The lights are
soft in LA Reid's office at Arista Records, where slow jams ooze gently
from the walls and the newly svelte boss doesn't mind snapping his
fingers and dancing along a bit behind his gleaming desk. The young
employees who come and go look as if they'd been painted with a sheer
gloss: The hair is shiny, bouncy, and rhythmic enough to be in a video,
and heels are silent against the springy carpet. "I only ask that
they are clean," says Reid. "Otherwise, it's up to them. If I'm in
a meeting with someone and he's not groomed well, I can't focus on
the meeting." Style-wise, nothing's off-limits (the label, after all,
represents Avril Lavigne and Whitney Houston), but you'd better
look good. "Everyone wants to look like a rock star," says
Hillary Siskind. "Not their rock star, necessarily, but a rock
star."
The Publicists
Hillary Siskind, 33. "I just always want to look really polished.
It's important to dress pretty young."
The A&R Exec
Karen Kwak, 33, wears a lot of Theory. "You always want to be able
to go out in what you wore to work."
The Mogul
LA Reid, 46. "Maybe it's the Midwesterner in me, but I love to be
formal."
The VP of Publicity
Chris Chambers, 31. "LA definitely inspires us to look good," he says,
eagerly eyeing the new Burberry boutique out his window.
