>Bijan
Bijan Pakzad was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1940 (or 1944). He was the son of a wealthy businessman. He attended Institut Le Rosey, and studied design in Switzerland and Italy.
Bijan's career began in Iran with the Pink Panther Boutique in Tehran.
Upon immigrating to the United States in 1973, Bijan settled in Los Angeles and established his exclusive boutique on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills in 1976. He had initially purchased a parking lot that he turned into a building store, and was confident his business in L.A. would take off because "I saw brilliant men earning $100,000 a year dressed in the most ridiculous clothes".
In 1984, he opened a second store on Fifth Avenue`and 55th Street in New York (which closed in 2000). By 1985, he claimed 15,000 customers, including four kings and sixteen U.S. presidents. In his first ten years of business, he claimed a $150 million revenue. He owned a textile factory in Italy where he manufactured his custom-made clothing. In 1989, the Bijan NY store was hit by the 2-year, $50-million renovation of the adjacent St. Regis Hotel, and launched litigations against its then-owner Sheraton.
In 2000, Bijan generated controversy when he published advertisements featuring a nude "rotund model named Bella", which were rejected by many New York magazines before being accepted by Tina Brown's Talk. He said the ads were an homage to painters Peter Paul Rubens, Henri Matisse, and Fernando Botero, whose art has featured full-figured women, and said "I embrace the beauty of all women". Once they were published in Talk, the ads were accepted by several of the publications that had previously rejected them.
He launched the Michael Jordan fragrance in 1996. According to the 2001 Los Angeles Times Calendar Section, the Bijan Perfume and Fashion Business has brought in an estimated $3.2 billion in sales worldwide. In November 1997, two executives of Bijan were robbed of $3 million worth of jewelry in London in a very elaborate heist.
On April 14, 2011, Bijan suffered a stroke and was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He had brain surgery, but never recovered and died two days later on April 16, 2011 at 8:05 am. Public records indicate he was 71. Bijan's boutique on Rodeo Drive was sold to LVMH for US$122 million in August 2016. The boutique moved across the street in 2020."