Nicki Minaj playing fashion muse and getting some serious attention

M.A.C. COSMETICS Nicki Minaj long wanted to be a M.A.C. Cosmetics Viva Glam spokeswoman and gets to share the spotlight with Ricky Martin.

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 Dippin' Dots, that she wore to Carolina Herrera's spring 2012 show in September. But few in 2011 could take their eyes off Minaj, the Neon Barbie with the big voice and an elastic smile.

Part sweet Lolita, part street-smart punk from Queens, N.Y., Minaj has been the most talked-about young rapper to settle into the front row at New York Fashion Week since Marc Jacobs embraced Lil' Kim as his muse in 2005. She is a sought-after cover girl, with spreads in Elle, Cosmopolitan and W magazine. Minaj sang hits from her debut album, "Pink Friday," at recent shows for Victoria's Secret and H&M. She could even claim Halloween last fall, judging from the scores of tutorials on YouTube for fans seeking her fluorescent look and ice-cream-swirl tresses.

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

Those "others" are companies hoping to get in the Nicki Minaj business. And business is booming, thanks in part to Minaj's 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 Minaj's record dea! l in 200 9 after hearing an early mixtape. A priority of his, Bryant said in a phone interview, is to negotiate a deal with a fashion house so Minaj, 29, can sell her own line of clothes. (She already has a nail-polish line with OPI.)

OPIJANUARY 2012: OPI launches its Nicki Minaj collection, featuring colors such as "Did It On 'Em" (electric green) and "Fly" (aquamarine).

In September 2010, two months before her album debut, Minaj and executives associated with her record label, Young Money Entertainment, asked to meet with Demsey of M.A.C. Minaj got right to the point: She wanted to be the company's Viva Glam spokeswoman. "She was fun and cute," Demsey recalled. "She's funny, loves makeup and has a mashup style between Vivienne Westwood and a Harajuku girl."

But she wasn't yet a star, so Demsey proposed an online lipstick promotion over four Fridays, timed to her album's November release.

On Nov. 26, 2010, M.A.C. introduced 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, Demsey said, with sales driven mostly by Minaj's voluminous postings to fans via Twitter and Facebook. Indeed, eight of 10 buyers were new to the M.A.C. website.

"She is all about her brand and where she wants to go," Bryant said.

By early February, Minaj had sold more than 1 million albums, and fashion designers were beginning to take note. She was widely photographed prowling 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.

In April, before joining Britney Spears on tour, she met with Demsey again, and this time he agreed to nam! e her th e Viva Glam spokeswoman for 2012, replacing Lady Gaga.

Minaj also hired 42 West, a public relations company. "She needed a person to concentrate on Nicki Minaj in the press," Bryant said. One of the first things 42 West did was to contact W magazine, he said, which agreed to put Minaj on the cover of its November art and fashion issue. In the photo, taken by the artist Francesco Vezzoli, Minaj is dressed as the 18th-century French courtesan Comtesse du Barry, in an embroidered Dior couture gown.

New York TimesA Nicki Minaj Barbie doll was auctioned off for charity in December, grabbing an astonishing $5,605.

"She was taken out of the cliche about rappers, that they are afraid to look like something else," W's editor, Stefano Tonchi, said.

And in September, her appearances at New York Fashion Week were heralded by a fawning press. Bryant said he appointed someone to manage Minaj's schedule, while her publicists fielded calls from interested hosts. Minaj was a guest of Anna Wintour of Vogue at the Carolina Herrera show. Demsey said he took her to Prabal Gurung.'""

The cover of Vogue, already occupied by Lady Gaga, has not yet been attained. But Bryant said Minaj is in talks with the magazine.

"That's on my wish list," he said with a laugh. "I hope. I hope."

By Laura M. Holson, New York Times News Service