THE INDOMITABLE MS CUTRONE

Fashion has a new star, and she's no Anna Wintour. Kelly Cutrone is the founder of People's Revolution, a fashion public-relations and marketing firm, and the star of "Kell on Earth", a relatively new reality show on Bravo about her life. She is also the author of a new book, "If You Have to Cry, Go Outside". On the surface, Cutrone is another powerful fashion bitch of the type we relish in life (Wintour) and in fiction ("The Devil Wears Prada"). But this doesn't explain her cult following among those who can't tell Anne Klein from Alexander Wang.

The Cutrone package involves a sharp tongue, black clothing, a lack of makeup and a personal aspect that invokes both Skeletor and a den mother. Her book—part-memoir, part-business manual, part-spiritual journey—both reinforces and explains her appeal. "If I had to describe my DIY religion, I'd say that I'm a Hindu-esque Tantric Toltec Priestess, which you've never heard of because I made it up," she writes. She embraces both severe business practices and Eastern mysticism, recreational drugs and capitalism, clothing and goddess-worship. Her intelligence makes these contradictions fascinating.

"If anyone really wanted to change the world, they'd bring in the fashion bitches, because nobody gets things done faster," she writes. "If we went about saving the world like we go about producing fashion shows, well, let's just say New Orleans after Katrina would've been fucking sorted." Cutrone is a charismatic ringleader in an easily satirised industry. Readers may be unsurprised to learn that at age 11 she became the first-ever female umpire of her small town's baseball team, a position earned by sheer force of will.

Given Cutrone's popularity, her brand of toughness is worth examining. For one thing, she embraces her own femininity. Cutrone—a single mother with a seven-year-old daughter—isn't an authority because she "acts like a man", but because she lives, breathes and exudes a certain womanliness. This is rare, and it confuses people. In March Ryan Seacrest, a television presenter, asked Cutrone whether she dated men or women, calling her a "kind of type-A tough dude". Cutrone responded with a good-natured laugh. "When push comes to shove," she said, "I'll take shove."

Cutrone ultimately comes across as the best kind of boss: a no-nonsense ballbuster with unfailing instincts. In Slate's "Double X" Marisa Meltzer wrote that "I have often fantasized of having [Cutrone] swoop into my life and tell me, in her harsh manner, exactly what to do with myself." For Meltzer, Cutrone could be the next Oprah. "The nation is hankering for a straight-talking woman with a heart of spiritual mush for the 21st century," she writes.

Even if Cutrone fails to fill Oprah's shoes, I'd be satisfied to see her become an actual role model. I can't think of a better woman for young girls to imitate, in their own fashion. "I spent a large portion of my childhood getting grounded for doing things that would later make me a lot of money," Cutrone writes in her book, doling out a piece of advice that should be painted on every tween's mirror. A second season of "Kell On Earth" hasn't been confirmed yet, but I'm hoping Bravo will continue to document Cutrone working hard and well. If "Sex and the City" spawned a nation of mini-Carrie-Bradshaws, a few more seasons of Cutrone's show might just reverse the damage.

~ MOLLY YOUNG