Profile: Parisa Parnian
Born in Iran's capital, Tehran in 1972 and raised in Arizona.
Parisa studied fashion design at the Parsons School of Design in New York and worked at several clothing companies before establishing Rigged OUT/fitters, her own clothing label, in 2004. Fashion by Rigged OUT/fitters has been featured on the American hit drama The L Word, while the clothing line as a whole has come into the spotlight of the queer scene.

―I saw a gay male model wearing your clothes in your photo shoot. Are your clothes popular with gay men as well ?

Yeah, that’s right. I have one gay model on my website. There are certain guys, like him, that work really well with my clothing line. And a lot of gay men love wearing my polo shirts even though they say “Lady killer”. They find it funny!

―Yeah, I can imagine! In fact, in season 3 of The L Word, Alan Cumming wears your clothes, right? They suit him very well. How did your collaboration with The L Word happen?

Oh, well, it happened as a result of a (Velvetpark) fashion shoot featuring my clothing line. It was in the same issue that had a cover story about The L Word. So then, of course, The L Word people saw the magazine. Apparently, the costume designer saw the photo fashion shoot, and then she called me.

―Did you design clothing especially for them?

Yes. What I did was, I spent a week with them and I met the actresses. I also spent the week with the costume designer as well. It was very exciting and I really liked them a lot. Then I came back here, and started to create things. Every 2 weeks, I would send the costume designer a box of my clothes that I designed thinking of the characters. She bought so many clothes from me!

―Which character did you like designing for most ?

Daniela Sea who plays Max, was very fun to do stuff for. She’s a friend, actually. I was very proud to design for her character, who is transgendered. I also liked to dress Alan Cumming a lot. He’s so cool! He’s truly “queer and dirty” in season 3! The way his character Billy is - that’s kind of personality I think of when I say “queer and dirty".

―Right, I see! I also liked the scene where Max and Billy have sex. (*season 3, episode 7)

I love that! That was probably one of my favorite scenes! It’s hot. So, that’s the world, that’s the concept of “queer and dirty”. Like, it’s not lesbian, it’s queer, it’s dirty. Like, “What the hell is going on?!” That’s my source of inspiration!