Importer Once Modeled Her Wears : Fashion: Rachel Wolven, owner of Chiemsee in Laguna Beach, went from farm to runway to boardroom.

At Chiemsee, a Laguna Beach clothing boutique, the dressing rooms look like the kind of large-scale artworks created by the artist Christo. The rooms have no walls, only yards of billowy white fabric wrapped around a metal frame.

“They were originally supposed to look like Japanese lanterns, but they became more like cocoons,” says Rachel Wolven, owner of Chiemsee (pronounced “kim-zay”). “The idea is that you’re transforming yourself.”

Wolven, 27, knows a lot about transformations. She has gone from farm girl to high fashion model to the chief executive officer of Chiemsee U.S., a European clothing line she is importing to the United States and selling out of her store.

Wolven opened the Chiemsee store in August, transforming a vacant space on Forest Avenue originally designed as a bookstore. The boutique’s white interior resembles a contemporary museum, with clothes as the art.

“The main intent was to design the store like a gallery so the collection would be the star,” Wolven says.

Like Chiemsee’s dressing rooms, the clothing itself is out of the ordinary--which pleases Wolven.

“Every piece is so different,” she says.

There are long column dresses made out of plaid fleece--the same material Americans are used to seeing in warm-ups. There are Henley-style blouses made of soft wool crepe. Upstairs in the children’s department, there are little swimsuits in ethnic prints designed by a Chiemsee artist in deep hues such as burnt sienna.

“You don’t see little pink flowers everywhere,” Wolven says. “We take the best of the best from the adult line and make itty-bitty versions for kids.”

Wolven was first introduced to Chiemsee’s unconventional clothing four years ago while working as a model in Europe. She had spent about five years walking the runways of international fashion shows and posing for photographers around the world.

Modeling “was a blessing--the travel and the different cultures. I got to live all over the world--Munich, Barcelona, Madrid, Switzerland. . . .”

Growing up on a 40-acre farm in Blythe, Calif., surrounded by cows and horses, she had an acute appreciation for foreign places.

“I was raised a farmer’s daughter. I always wanted to see more and experience more,” she says.

Wolven began modeling for Chiemsee, a family-owned company founded in 1976 by two brothers, Christof and Martin Imdahl. The company is named after a lake in Bavaria in the south of Germany.

Wolven eventually quit modeling to work full time for Chiemsee, selling the line to their English- and Spanish-speaking buyers.

Working for Chiemsee enabled her to pursue her interest in international business, which she’d studied in college. She also liked the family atmosphere at Chiemsee’s headquarters, formerly a girl’s boarding school and country manor in Grabenstatt.

“I liked the company. I liked their philosophy. Their motto is ‘Be yourself and do so with conviction.’ I really believed in that. Everyone was their own person there.”

After several years Wolven asked if she could bring the collection to the United States.

“I saw a void here for their type of clothing,” she says.

Although the line sells worldwide, Wolven’s showroom is the first store that carries only Chiemsee products.

“I do everything--the buying, the stocking, the marketing and distribution,” Wolven says. “My most important job is to oversee the product and make sure it comes in a timely manner.”

She travels to Germany to buy from all of the Chiemsee collections, including sportswear, active wear, jeans, mountain-bike and BMX clothing, nautical wear, children’s clothing and accessories.

“Chiemsee produces 16,000 pieces each year. I look for pieces that are different but not so different that it would scare people away,” she says.

A few items do have shock value, such as the striped, loose-weave alpaca wool sheath with slits to the waist ($334).

Some of Wolven’s other favorites include fleece ponchos with prints inspired by Native American blankets ($142) and nautical jackets made from recycled sails from the Chiemsee Nautic collection ($486).

“No two are alike,” she says.

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She also carries jeans dyed in Chiemsee’s rich hues ($65), handbags and luggage ($10 to $180) and hats including fleece beanies ($10 to $40).

“It’s the designs and the materials. They take fabrics a step further,” Wolven says.

Wolven sees a void in America of clothing made of fine fabrics such as the Italian brushed cottons of Chiemsee’s men’s dress shirts, the thick wool of the unisex sweaters and the fine wool crepe of the Henley-style blouses.

“Europeans want something that will last. They keep their pieces forever; that’s why the quality of the product is so good.”

She thinks Americans are ready for that same European quality. As Wolven knows too well, change is good.