Shopping With Kylie Minogue

The New York Times

Kylie Minogue: Pop Star, Fashion Darling ... Who?

Shopping With Kylie Minogue: At the Fivestory boutique on the Upper East Side, the Australian singer Kylie Minogue reflects on her experiences working with renowned international designers and reveals her personal style.

By BEE SHAPIRO Published: June 12, 2013 

Kylie Minogue, the Australian pop star known in the United States for long-ago dance hits like “The Loco-Motion” and “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” was having tea in the Astor Court of the St. Regis hotel on a recent spring Sunday, unrecognized in a nude-colored Moschino dress (which would have been a long-sleeved T-shirt on most) with a winking face illustrated on the front.  

The conversation was of ambition, namely hers.

“I don’t know where it comes from,” she said. “I’m, like, turbocharged in a small package.”

If so, it is a very well-wrapped package. In May, Ms. Minogue, a luminous-skinned 45, attended a “Gatsby” screening in New York (in a floral Dolce & Gabbana pantsuit) and the Met gala (again in Moschino) in quick succession.

Then there was Cannes, where she was outfitted almost exclusively in Roberto Cavalli, including a striking ivory cutout gown. (That Ms. Minogue does not appear in “Gatsby” nor had a film showing at Cannes seems almost beside the point. The red carpet beckoned and she was there.) In her home base, London, she has become a champion of up-and-coming designers like Richard Nicoll, Gareth Pugh and David Koma, visiting their studios and scooping up pieces early in their careers.

“She’s very happy to lend her body and name to emerging talent,” said Mr. Nicoll, who began dressing Ms. Minogue from his first capsule collection in 2003 after completing his master’s in fashion at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.

Ms. Minogue may be a darling of designers, but as the lack of any recognition from fellow diners at the St. Regis suggested, she is far better known by the global paparazzi than by the American public. But she is trying (one more time in a two-decade-plus career) to change that, in part by reframing herself as a fashion icon.

Last week, Running Press released “Kylie: Fashion” ($40), an ode in photographs to her sartorial high points as a performer. It was written with her longtime stylist, William Baker, and has a rhapsodic foreword by Jean Paul Gaultier (“who could forget the gold hot pants and the white jumpsuit with the openings so deep that anyone could feel your pale, delicate skin”).

Along with flamboyant costumes, like Mr. Gaultier’s anime-geisha tour outfits from 2008, the book contains examples of Ms. Minogue’s cover shoots for the influential fashion magazines i-D (March 1991) and The Face (June 1994), which the stylist Katie Grand has said was the best-selling issue during her time as fashion director there. Ms. Minogue also has appeared on the cover of British Elle seven times, most recently in January. (She has never appeared in Elle’s edition here.)

Ms. Minogue, who has sold more than 68 million records globally, admits that she has never truly mastered the American market, despite her widespread popularity in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. If she fails to do it this time around, it will not be for lack of trying.

In February, it was announced that Ms. Minogue was parting with Terry Blamey, her manager of 25 years, and signing with Roc Nation, Jay-Z’s influential entertainment company, which has worked with Rihanna and Rita Ora. Since then, she has been spending time in Los Angeles, recording tracks with the Roc Nation producers Timbaland and Pharrell Williams.

“I think they feel it’s an interesting challenge to take on someone who has such a history that they had nothing to do with,” Ms. Minogue said, though she added, “I don’t know if it’s about taking it to the next level or just another level.”

Being on the Roc Nation roster also means shining up one’s presentation, which Ms. Minogue should have no problem doing. Though Joe Zee, creative director of Elle magazine, which publishes an annual music issue, said he believes that over the years she has suffered by comparison to Madonna’s “controlled, specific, thought-out image.”

“Kylie is very different,” he said, adding that he’s a fan. “From what I see, her image is much more reflective of who she is. It’s about being fun and sexy.”

Mr. Baker said: “She has a lightness about her. She’s like champagne bubbles — effervescent glamour.”