I ask Carter if she could explain exactly what a muse is, what she does and how one becomes one.

"A muse is a woman who is generally quite chic and cultivated," says Carter. "She tends to be an inspiration for a fashion designer. A lot of designers live in a bell jar, and they tend to surround themselves with people from the street. I put that in quotes, by the way: 'the street.'"

(She put that in quotes because calling the place where most muses come from "the street" is sort of like calling a late-model Mercedes "the donkey cart.")

John Galliano's current muse, Carter says, is the half-French, half-American, all-stylish Vanessa Bellanger, a "stunning, tall slim blond" who worked for a while as a receptionist in the same building as the designer. How did she transition from phone jockey to muse? "She was very young and John saw her, and because she's quite stunning and had a great sense of personal style, John said, 'Hey, you should come work for me.'"

Then I ask Carter what she thinks of actresses like Gwyneth Paltrow (who has been called a muse to Calvin Klein and Armani) being called muses.

"Gwyneth Paltrow posed in an ad with a Dior handbag two years ago -- she's not a muse," replies Carter. "She was a paid ambassador for Christian Dior. I mean, she's not Carine Roitfeld."

	Collect all 10! For every season, there is a fashion muse. By Carina Chocano Communiqué You give me fever By Janelle Brown Print story E-mail story

Roitfeld is the current editor of French Vogue, who previously worked as a stylist with fashion photographer Mario Testino and collaborated with Tom Ford for seven years.

"She helped him choose the models for his shows," Carter says. "She helped him decide on the silhouettes. She put together some of the collections with him. She was almost an unofficial designer. That to me is a muse. Not Gwyneth Paltrow."

The subject has evidently touched a nerve, but it is easy to see why. The definition of muse is broad enough, it seems, to cover the unsung worker bees of the fashion world and the attention-loving couture client. Actresses and models are credited with being "muses," when often they simply wear the clothes in public -- sometimes for a fee.

"For example, Emmanuelle Ungaro dresses the French actress Sophie Marceau for all her public appearances," Carter says. "But in my book, she's not a muse. I don't think she inspires Ungaro. I think there's a difference between a muse and what the French would call an ambassadrice. I think a muse has to inspire and encourage and reflect a facet of that particular designer's creativity for her to be considered a muse."

Next, I call Simon Doonan, creative director at Barney's New York, who has some similar -- and some dissimilar -- opinions on the mercurial job of fashion muse. Since Doonan writes funny fashion columns for the New York Observer, I imagine, as I dial, that the two of us will soon be sharing a throaty laugh together.

"I thought you were my car downstairs," he says, "to take me to the airport."

Still, I am able to get in my question, which is: "What is a fashion muse, what does she do and are there different types of muses?"

"Well, I love to make fun of the silliness of the fashion world," he says. "But I do think that muses are very important because most designers are men. They can't create from thin air. Certain women are very inspiring to the designers they work with."

Unlike Carter, Doonan feels it is a "democratization of the muse" that is needed so that designers would start designing for a wider variety of people. Fashion insider-type muses and wildly esoteric muses should be replaced by more popular figures that people can identify with, he says.

"Like Gwyneth Paltrow?" I ask.

"Or Missy Elliott," he replies.

"The big fashion muses tend to be fashion insiders now," Doonan continues. "People like Lisa Eisner and Carine Roitfeld. Formerly, I think, they were more popular figures that women could identify with."

(It's possible he was referring to people like Audrey Hepburn was to Givenchy or Jackie Kennedy was to Oleg Cassini. There was not time to ask.)

"Do most muses get paid?" I query as I imagine him hanging up, suitcase in hand.

"No," he says. "I think it's a collaborative relationship. Certain women are very inspiring to designers. They chat, they hang out, they work together, they exchange ideas. I don't think those relationships are characterized by formal contracts and salaries. I think they are characterized by bonhomie and camaraderie."

Order "Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real-Life Parenthood" from the editors of Mothers Who Think.