"It is said that a man can walk into my store looking like Woody Allen and walk out looking like Cary Grant".

There is a photograph of Bijan Pakzad as a seven year old boy in his native Iran which perhaps best exemplifies the attitude that has made him one of the most celebrated designers in the world. He stands with one hand thrust nonchalantly in the pocket of a suit that imitates that of his businessman father, and stares at the camera as though it were he and not the older, more worldly man beside him who has seen it all. Arresting in its intensity the photograph is a potent image of a man who even as a young boy already set himself apart, refusing to fall into line and behave in the manner expected of those his age.

"I didn't act like other seven year olds", smiles the flamboyant and outrageously successful menswear designer, whose 'By Appointment Only' stores set a precedent in the United States retail fashion establishment where his business was founded. Where the grand haute couture houses of France emphasise the prestige of their clientele by such overt displays of exclusivity, no 'new world' fashion designer had ever thought to show the same self-confidence - or is the word arrogance, in the merchandising of his or her creations.