He styles the video and album covers of such top entertainers as Sean 'Puffy' Coombs, Janet Jackson, TLC, Monica, Mary J Blige, Brandy and Jennifer Lopez. He's the man behind the look of 702, Eve, Deborah Cox and Monica.

He is the genius who designed the cover of Lauryn Hill's million-selling album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and dressed and styled her for several covers and photo shoots. But he does not come cheap. His fee is no less than US $15,000 a day to work on a project, with a US $10,000 consulting fee.

When it comes to style, the name Derek Khan, 41, is on lips of all movers and shakers in the entertainment industry and he's constantly featured in top fashion mags.

Known in New York and Los Angeles as the "Style Guy", Trinidadian-born Khan, now a top music stylist, arrived in New York City at age 19, armed with nothing but his flair and personality. Music styling is hardly limited to picking out clothes. Top stylists communicate with the musicians and designers uniting a concept with tangible materials to create an aesthetic.

"Styling has really evolved," says Khan.

Sitting in his glamorous 29^th floor, Upper East Side apartment, with a breathtaking view of the East River, Khan declares: "I love haute couture and understated elegance." He defined what a fashion and music stylist does: I am the person chosen to transform a star into exactly what the recording company wants. The artiste comes to me to redefine and expose him or her. I take their personality into consideration and envision an image while listening to their music. By doing so, I will know what outfit to choose for them, what decor for the set of the videos and how to design their album covers. As a stylist I demand creative control. I call the shots with the artiste, " he adds with emphasis.

Awards decorate his home, many of which he received from the Recording Industry of America, and it occurs to me that this man is one of T&T's best kept secrets, at least until now. He loves to wear Chanel and got his break dressing Salt-N-Pepa for the Grammys in 1994.

This St Augustine-born talent, who admits to be being dyslexic, grew up in Arima, but has not visited Trinidad since the day he left. The time has not been right since, but he does not rule out future visits.

Khan's past projects read like a "who's who", including styling sets for the Grammy Awards, the American Music Awards, Billboard Awards, Frank Sinatra 80^th Birthday Gala, the World Music Festival in Monte Carlo, and the ABC Special City Kids with Demi Moore.

Incredibly, his first job in New York City was at the fast food outlet, McDonald's.

"I stayed one day and that was that. McDonald's was not for me," he recalls with an amazed laugh. Admitting that he always knew he was different as far back as his days as a student at Fatima College, he recalls: "I hated everything in school. I was planning concerts while I should have been studying. I was also breaking the rules and wearing outrageous red platform shoes to school," he recollects.

After leaving Fatima he worked at TTT as a technical operator, before heading for what he terms "greener pastures" in New York. Familiar with the city from holidays he had spent there, Khan says he arrived in the big city without a plan.

"I always had a yearning for the finer things in life and American represented that to me,' he said.

Khan's mother and sister now reside in Canada, but he still has a couple of aunts and uncles in Trinidad.

He left New York for Washington DC where he worked as a sales rep in the Men's Designer Salon at Neiman Marcus for three years. He returned to New York and began working as an assistant buyer for Brooks Brothers. "I was probably the only black person there," Khan recalls, "and I was getting by because I had a 'good eye' and a flair and passion for fashion. I just knew what looked good," he adds.

But he was to change several jobs before finding his calling. Khan says it was in the eighties, the heart of the disco era, while partying at the most trendy clubs in New York, that he met people like Andy Warhol and Herbert Givenchy, of the Givenchy dynasty.

Khan says he helped Givenchy develop an idea for "the most divine men's store."

"That involvement in the design concept," Khan says, "also gave me inkling of what I could do." Describing himself as a "restless spirit", he soon moved on to yet another job as assistant manager at Yves Saint Laurent's Men's Boutique.

But he continues: "I did not stay with Yves Saint Laurent, I was 32 years old and something was missing from my life. I was not financially secure. I knew I had to do something and soon."

It was at that time, Khan says, that he met the owner of the Garage Club who introduced him to "Hosay and Lewis", Madonna's dancers from the Vogue video. "They took me to meet her during the "Blonde Ambition Tour" and after it wrapped asked me to manage them, but that union did not work out. What it did, however, was open doors for me in the music business."

Khan went on to manage yet another group which was signed to Warner Bros., but again, that did not work out.

Describing that period as one of the "lowest points in this life", Khan says: "It was emotionally tough. I needed a job desperately, and I began working with a caterer, Norma Darden, and I met Beverly page, the vice president of Island Records, when we were catering an event. One week later, based on trust alone, she asked me to style Salt-N-Pepa for the 1994 Grammy Awards. I called Anne Fahey of Chanel and selected the clothing. I hit it off with the group and a month later I was in Los Angeles dressing them for the Grammy Awards."

Khan says his career as a fashion stylist literally blew up after that and he ws hired to not only dress, but style Mary J. Blige's video on the soundtrack of the movie Waiting To Exhale.

His phone also kept ringing with officers of jobs. One such call, Khan reports, came from Andre Harrell, then chairman of Motown Records and now president of Bad Boy Sean "Puffy" Coombs' label.

"He offered me the Directorship Responsible for the Styling and Imaging of Motown Artistes. I did that for eight months. But it was difficult being locked down to a desk, while offers were coming in to do individual projects."

Khan left Motown and as soon as he did he received a job offer from the president of RCA: US $250,000 a year to head Artist Development for R&B. "The money was tempting, but I declined that offer because I realized they had no artistes. Also, I wanted to be independent."

It was a wise decision. He put a five-member working team together and when Arista Record President Clive Davis called asking him to work with the singer Monica, he was ready.

Khan is so much in demand that on September 13 he received a letter from Phillippe de Montebello, director of New York Metropolitan Museum of Art asking him to be part of the forthcoming costume Institute Exhibition Rock Style 2000.

What's next for Khan: "A book on Style - A Reflection on my Life by the year 2000 with photos by famed photographer Gordon Parks and featuring all my "divas" from Aretha to Lauryn. Along with my own clothing, perfume, and furniture line, with scarves by Derek."