told the Iran Times in 1998, “Most people know about Bijan’s Persian background because he’s so proud of it. He’s still mistaken for being Italian or French, and he always corrects people and tells them that he is Iranian. Bijan has many Persian employees and celebrates the Persian New Year as well as Christmas and Hanukkah. He uses a lot of analogies from Persian culture. And he’s a great storyteller. I’ve worked for this man for 12 years, and I can tell you that he has a heart of gold. Even though he’s tied up with kings and presidents, he’s very down to earth.” 

Bijan was born in Tehran in 1944.  His father sent him to engineering school in Stuttgart, Germany, but Bijan ultimately chose to study fashion production in Switzerland and Italy before immigrating to the United States in 1973.  The company’s website quotes Bijan as saying: “The world said to conform, the world said to settle for less, the world said to compromise and no one would know,… so I made my own world.”

Friends and clients, including former President George W. Bush and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, have been sending flowers, cards and emails to the Rodeo Drive store.

“The whole world is going to miss him,” Manijeh Messa, who had worked with Pakzad for 44 years, told the Beverly Hills Patch. “The Persian community is devastated.  He was a leader to, and the pride of, Persians around the world.”

Bijan is survived by three children from two marriages.