Packaged Good

By Charla Krupp

First came a Michael Graves-designed toilet brush and Philippe Starck's take on the toilet-training potty at Target. Now it seems there's not an unglamorous personal-care item that hasn't received a designer makeover. Carefree's feminine protection panty liners are available in black for the woman who wants to color-coordinate every aspect of her outfit. This month Ortho Tri-Cyclen makes it easier to pop its birth control pill without embarrassment, offering cases by fashion designer Nicole Miller created to look like makeup compacts, with such names as Red High Heels and Zebra Kiss.

And in September that icon of feminine protection, Procter & Gamble's 65-year-old Tampax tampon, will shed its plain white wrapper and reinvent itself as the Tampax Pearl, with an easier-to-use, pearlized applicator decked out in a pastel wrapper that won't turn to confetti at the bottom of a purse. The intended customer, says Tampax spokeswoman Elaine Plummer, is the "joy consumer--the postpone-no-pleasure, spare-no-expense, accomplished, feminine woman who wants her tampon to be more fashion accessory than hygiene product." In other words, the woman who wants designer everything--inside and out.

--By Charla Krupp