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Perhaps it was the brightly colored surgical mask that covered Nicki Minaj’s pout at the MTV Video Music Awards last August. Or maybe it was the neon puffball tunic, which made her look as if she’d fallen into a bowl of Dippin’ Dots, that she wore to Carolina Herrera’s spring 2012 show in September. But few in 2011 could take their eyes off Minaj, the Technicolor Barbie with the big voice and an elastic smile.

Part sweet Lolita, part street-smart punk from Queens, New York, Minaj has been the most talked-about young rapper to settle into the front row at New York Fashion Week since Marc Jacobs embraced Lil’ Kim as his muse in 2005. She is a sought-after cover girl, with spreads in Elle, Cosmopolitan and W magazine. Minaj sang hits from her debut album, “Pink Friday,” at recent shows for Victoria’s Secret and H&M.

She could even claim Halloween last fall, judging from the scores of tutorials on YouTube for fans seeking her fluorescent look and ice cream swirl tresses.

A year ago, Minaj was making dresses for herself in her basement, said John Demsey, group president of Estee Lauder Cos., which owns MAC Cosmetics, the brand that worked with her on a lipstick. “Now the others want to get their hands on her.”

Those “others” are companies hoping to get in the Nicki Minaj business. And business is booming, thanks in part to Minaj’s behind-the-scenes moves. Like Lady Gaga before her, she wants to be a high priestess of style.

Last spring, she split with her manager, P. Diddy, and began working with the hip-hop veteran Gee Roberson and Cortez Bryant, who also manages Lil Wayne, the rapper who helped secure Minaj’s record deal in 2009 after hearing an early mixtape. A priority of his, Bryant said in a phone interview, is to negotiate a deal with a fashion house so Minaj can sell her own line of clothes.

Some pop stars are born, others made, others spring fully formed from the Internet. Minaj, 29, whose birth certificate reads Onika Tanya Maraj, moved from Saint James, Trinidad and Tobago, to Queens with her parents when she was 5.

She attended LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts and in 2007 began releasing digital mixtapes, including “Beam Me Up Scotty,” in 2009, which was well received in hip-hop circles. In September 2010, two months before her album debut, Minaj and executives associated with her record label, Young Money Entertainment, asked to meet with Demsey of MAC. Minaj got right to the point: She wanted to be the company’s Viva Glam spokeswoman. “She was fun and cute,” Demsey recalled. “She’s funny, loves makeup and has a mashup style between Vivienne Westwood and a Harajuku girl.”

But she wasn’t yet a star, so Demsey proposed an online lipstick promotion over four Fridays, timed to her album’s November release.

On Nov. 26, 2010, MAC introduced Minaj’s Pink Friday lipstick, selling all 3,000 in stock in 15 minutes, in addition to an eye-popping 27,000 in the next three weeks. The company spent little on advertising, Demsey said, with sales driven mostly by Minaj’s voluminous postings to fans via Twitter and Facebook.

As album sales took off, her brand began to expand. In late 2010, organizers for Christie’s Green Auction, a charity event in the coming March that was followed by a fashion show, were debating what entertainer would make a splash at the event.

Vogue’s director of special events, Sylvana Ward Durrett, then suggested Minaj, saying she was “about to hit it big,” according to Glenda Felden, a communications director at the Web site Charitybuzz, who attended the planning meetings. A publicist for Vogue declined to make executives available for comment.

‘’Half of us were, like, ‘Oh, yeah, that would be great.’ The other half was, like, ‘Who?’ ” Felden said.

By early February, though, Minaj had sold more than 1 million albums, and fashion designers were beginning to take note. She was widely photographed prowling the red carpet at the Grammy Awards in a leopard-print bubble-skirted dress and matching leggings designed by Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy, and a Q-Tip shaped wig streaked with black.

After seeing Minaj at the Grammys, Stefano Tonchi, the editor of W magazine, wanted to include her in its July music issue, again dressed in Givenchy. “I think she is courageous in what she does,” he said. But the rapper, whose press at this point was being handled mostly by her label, was busy touring with Lil Wayne and could not arrange a time.

Other offers came but failed to materialize. Edward Razek, the chief marketing officer for Limited Brands, the parent company of Victoria’s Secret, said he approached music executives to see if Minaj might perform at its November fashion show, scheduled to be shown on CBS, but the talks foundered.

By April, with interest peaking after it was announced that she would join Britney Spears on tour in June, Minaj took control of her image, Demsey said. “She knew she had to tell her story,” he said.

She hired new management, including Bryant, who advised her to branch out. “You have a relationship with MAC, you have to build that relationship,’” Bryant said he told Minaj. She met with Demsey again, and this time he agreed to name her the Viva Glam spokeswoman for 2012, replacing Lady Gaga.

Minaj also hired 42 West, a public relations company. “She needed a person to concentrate on Nicki Minaj in the press,” Bryant said. One of the first things 42 West did was to contact W, he said, which agreed to put Minaj on the cover of its November art and fashion issue.

“She was taken out of the cliche about rappers, that they are afraid to look like something else,” Tonchi said.

And in September, her appearances at New York Fashion Week were heralded by a fawning press. Bryant said he appointed someone to manage Minaj’s schedule, while her publicists fielded calls from interested hosts.

In November, Minaj arrived at the party celebrating Donatella Versace’s collection for H&M dressed in one of its fitted short frocks; her wig was made up of blond and lime green ringlets adorned with a palm frond. More than 750 journalists had been invited to the event — a fashion show followed by a concert with Minaj and Prince — giving Minaj, and the brands, much-desired exposure.

‘’It was important to have her talking to the press saying she loved Versace,” said Jennifer Ward, an H&M public relations manager. That’s because Minaj attracts youthful consumers. “Right now she is a fresh face,” she said.

The New York Times