Los Angeles Fashion Week: Ai for Ai
The occult was the inspiration for the Fall 2011 line of Ai for Ai, the Los Angeles–based emerging fashion label that debuted in 2010. Designing sisters Carol and Elizabeth Ai showed 15 looks on the floor of the influential boutique Satine at its March 15 show. For a spooky look, models wore a light blue powdery makeup, which gave them a look of Druids walking the runway.Many of the line’s pieces offered rounded collars reminiscent of the shirts worn by the women charged in the Salem witch trials. Ai for Ai dresses exhibited an ethereal look, what with their loose, floating silhouettes. Constructed out of silks, nylons and slub wools, some pieces exhibited were high-waist maxi-skirts with zippers in the front.
Other dresses offered optical illusions. The Venus dress looked like a two-piece ensemble; an ivory silk skirt, under a gray crepe de chine dress. The line’s Transit dress was reversible. It featured a deep V that can be worn in back, or the deep V can be worn in front when the wearer wants to look bewitching. —Andrew Asch
