Ayla Conlan had a flair for fashion and a winning style

FASHION SENSE

AYLA CONLAN HAD A FLAIR FOR FASHION AND A WINNING STYLE

By Tavi Fulkerson

She had a vision—a dream—of changing the way women dress. We were fortunate that she chose Ann Arbor for her fashion testing ground. While others with similar design expertise left for New York, for Chicago or the Champs-Elysees, Ayla Conlan set up shop in our town. And the downtown streets were never quite the same.

Ayla had a flair, a taste for clothing that defied description. She brought us the stylish separates of Perry Ellis, kicky Kamali sweats and the most elegant of suits by Christian Dior… certainly not typical fare for classically dressed Midwesterners and often not readily accepted by initial passersby.

It was tough at first bringing a Madison Avenue approach to fashion onto Main Street U.S.A. But Ayla Conlan was a gambler. And the gambler who has a sincere interest and a hardworking passion for what she is doing is bound to win.

Rather than be “high-brow” about her fashion knowledge, Ayla worked hard with each new customer… teaching, even preaching, the ways to stylish dress.

In a way, fashion was only a part of her gospel, as many a downtown business woman can attest. For Judy Paron of Hair & Company, for Estelle Schneider of the Schneider Group, for Jan Onder and Susan Schreiber of Generations, for Oyla Lash and many, many others, Ayla was an involved and dedicated entrepreneur, as interested in their professional concerns and goals as she was in her own.

They will all miss Ayla, who died February 26 at the age of 44.

The retail stores on Main Street, Ann Arbor, continue to open Monday through Saturday, right on schedule. And Ayla, Inc. is no exception. For Kip and Marmeen and Marcy and David Conlan, business has been brisk, demanding and brave. They have worked hard and will be working even harder to keep the Ayla tradition alive.

She wanted it that way.

IMAGE TEXT: The late Ayla Conlan’s interest in fashion continues through her store, 323 S. Main St., where she worked hard to convince even the most skeptical of women to try on the unordinary and have the confidence to wear a new look with distinction. Above are collections of shoes and separates at the store. At right is the front of the store, where mirrors display multiple dimensions of a dress. The technique is incorporated in the store’s interior as well.