Bijan (designer)

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Bijan Pakzad (generally known simply as Bijan) (born 1944)^[1] is a well-known designer of menswear and fragrances.

Born in Teheran, Iran, Bijan immigrated to the United States in 1973. His exclusive boutique on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills was established in 1976 and can be visited by "appointment only". It has been described as "the most expensive store in the world".^[2]

Bijan's fragrances for both men and women are known for their distinctive circular glass flacon with an open center and a dividing web. When half full, the fragrance fills two separate chambers, seemingly defying the law of gravity that liquid seeks its own level. One of these perfume bottles is featured in the permanent exhibit of the Smithsonian Institution.

In 1988, Bijan for Men won the Fragrance Foundation's FiFi award for "Most Successful Men’s Fragrance (Exclusive)" while Bijan for Women won the award for "Best Women’s Fragrance Package".^[3] In 1997, Bijan again had success at the FiFi Awards with the Michael Jordan Cologne winning awards for "Men's Fragrance Star of the Year Specialty/ Department Stores" and "Best National Advertising Campaign – Men’s". ^[4]

Another fragrance from Bijan, DNA, earned Bijan an Ig Nobel Prize in 1995 for chemistry. The perfume contained no deoxyribonucleic acid and came in a triple helix-shaped bottle (as opposed to the double helix structure of DNA).^[5]. The DNA name was inspired by Bijan's children's initials, Daniela, Nicolas, and Alexandra, not the nucleic acid.^[6]

In 1989 Vanity Fair magazine named Bijan to their "International Best Dressed List".^[7]

In 2000 Bijan courted controversy when an ad featuring a "rotund [nude] model named Bella"^[8] and himself was at first rejected by New York magazines before it was accepted by Tina Brown's Talk magazine.^[9]