Label lover

Not just a label name! Laura did exist and was born Laura Mountney in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.

She married Bernard Ashley in 1949. It was whilst working as a secretary and raising her two young children that she began to design small items such as tea-towels, table mats and napkins. Her husband printed the designs using a machine he had designed himself in their London flat.

Using an initial investment of £10 the couple purchased dyes, lines and wood for a screen frame and began to produce fabric inspired by William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. They began to print Victorian styled headscarves in 1953.

It was an amazing coup that Audrey Hepburn just so happened to wear a headscarf in the successful Gregory peck film Roman Holiday in 1953 – thus creating an instant global trend.

Making the most of their success the couple began selling their goods via mail order and high street chains such as John Lewis. Their continuing success meant they needed to employee staff to cope. It was at this point the company was actually registered.

This newly formed company operated from Kent in 1955 however after a huge loss due to the bursting of the Derwent riverbanks, and with an ever growing brood of children the family moved back to Laura’s native Wales in 1961.

Not that this slowed the pair down! The first Laura Ashley store opened in Pelham Street, South Kensington in 1968 – just in time to capture the Summer of Love and the penchant for maxi’s and flower love-in prints.

By 1974 the company expanded into Paris and San Francisco, this was the time when the distinctive dark green shop front and wooden interior appeared. Department store concessions were also created across the globe from Australia to Canada and Japan.

Turnover had reached £25,000,000 by 1979 when the couple celebrated 25 years of Laura Ashley – the chain now branched out into home furnishings.

Laura died in 1985, rather tragically following a fall at her daughter’s home, just before her 60th birthday. Following her death the company was floated on the stock exchange.

By the end of the 80’s though Laura Ashley had lost it’s appeal – the lovely simple cotton 60’s numbers, the 70’s maxi’s and the 80’s “Sloane ranger” dresses were out of fashion. Through their strong home furnishing range they sustained their high street presence, and as vintage fashion became popular amongst celebrities it was only a matter of time before vintage vixens discovered the excellent quality and beautiful patterns of the Laura Ashley archive. Something the company itself cottoned (no pun intended!) on to in recent times,