"In a group of people, I’m probably the one sitting in the back in the shadow," Jayne Goheen, the designer and creative director, says to me on an October afternoon. "I’ve always been the more quiet, observant type."

Though rarely the focal point, shadows transform our understanding of an image—communicating dimension, perspective, and context that no object alone ever could. Attended from afar, they create drama, intrigue. Ensconced beneath one, relief. Goheen herself is similar: enigmatic, unassuming, eternal. She trades in unconventional classics, sanctifying Crocs well before the buzzy Christopher Kane and Balenciaga collabs. Her personal style is situated comfortably where Diane Keaton meets Gleaming The Cube (1985).

I first came across Goheen's work about a decade ago. At the time, she maintained a now-dormant blog called “Stop It Right Now,” where she wrote voice-driven reactions to collections, coats she was excited by but couldn't wear in Los Angeles weather, assorted observational humor. Occasionally, she'd share stories about visiting her dad in Korea, or growing up in Irvine's burgeoning skate culture.

In 2011, Goheen created a small suite of skateboard decks, printed in homage to three foulard blouses from Celine's Spring/Summer 2011 collection. It was a perfect synecdoche for her double life: skate apparel designer by day and front row fixture by night. I lingered on the announcement, overthinking whether I should get one. They sold out before I could even make a decision.

Goheen has lent her eye for instant classics to a long list of similarly grailed pieces, but you’d never know without asking her about specifics directly. In the four years since her blog went quiet, Goheen has become the living embodiment of the "Homer Simpson backs into the bushes" meme. (Her reference, though I agree.) These days, she prefers to let her work do all the talking. …