I think that as fashion historians, one of the most fascinating exercises is to look at our own closets and homes. Although I love exploring designers Christian Dior and Norman Hartnell, most of us don’t spend our days in couture. And the designers of our own clothing are just as interesting. Designers come and go, but we still remember their place in our fashion lives. I am excited to have Claire from Hisdoryan here to chat about Welsh designer, Laura Ashley, for Style File Friday!
A massive welcome back to Claire, for this wonderful guest post! She covers many different aspects of Welsh history on her blog and social media, and she is the perfect person to cover Laura Ashley.
Laura Ashley – The Forgotten Style Icon
I grew up surrounded by one of the biggest fashion designers of the 1970s. My mother worked in one of her multiple factories; our house was dressed from top-to-toe in the home furnishings; my godfather even played with her son. Who was this fashion designer? The forgotten Laura Ashley.
I’ve been thinking more and more about this floral-patterned background to my childhood over the past few years. Why? Well the nostalgic ditsy-print smock dresses that are the staple of every fashionable 20-something’s current wardrobe are the natural grandchild of the original Laura Ashley dresses. Also, earlier this year the company unfortunately filed for administration. In my eyes, it’s truly the end of a fashion era.
It’s a far cry from the 1970s and 1980s when Laura Ashley was a globally recognised brand. It was worn by celebs all over the world – including the ultimate fashion icon that was Princess Diana. The company turned over nine figure sums, and the Ashley family enjoyed their yacht, private jet and multiple houses across the world.
So who was Laura Ashley?
Laura Ashley (nee Mountney) was born on September 7th 1925 at her grandmother’s home in Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil. After returning to London for a few years with her family, she was evacuated back to Wales aged 13.
Leaving school in 1942, she served in the Women’s Royal Naval Service. She met her future husband Bernard Ashley during this time. She later married him in 1949 and settled into working as a secretary for the Women’s Institute.
The company Laura Ashley was founded in 1953, partly inspired by a WI project she had been working on regarding quilting. In their small basement flat in London’s Pimlico, Laura and Bernard started to print headscarves, napkins, and tea towels on a silk screen. They learnt about fabric printing by reading about it in books from the library.
The headscarves were particularly successful, and the company steadily grew. The Ashley family moved to Wales in 1960, and opened their first shop in Machynlleth, Powys just one year later. This is when Laura Ashley started to diversify into what it would became famous for – fashion.
On a personal note, this is when Laura Ashley really started to become a part of my family’s life. The Ashley family moved to Carno, Powys and eventually established multiple factories in the local area to service what would eventually become their global empire. This is where my mum and so many other local women worked. Laura Ashley was simply a part of Mid Wales life.
The Company Grows
By the latter half of the 1960s the company was opening shops in major UK towns and cities, but the company really started to take off in the 1970s. Those prairie dresses where perfect for the emerging hippy scene, and Laura Ashley shops started to be opened across the world, in cities like Paris, Geneva and San Francisco. There were also department store concessions in Australia, Canada and Japan. By the 1980s, the Ashleys had expanded into home furnishing
Then, suddenly and tragically, in 1985 Laura Ashley died after falling down the stairs at her daughter’s home in the West Midlands. She was aged only 60, and her company was at its zenith.
Just months later, the company was floated on the stockmarket, valued at a cool £200 million. Within five years Sir Bernard Ashley, as he had become, had sold on the company to foreign investors. They managed a brief resurgence in fortune, but unfortunately the minimalist 90s was no place for chintzy Laura Ashley. The company entered a fundamental decline, resulting in it entering administration earlier this year. It truly was the end of an era for Mid Wales.
Laura Ashley fizzled out, excruciatingly slowly over a 20 year period. And this is partly why I think Laura Ashley – both as a person and a brand – doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. Their aesthetic defined the style of the 1970s decade (along with Biba), but for the past decade at least it has been evident that the end was nigh, and it was painful to watch.
Laura Ashley was firmly rooted in the romance and nostalgia of the past, at the expense of making it in the present. If any company could have taken advantage of the recent trend for boho and whimsical prairie dresses, it should have been Laura Ashley. But it didn’t. Fashion icons should go out with a bang, not a whimper.
So next time you put on your smock dress, don’t forget about the fashion icon from Mid Wales.
Claire Miles runs the popular history blog Hisdoryan, which helps people live in the past everyday. She is also the founder of the #historygirls Instagram community and The History Bookshelf, an online history book club. Her background is in Welsh history.
Do you own any Laura Ashley pieces?
Cheers,
The Historian
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