Walk the Line

For someone who got his feet wet launching Tommy Hilfiger's women's division, Todd Magill, the designer and creator of the new label Graydn, has a fresh approach to fashion that seemingly belies his years in the biz. As it turns out, it's exactly these experience-filled years and the notoriety they've garnered (most notably, in his previous cult fashion line Wyeth), which have allowed the designer to let loose and craft an impossibly wearable—and wantable—women's collection.

That respect for balance seems to be Magill's muse more than anything at the moment. "I have this huge love for vintage, but it's about finding this formula, taking these details and transforming them into something modern," says the designer, "without being super literal about it." In Graydn's debut collection for fall 2008, he employs said formula, slightly tweaking classic shapes (ie: tunics and pencil skirts) and mixing them with modern fabrics, like well-washed silks and lightly sprayed wools (treated "to take the preciousness out of it,") lending each piece in his line a contemporary ease softened up with some old-world finesse. The result is an assemblage of slightly evolved classics that walk the line, being at once "familiar but," he says, "always new, too."

"There was definitely, in the prints, a deco influence that began when I started discovering downtown Los Angeles," says Magill referring to his company home-base. "There is an amazing amount of Deco architecture down here. I was trying to find some rooting in that." Gorgeous graphics like the collapsing triangle print are the result of those roots. And his take on the more demure shapes of the late '70s have us seeing stunning shirt-dresses, an amazing cropped cowl-neck leather jacket and an elongated version of the classic cardigan with side-button detail that allows for a sleeker more sophisticated silhouette.

When Magill, a native New Yorker, says of L.A., "there is a tremendous feeling of freedom and possibility here," we're tempted to think he's talking about more than just the city. In fact, we're pretty sure that he's talking about Graydn, too.

Todd Magill debuts his second act with the arrival of Gradyn.