The California Design book came - abit of a disapointment at the price, but there is some information on I. Magnin.
What follows is pretty much lifted from the text, so will need to be rewritten before being included in the Label Resource -can't have that nasty plagiarism.
I Magnin - Founded 1876 by Isaac and Mary Ann Magin in San Francisco. Their son John joined the firm in 1888, and they bgan expanding in 1892. Buying trips to Europe came in 1904, with branches opening in 1912 and son Grover staying in SF and John heading to NYC to buy.
Third son Joseph Magnin started his own SF store (Joseph Magnin) in 1913. He ended up with branches in Northrn CA, LA and Reno.
The I. Magnin Custom Salon began in the 1960s. They did line for line repros of licensed Paris designers - Balenciaga, St. Laurent and Cardin. Run in SF by Henriette Moon, and in LA by Stella Hanania . The Custom Salon was indeed custom, made to order with mutiple fittings with a muslin tag in the hem with the name of th couturier and model number.
By the mid 1940s - branches in San Francisco, Seattle, LA, Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Santa Barbara, Coronado.
Joseph Magnin carried an exclusive Howard Greer line in 1949 and a Rudi Gernreich line in 1953 - Couturier Casuals.
All branches had closed by the early 1990s.
Hollis