Joanne Gair

Guess model Drew Barrymore stares down from a Sunset Boulevard billboard and out from the pages of magazines wearing sultry, strong makeup--smoky eyes and arresting red lips against a pale, pale complexion. Madonna flashes on the MTV screen, her face an ethereal vision of peaches and pinks. Demi Moore slips into a three-piece suit of body paint for a magazine cover. The name Joanne Gair may not ring a bell, but the images she creates as a makeup artist set off buzzers and sirens of recognition.

Artist Joanne Gair apologizes to a guest who complains of sensory overload in her presence. "I have that effect on people," she says. She is a ball of fire in Chinese pajama pants; she is a whirling dervish, a Nepalese tonka with a million faces, a human mandala. Heidi Klum, Naomi Campbell, Madonna, Christina Aguilera, Demi Moore, Elle Macpherson, Cindy Crawford (shall we go on?)--she's painted them all. Their bodies are Gair's canvas.

Artist Joanne Gair apologizes to a guest who complains of sensory overload in her presence. "I have that effect on people," she says. She is a ball of fire in Chinese pajama pants; she is a whirling dervish, a Nepalese tonka with a million faces, a human mandala. Heidi Klum, Naomi Campbell, Madonna, Christina Aguilera, Demi Moore, Elle Macpherson, Cindy Crawford (shall we go on?)--she's painted them all. Their bodies are Gair's canvas.

Guess model Drew Barrymore stares down from a Sunset Boulevard billboard and out from the pages of magazines wearing sultry, strong makeup--smoky eyes and arresting red lips against a pale, pale complexion. Madonna flashes on the MTV screen, her face an ethereal vision of peaches and pinks. Demi Moore slips into a three-piece suit of body paint for a magazine cover. The name Joanne Gair may not ring a bell, but the images she creates as a makeup artist set off buzzers and sirens of recognition.

Los Angeles is brimming over with talented jewelry designers, each with a distinctive style and a novel approach. Some prefer diamonds; others choose found objects such as shards of glass or collectibles such as ancient coins. Some even blow their own glass beads, while others sculpt imported plastic.

She looks a little more vulnerable than she did last year. Her short, slick hairdo has been replaced with a softer, wispier look. Her necktie and her oxfords are back in his side of the closet. Her mannish jackets are softening at the edges. And she's now ready to swivel her hips in sarongs, tighten her torso in skintight minis and bare her midriff--and more--in some of the skimpiest get-ups ever to leave the beach.

Chantal Cloutier has the soft, breathy voice of a 1-900 phone sex operator. The fragile timbre is at complete odds with her occupation. She's an agent. "I know people expect me to be a rough-and-tough woman, but I am completely the opposite." says the exotic-looking, 40-year-old French Canadian. Being contrary to form hasn't hurt her one bit. In a town loaded with loud mouths she has whispered her way to the top.

How to re-create Madonna's new hair style: that's the burning beauty question of the moment. The super star kicked off the Los Angeles engagement of her world tour last weekend, swinging a stick straight, fake ponytail that set the stage for a new look. The wanna-bes are already wearing the look.

It was a case of a handful of beauties and a lot of beasts. The MTV Video Music Awards fashion scene Thursday night was an incongruous mix of haute couture and faux homeless.

THE FACE OF summer has been liberated. There's no pressure to play up eyes or lips or to be bronze all over. Natural is the message; makeup is the medium. Colors are toned down, delicate, often with a mere hint of metallic sheen. The artificial-looking, heavy-metal finish that was prevalent in 1987 has become a subtle shimmer. Bronzes, golds and silvers are used only to "warm" the skin. Francine Stessel of Trucco Cosmetics calls these low-key metallics "an accessory for lightly tanned skin."

Los Angeles is brimming over with talented jewelry designers, each with a distinctive style and a novel approach. Some prefer diamonds; others choose found objects such as shards of glass or collectibles such as ancient coins. Some even blow their own glass beads, while others sculpt imported plastic.

She looks a little more vulnerable than she did last year. Her short, slick hairdo has been replaced with a softer, wispier look. Her necktie and her oxfords are back in his side of the closet. Her mannish jackets are softening at the edges. And she's now ready to swivel her hips in sarongs, tighten her torso in skintight minis and bare her midriff--and more--in some of the skimpiest get-ups ever to leave the beach.

Marla Maples' publicist, Chuck Jones, may have a shot at "America's Funniest Home Videos." Seems Maples has been losing shoes at a fast clip--more than 100 pairs in the past few years. She installed a surveillance camera in her bedroom and fingered Jones as the thief Wednesday. When Jones was arrested at his mid-town Manhattan office, police recovered 30 pairs of Maples' shoes, three unlicensed handguns and copies of pornographic magazines, including one called Spike.

BRITAIN'S LEADING hairdressers are combining influences from Italian, French and--most importantly--American movie stars to create the newest take on retro hair fashions. The British are ushering in the 1990s with a look that recalls the late '50s: Marilyn Monroe's swooping pageboy, Grace Kelly's waves, Sophia Loren's swirls. Vidal Sassoon calls it "glamorous reality."