|
BALTIMORE
— Natalie Graham’s first meeting a year ago with
“Modern Family” actress Ariel Winter could have been
a disaster.
Graham,
owner of The Doll House, a Baltimore boutique featuring
Graham’s Ragdolls Clothing Line, didn’t recognize
the waifish, chestnut-haired tween combing through the
racks of Graham’s vibrant, funky garments.
To make
it worse, at first, Graham and Winter’s mother
didn’t see eye to eye on outfits.
“Her
mother was saying no to garments that were still on the
hanger,” Graham said with a laugh. “I kept telling
Ariel to try them on. Once she did, the mother liked the
way the clothes looked. She said she liked that I had an
opinion.”
The gutsy
move paid off. Winter, an actress best known for
portraying brainiac Alex Dunphy on ABC’s “Modern
Family,” purchased five dresses that day. She also
scheduled an appointment to meet with Graham in Los
Angeles a couple of weeks later. It began Graham’s
relationship with her most important celebrity client
since establishing a second residence in Los Angeles a
few months earlier.
Graham is
no stranger to dressing celebs; 50 Cent, Faith Evans,
Teyana Taylor, Floetry and Vivica A. Fox have all worn
her designs. But Winter, her most recent and frequent
client, has given Graham plenty of exposure in the past
year. The ingénue has worn Graham’s designs to more
than 20 red-carpet events. She’s also the youngest
celebrity Graham has worked with in her 12 years as a
professional designer and stylist.
“My
collection is known to be sexy and edgy,” Graham
admitted. “There are a lot of times we have to alter
the dress so that it is age-appropriate. I have to pay
attention to the cleavage line, snug fit, the adornment.
It’s tough. We’re talking about red-carpet events.
We want to keep it young, but we don’t want her to
look like the average tween.”
Winter
loves Graham’s clothing selections.
“Natalie
has been wonderful. She can have three amazing looks in
a couple of days — all original. I love that her
pieces are couture, and she makes the look my own,”
said Winter, who met Graham while in Baltimore last
summer taping an episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home
Edition.” Winter and the other child actors from
“Modern Family” donated their time to help build an
11,120-square-foot home in Northeast Baltimore.
Graham
loves Winter’s spirit.
“She’s
so cute,” Graham said. “She really loves when the
clothes are fun and young — but not too young. She’s
extremely intelligent for her age.”
The pair
have become close in the past year, spending time
together when Graham is in L.A.
“They
are like family,” Graham said. “We go to the movies.
She gives me boyfriend advice.”
The
business relationship between the two is also a success.
Winter has noticed other actresses in Hollywood
attempting to mimic her style, according to Graham.
“They
try to copy her look but can’t get it,” Graham said.
“She loves being an individual. She loves that I am
willing to take her ideas. Even if we are doing slight
alterations, she likes being a part of it.”
Winter
added: “I only wish she was always in Hollywood. But I
have to share her with the East Coast.”
For more
than a decade, Graham has been growing her brand as a
designer and stylist. A self-taught seamstress, the
35-year-old originally started altering clothes while in
college at Hampton University in Virginia.
“I was
that girl in college that loved fashion but could not
afford what I wanted,” she said. “I would go to the
sales rack of every department store and would alter
different pieces. Sewing is very easy to me. It’s all
about the idea of manipulating fabric. I taught myself.
To this day, I haven’t taken a class or had a
teacher.”
After
college, Graham partnered with a friend to form a
modeling agency, Stejana’, which was based in Owings
Mills, Md. Graham soon discovered that when she sent
models to assignments, they were getting more attention
for their “go-see” frocks, which Graham designed.
“People
wanted to know what they were wearing,” Graham said.
“I would tell them: ‘No, it’s not the clothes,
it’s the models.’ We quickly learned that people
liked the pieces.”
Eventually,
Graham parted ways with the modeling agency and focused
on selling her designs, though she had initial success
elsewhere.
“Baltimore
wasn’t having it,” she said with a laugh. “I
mostly sold my clothes to boutiques on South Street in
Philadelphia.”
After
cultivating a following there, Graham’s designs caught
on in Baltimore. In 2004, she opened her current
boutique, The Doll House, in a second-story row house
just south of Baltimore’s Washington Monument. The
boutique has a playful, youthful feel. Graham playfully
refers to her customers as “dolls.”
She said:
“It feels like a girlfriend’s closet. It is a
welcoming place that feels like girls playing dress-up
and then realizing that they can wear outrageous
clothing.”
(EDITORS:
STORY CAN END HERE)
The
boutique is brightly lit with chandeliers, and filled
with eclectic, monochromatic duds, including crinoline
skirts, beaded tops and leather accented dresses. The
walls are covered with cutouts from high-fashion glossy
magazines.
Graham
expanded her empire to Los Angeles last year after
several of her model clients urged her to move west,
setting up styling jobs for her in L.A. upon her
arrival. In addition, she worked closely with Nicki
Schwan, formerly the fashion director for Vibe, now the
head stylist for rapper Nicki Minaj.
In
Winter, Graham has found the closest thing she has to
family in Los Angeles.
“I try
to keep my business and personal separate, but this
relationship blossomed,” Graham said of the pair going
to movies and spending time at each other’s homes.
“They are definitely family. Baltimore is so different
from California. You need that. They are my family. I
love them. They are not the typical Hollywood family at
all.”
Winter
also gushes about their relationship.
“I’m
a Ragdoll, and I love her,” she said.
Graham
hopes to build upon the recent momentum she has with
Winter. Recently, she headed up to New York City to meet
with a potential celebrity client, a musician. She met
with her again in D.C. before learning that she would be
dressing her for the coming Soul Train Music Awards —
a major event for the urban music industry.
Graham
said she was excited about her newest Ragdoll.
“I
can’t tell you who she is right now,” said Graham,
who was planning shopping trips in New York, Baltimore,
Washington and Philadelphia to pull together four
clothing options for her celebrity client. “But
you’ll definitely notice her on the red carpet.”
|
