LUCK OF THE DRAW

IT ALL STARTED AS THE QUICKEST way to make a franc, or 3,000 francs, to be more precise. In 1987, Franck Chevalier was broke and living in Paris. So he dropped by designer Jean Paul Gaultier’s studio for one of the enfant terrible’s wild castings--where anyone off the street was offered a chance at modeling on the runway--got picked for a show and pocketed the cash. Afterward, Chevalier lobbied Gaultier for a day job and soon starting handling public relations for the company.

“I was lucky to even get paid while I was working for Gaultier because it was the best education,” he says by phone from Paris, where he’s currently styling the commercial that will usher in the shift to the euro as the common European currency in January 2002.

These days Chevalier, 34, works his own brand of magic on a long list of rock stars, celebrities and models that includes Janet Jackson, Linda Evangelista, Leonardo DiCaprio and Cher. Whether it’s a music video (for example, Michael Jackson’s latest), an advertising campaign or a fashion layout for Vanity Fair, his job as a wardrobe stylist is to make sure the talent is dressed to kill when the shooting starts. “Just because someone is wearing a $20,000 dress doesn’t mean they look their best,” he says. And the first step in creating the best is uncovering the worst.

Chevalier has a habit of asking his clients, point blank, about their least favorite body parts. Thighs too wide? Upper arm too fat? Franck understands. He’s gets suspicious, though, of people who claim they have nothing to hide, because eventually the truth comes out--usually in the 11th hour-- when his carefully chosen garments are snubbed by comments like, “I’m not wearing that.” “If they don’t like it, it’s usually because it will reveal a part of their body they don’t want the public to see.”

Burned out on Gucci, Prada, Versace and Armani, the French-born, L.A.-based stylist says he doesn’t even bother pulling from their collections anymore. Instead, he shops for the unusual. On occasion, he has designed original pieces himself, although he claims he can’t even sew a button, and has to stand behind a skilled seamstress giving directions every step of the way.

Chevalier has worked alongside photography greats Helmut Newton, David LaChapelle, Jean Baptiste Mondino and Mary Ellen Mark. In 1999, he won the VH1/Vogue Fashion award for Most Stylish Video for his work on No Doubt’s “New.” Last year, he won the MVPA Best Stylist award for Ricky Martin’s “Livin’ La Vida Loca.” though he’s feels it wasn’t his best work. “It won because it was the most-played video, which is often the case. You could do great styling, but if the video barely plays on MTV, then it won’t even be nominated.”

Despite having a career that feeds on media exposure, Chevalier doesn’t own a television, and the only magazine he subscribes to is National Geographic. He knows that while fashion is ephemeral, style is timeless, which is why he looks for inspiration “outside the fashion ghetto” and believes an open mind is key to making his next step.

Married with four children (including a son from his previous relationship with German punk legend Nina Hagen), Chevalier says he’s abandoned the Gaultier of his youth. “I’ve been wearing the same pair of jeans for a year and haven’t washed them,” he says, laughing.

Is he wearing them right now? No. It’s bedtime in Paris, and he is wearing absolutely nothing.