Born: Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, 1925
Died: Coventry, England, 1985
Advocate of the piecrust frill and full-blown ballgown, Laura Ashley began her business by silk-screen printing textiles on her kitchen table. Together with her husband, Bernard, Ashley started selling scarves to John Lewis. Laura Ashley Limited was established in 1968 when the couple opened their first outlet in Pelham Street, Kensington. The design ethos – puffed sleeves, smocks and voluminous dresses with patch pockets – were available in a variety of pretty cotton prints, including stripes, spots and floral sprigs. At its height – during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s – there were Laura Ashley shops in Paris, Geneva, New York and San Francisco.
By the 1980s Laura Ashley sold lawn fabrics, printed cottons and linens. In 1977 she won the Queen’s Award for Export Achievement. Laura Ashley turned down an OBE because her husband wasn’t offered one too, but Buckingham Palace made amends in 1987 and gave him a knighthood. As a consequence of boardroom shuffles and shifting fashion tastes, the company’s philosophy started to waver after Laura Ashley’s death. Today, Laura Ashley remains a strong presence on the high street, _but the designs have a twist on the English rose and elegant eveningwear rubs shoulders with anonymous tunics, but the traditional ethos is still apparent – with cotton summer dresses evoking thoughts of garden parties, and cable-knit sweaters prompting memories of long weekends spent in the country.
