Deee-Lite is a design-conscious sound system with a utopian purpose that grooves on positive attitude and fashion madness. The trio's yummy looks embody the kind of smiley-face retro-eclecticism that World Clique claims as revolutionary: Japanese B-boy Jungle DJ Towa Towa provides computer-literate beats; the Lady Miss Kier, a space-age fox, does the soul-mama thing (which she seems to identify...

By the end of 1990, Deee-Lite had not only conquered the dance floor, it had moved on to rule the international runway. At the fashion collections, the neo-disco single "Groove Is in the Heart," from the group's debut, World Clique, was more popular than Karl Lagerfeld's resuscitation of the House of Chanel. The album went gold; the group got more press than natural disasters; and vocalist Lady...