The quick version:
Paradise Kiss is a shoujo series, that is often referred to as 'fashion manga'. It follows the life of a girl in her late teens, Yukari Hayasaka, who is struggling in High School and who desperately wants to pass the entrance exams for college. Everything changes though when she runs into Arashi and Isabella, part of the Paradise Kiss clothes designing club, who want her to model for their clothing line in a runway show! Soon after, she meets the other two members of the Paradise Kiss team: Miwako and George. Initially Yukari is wierded out by these Yazawa School for the Arts' "freaks", but she quickly grows to love them, as they become her closest friends. When she gets caught up in the whirlwind of high-fashion and professional modeling, she starts to miss more and more school. And when Yukari's new friends and boyfriend show her that school and exams aren't everything, she's torn between living the way her parents want her to, and making herself happy.