Ze accent?!
I just always kind of thought she was a blatant ripoff of Bruce Timm's Batman character, Harley Quinn:
Bad scantily-clad clown-girl who isn't entirely evil, she just had some bad crap happen to her. Except the one in Chrono Cross has a very poorly implemented pseudo-french accent. Whereas the Batman version has a hilarious, well-performed Brooklyn accent. I'm just not a fan. I feel like too similar a character has been done better elsewhere.
I've gained more respect for the character, but I still have no clue why she looks or speaks the way she does.
In any case, the work depicted here is really masterful, 3D sculpture by hand is one of the most difficult forms of art. This one is almost uncanny, I just wish there were a hand or a quarter or pen or something to show scale.