Technicolor Barbie With an Outsize Voice*

The fashion world took notice of Nicki Minaj's unique look at a spring 2012 show.

Objavljeno
20. januar 2012 13.15
Laura M. Holson, NYT
Laura M. Holson, NYT
Perhaps it was the brightly colored surgical mask that covered Nicki Minaj's pout at the MTV Video Music Awards last August. Or maybe it was the neon puffball tunic, which made her look as if she'd fallen into a bowl of ice cream, that she wore to Carolina Herrera's spring 2012 show in September. But few in 2011 could take their eyes off Ms. Minaj, the Technicolor Barbie with the big voice and an elastic smile.

Part sweet Lolita, part street-smart punk, Ms. Minaj has been the most talked-about rapper to settle into the front
row at New York Fashion Week since Marc Jacobs embraced Lil' Kim in 2005.

She is a cover girl, with spreads in Elle, Cosmopolitan and W magazines. Ms. Minaj sang hits from her debut album,
"Pink Friday," at recent shows for Victoria's Secret and H&M.

A year ago, Ms. Minaj was making dresses for herself in her basement, said John Demsey, group president of Estée
Lauder Companies, which owns MAC Cosmetics, the brand that worked with her on a lipstick. "Now the others want to get their hands on her."

The Nicki Minaj business is booming, thanks in part to her behind-the-scenes moves. Like Lady Gaga before her, she
wants to be a high priestess of style. Last spring, she split with her manager, P. Diddy, and began working with the hip-hop veteran Gee Roberson and Cortez Bryant, who also manages Lil Wayne, the rapper who helped secure Ms. Minaj's record deal in 2009. A priority of his, Mr. Bryant said, is to negotiate a deal with a fashion house so Ms. Minaj
can sell her own line of clothes.

Ms. Minaj, 29, whose birth certificate reads Onika Tanya Maraj, moved from Saint James, Trinidad and Tobago, to Queens, New York, with her parents when she was 5.

She attended LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts in Manhattan and in 2007 began releasing digital mixtapes, including "Beam Me Up Scotty," in 2009, which was well received in hip-hop circles. In September 2010, two months before her album debut, Ms. Minaj asked to meet with Mr. Demsey of MAC. She pointedly said she  wanted to be the company's Viva Glam spokeswoman.

"She was fun and cute," Mr. Demsey recalled. "She's funny, loves make-up and has a mashup style between Vivienne West -wood and a Harajuku girl."

But she wasn't yet a star, so Mr. Demsey proposed an online lipstick promotion, timed to her album's release. On November 26, 2010, MAC introduced Ms. Minaj's Pink Friday lipstick, selling all 3,000 in stock in 15 minutes, in addition to an eye-popping 27,000 in the next three weeks. The company spent little on advertising, Mr. Demsey said, with sales driven mostly by Ms. Minaj's voluminous postings via Twitter and Facebook.

As album sales took off ("Pink Friday" had its debut at No. 2 on Billboard), Ms. Minaj's brand began to expand. By early February, she had sold more than 1 million albums, and fashion designers were beginning to take note. She was widely photographed on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards in a leopard-print bubble-skirted dress and matching leggings designed by Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy, and a Q-Tip shaped wig streaked with black. Ms. Minaj has a fulltime wigmaker, Terrence Davidson.

On March 29, the organizers of Christie's Green Auction for charity got the exposure they had sought when Ms. Minaj
performed that night in a black leotard and another tall wig, this one dyed blond and forest green. A few months later, Mr. Demsey agreed to name her the Viva Glam spokeswoman for 2012, replacing Lady Gaga.

And in September, her appearances at New York Fashion Week were heralded by a fawning press. Ms. Minaj also hired 42 West, a public relations company.

"She needed a person to concentrate on Nicki Minaj in the press," Mr. Bryant said. One of the first things 42 West did was to contact W, he said, which agreed to put Ms. Minaj on the cover of its November art and fashion issue. In the photo, Ms. Minaj is dressed as the 18th century French courtesan Comtesse du Barry, in an embroidered Dior couture gown. "She was taken out of the cliché about rappers, that they are afraid to look like something else," said Stefano Tonchi, the magazine's editor.

The cover of Vogue, already occupied by Gaga, has not yet been attained. But Mr. Bryant said Ms. Minaj is in talks
with the magazine. "That's on my wishlist," he said with a laugh. "I hope. I hope."