A TALE OF TWO BIJANS (BIJAN PAKZAD, BIJAN SHAMS)

Apparently I am not the only completely ridiculous Persian fashion designer in the world. Meet Bijan, the self proclaimed king of Beverly Hills.

Those of you old enough to remember the 80s might remember Bijan.  Then it was all about Beverly Hills - there were Camp Beverly Hills t-shirts, Giorgio Beverly Hills perfume, Beverly Hills Cop movies, and of course Beverly Hills 90210.  Displaying your wealth was de rigueur and that's something Bijan wrote the book on.  He had a big perfume and was famous for designing a gun made of pure gold.

Well times have changed but Bijan has not.  My brother's name is also Bijan, so a friend of his came across this video (presumably while on-line stalking my brother).  Bijan (the brother) edited it down to a palatable length.

The amazing thing about this video is that Bijan thinks he is being charming.  It's like the only thing Americans loathe more than rich people is Middle Eastern people.  Wake up and smell the hate, Bij!

But the more I think about it the more I realize that to be successful you have to be delusional. Nothing will hold you back more than considering what other people will think, second guessing your ideas, or being self conscious.  People will talk shit no matter what you do so why not say fuck it and get rich?

When I was working at Express the incredibly successful CEO, asking about what to deliver in December (a season ridiculously called "Resort" because a tiny percentage of people go on vacation at this time) poised this question to the room: "What is our girl buying to wear on her Holiday in St.Tropez?"  So that's what she does with all the money she saves buying $39.99 dress slacks!

Some gems from Bijan the designer:

On his love life:  "My lady companion is 30 years old.  She's pretty and she's on her way to becoming an attorney and I love that."

On his price points:  "I happen to be the most expensive clothing designer in the world and (mock sympathy) I am sorry for that."

On his house keeper:  "That is Olivia and I love (corrects himself) like her very much."

In contrast, some gems from Bijan the brother:

On people:  "I hate everybody."

On current affairs:  "The world is ending."

On his sister:  "The best thing about you is that you don't think."

With that attitude I can tell you that Bijan the brother will never get what Bijan the designer ends his video with: George W. Bush saying, "You da man."

BEETLE MANIA CONTINUES...

my friend lislie has been feeling inspired by beetles too and after seeing my print recommended phermone by christopher marley. i completely fell in love with the rainbow beetle layouts below - i emailed his studio to ask if i could do something similar - i hope they don't mind 'cause i did it already.

i mentioned earlier that my brother was an entomology major. at one point in my stellar scholastic career i dropped out of parsons and started attending the university of maryand for painting. i took an entomology class with my brother and ended up chasing bugs around in high heels for a semester. i remember being in my car and pulling a tick off of my head and putting it in a container of formaldehyde. while driving. here's the new beetle print i did based on the above concept. in the big version they're 8" tall - no idea how it'll look.

BEETLE MANIA!

ugh i promised myself no typical play-on-word fashion titles and here i go - right out the box. i'm working on fall 2011 prints right now - my theme is dark iridescence and i'm especially feeling inspired by beetles. i honestly don't like animals or bugs - why i feel compelled to use them in every collection i have no idea.

*update: my brother said i played myself by not mentioning here that he was an entomology major in college. the last thing i want to do is play myself in my very first post so here you go.