STYLE : Model Behavior From Guess Girl : Those Lips! Those Eyes! But What, No Bustier?

A crowd of hundreds jammed the cosmetics department at Robinson’s, all eyes trained on the escalator for the pending arrival of Claudia Schiffer.

“Who?” asked a passer-by, confused by the commotion.

Schiffer is better known as that Guess girl, the model whose sultry eyes, pouty lips and tossed blond hair tease readers from the pages of leading magazines. When she appeared on the escalator to the sound of applause, cheers and pulsating music, everyone recognized that face.

“She’s cute!” said a teen-age Claudia wanna-be.

“She’s tall,” said a petite middle-aged woman, as Schiffer passed by with a shy smile on her famous lips.

Only one man, 31-year-old John Marsiglia of Orange, sounded slightly disappointed when he saw Schiffer in a white linen pantsuit and pink suede boots.

“I wish she was wearing one of those jobbies,” he said, pointing to a poster of Schiffer in a lacy black bustier. “I like her better in that.”

Schiffer, on an 11-city national tour to launch the new Guess Parfum by Revlon, visited the Robinson’s in MainPlace/Santa Ana for one brief hour Saturday to greet fans and sign autographs.

The end of the year is the perfume industry’s biggest selling period. According to the Fragrance Foundation, 75% of the fragrance purchases made during the upcoming holiday season will be made by men for women.

A long line of people snaked past the cosmetics and jewelry counters and ended up somewhere in the menswear department. All waited to get behind the roped-off area where Schiffer sat smiling behind a black lacquer desk.

“I’d like to say I was here to buy perfume,” said Steve Struck, 36, of Anaheim Hills, after snaring Schiffer’s autograph. “But I really wanted to see if she matched her billboard. She does.”

When he finally faced the supermodel he’d admired from the freeways, he found himself tongue-tied.

“I just said, ‘Hi.’ I wanted to ask her out for a date but I ran out of time.”

Rory Hill, 9, was brave enough to walk around the desk and hover over Schiffer’s shoulder while she signed her name on a poster.

“She’s pretty,” he said, “and she’s very nice too.”

His older sister, Brenna, 15, was enraptured.

“She’s my idol.”

Young Claudia clones stood starry-eyed in the model’s presence.

Cynthia Scott, a 14-year-old Anaheim resident, celebrated her birthday by coming to see Schiffer. When she was younger, Scott used to wear heavy eyeliner just like Schiffer.

“I always looked at her in the magazines and thought, ‘Wow, she’s only 18,’ ” Scott said. “I kind of wanted to be a model too.”

“None of her pictures are bad,” said Regina Kelley, 18, of Twentynine Palms. Then, sounding a bit wistful, Kelley added: “She’s lucky. She’s young and she got discovered.”

“She evokes a different era, a throwback to the ‘60s or late ‘50s,” said Matt Severson, 23, of Fullerton, who stood in line wearing a suit and tie. He had sneaked away from his job at Bullock’s to get a peek at Schiffer.

“You see a lot of Brigitte Bardot in her. She’s more voluptuous than many models.”

Barry Williams, 27, a Costa Mesa resident, explained her appeal this way:

“Her lips,” he said. “And her tight jeans--the ones she wears on that billboard on the 5 freeway. I know exactly where that billboard is.”

Older women were drawn to Schiffer by a maternal instinct.

“She’s so natural. She has a very sweet way about her,” said Friedel Borges of Santa Ana.

At Guess, they know they have something special in Schiffer, and they’re marketing her for all she’s worth. The 20-year-old model with the little-known name recently drew a crowd of 2,500 people to Macy’s in New York City, the best-attended fragrance launch since Elizabeth Taylor and Cher peddled their perfumes.

Guess has kept Schiffer to a tight schedule on the tour. After her 11 a.m. visit to Santa Ana, she was due at the Robinson’s stores in Del Amo at 1 p.m. and in Puente Hills at 4 p.m., then she was off to a party that night.

“It’s like she’s been doing this all her life,” said David Granoff, spokesman for the 11-city Guess Parfum tour, marveling at Schiffer’s energy and poise under pressure.

“She’s warm and patient when signing autographs,” said Jackie Reich, director of special events for Guess in New York City, who coordinates Schiffer’s appearances. “She doesn’t get upset when people say, ‘Sign this: “I love you and I’m going to marry you.” ’ “

In a brief interview, Schiffer appeared unaffected by the commotion she’s been causing.

Asked why she has attracted crowds as large as those of major movie stars, she said, “I have no idea.

“I’m just being myself,” she said, speaking with a slight German accent. “I find it all amazing.”

A native of Germany, Schiffer was still in high school when she was discovered by a modeling agent while dancing with friends in a Dusseldorf club. Soon she was flying to Paris on weekends and school holidays for modeling assignments.

Her big break came when Paul Marciano, one of the brothers who runs Guess, decided to feature her in his new ad campaign for the Los Angeles-based sportswear company, best known for its popular jeans.

Since then, GQ magazine has named her “the most beautiful girl in the world.” She’s often compared to Bardot, although Schiffer herself doesn’t agree with the comparison.

“I don’t see myself that way at all,” she said. “Although it’s a great compliment. She’s a great woman.”

Her goals, too, are modest: “I want to go back to school. I can’t continue to model forever. If the right movie came along that would be nice, but it’s not my goal.”

At one time Schiffer dreamed of being a lawyer, but she gave up that idea because it would take too many years to finish school, according to Granoff. She’s talked of studying art history and languages at an American university, he said.

“But she still has quite a few great years left doing this.”

She recently moved to New York City, leaving behind her parents and her younger siblings--two brothers and a sister--to further her career.

In many ways, Schiffer is a press agent’s dream. She’s “very intelligent,” said Granoff, “and very down-to-earth.”

“Even the hardest-nosed reporters all seem to like her,” he said.

Her image is wholesome. Off-camera, she comes off as shy, not the flirty femme fatale seen in the Guess ads. When she’s not working, the 6-foot model likes to play tennis and work out at the gym. For entertainment, she tours museums. She wears no makeup.

“She has the most beautiful skin I’ve ever seen,” Reich said.

For now, she’s enjoying the notoriety brought on by the Guess campaign.

At precisely noon, the Guess promoters whisked Schiffer away to a waiting car, leaving in her wake some fans still clutching T-shirts and posters with her signature, and others who grumbled because they didn’t get her autograph.

“Good-bye Claudia,” one said, but she was already gone.