Kira Plastinina: From Russia with style

SHE STRUTS into the Ivy with leg to spare and a long ponytail swinging behind her. She's working a super short, silver polka-dot dress, which she designed herself, and some seriously gooey lip gloss. She's got a makeup artist in tow, along with two publicists and a bodyguard who's not afraid to stand down Robertson Boulevard's crazy roller dancer.

Is it Paris? Miley? Ivanka?

No, it's Kira Plastinina, a 15-year-old Russian fashion designer, and if everything goes as planned, she's going to be the next "it" girl.

"When I was really little, people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up," she says, ordering a plate of spaghetti and meatballs. "First, I said a princess, then I said a fashion designer. I'm not grown up, but I am a fashion designer!"

Unlike the sorority of "it" girls before her who seemed to pop into the spotlight fully formed, Plastinina is a phenom in progress. She's just in from Russia, where in the last year she opened 40 stores bankrolled by her millionaire daddy. Seven months ago, she had a fashion show with Paris Hilton in the front row. She's generating buzz on Moscow red carpets. She's already had four Women's Wear Daily stories, and Teen Vogue is calling her a "teen tycoon" and "the talk of the town in her homeland."

Her first U.S. store opened in New York last week. Five more are on the way this month in Los Angeles, including a Robertson Boulevard location opening Friday. In the U.S., the goal is 50 Kira Plastinina stores in the next three years and eventually 250. New York Fashion Week is also in the designer's sights.

Part of the first, post-Communist generation, Plastinina -- who speaks almost perfect English, attends an international school and adores "Gossip Girl" and "The Hills" -- represents a new fashion identity for Russia beyond flashy designer logos. Her clothes, with an average $48 price point, are fast fashion moving from East to West, targeting teens who live their lives online, where image is reality more so even than in Hollywood, and cultural and international borders are nonexistent.

When Plastinina staged her first fashion show in March 2007, it looked like a Soviet-era parody with '80s throwback T-shirts, short-shorts, outsized bows and winged models. In October 2007, she had Hilton in her front row -- for a reported $2-million fee.