The story
Founded by Laura Ashley in 1953, in Kent.1
Origins
Bernard Ashley met Welsh secretary Laura Mountney at a youth club in Wallington, London. While working as a secretary and raising her first two children, part-time she designed napkins, table mats, and tea-towels which Bernard printed on a machine he had designed in an attic flat in Pimlico, London. The couple had invested £10 in wood for the screen frame, dyes and a few yards of linen. Laura's inspiration to start producing printed fabric came from a Women's Institute display of traditional handicrafts at the Victoria & Albert Museum. When Laura looked for fabric carrying Victorian designs to help her make patchwork, she found no such thing existed. Here was an opportunity, and she started to print Victorian style headscarves in 1953.
Audrey Hepburn appeared alongside Gregory Peck in the 1953 film Roman Holiday, wearing a Laura Ashley headscarf. As a fashion icon, she instantly created a style that became popular around the globe. The Ashleys' scarves quickly became successful with stores, retailing both via mail order and high street chains such as John Lewis.
From 1953, Bernard left his city job and the couple began to expand the company, initially named Ashley Mountney Ltd incorporating Laura Ashley's maiden name. Laura designed the prints and Bernard built the printing equipment, so forging a complementary partnership that was to give the company its unique strength throughout the years. Laura remained in charge of design until shortly before her death, while Bernard handled the operational side.
Employing staff to cope with the growth of sales, the company name was changed to Laura Ashley because Bernard felt a woman's name was more appropriate for the type of products.
Expansion
The new company moved to Kent in 1955, but the business was nearly wiped out in 1958, when the River Darent overflowed – leaving equipment, dyes, and fabrics floating in three feet of water.
Turnover rose from £2,000 to £8,000 in 1960, which left them looking for new premises. As the new M4 Motorway had just been built, Laura suggested Wales as there was much space, and driving up the new road one weekend, found a suitable house and shop available for a sum below their residual savings in Machynlleth, Powys.
The family moved to Wales in 1961, just after the birth of their third child. The first shop opened at 35 Maengwyn Street, which still today trades as an interior design shop, and the Laura Ashley association is commemorated by a small plaque. The family lived above the shop for six years before moving to Carno, Montgomeryshire.
The Ashleys' first Welsh factory was originally located in the social club in Carno; in 1967, the factory moved across to the village's former railway station.
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These were crucial times in the development of the company. Bernard had developed his flat-bed printing process to produce 5,000 metres of fabric per week, and, in 1966, Laura produced her first dress for social rather than work attire. The long length silhouette became the Laura Ashley trademark. It also was to work successfully in the company's favour, as fashion switched from the mini to the maxi skirt at the end of the 1960s. A newspaper suggested that by donning a Laura Ashley number, women could look as beautiful as Katharine Ross in the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Retail shops
The first shop under the Laura Ashley name opened in Pelham Street, South Kensington, in 1968, with additional shops opened in Shrewsbury and Bath in 1970. In one week alone, London's Fulham Road shop sold 4,000 dresses – which resulted in the new factory in Newtown, Montgomeryshire. It was the opening of the Paris shop in 1974, which was the first to feature the distinctive green frontage and stripped wooden interior; and in the same year the first U.S. shop opened in San Francisco. A licensing operation led to the opening of department store concessions in Australia, Canada, and Japan from 1971 onwards.
By 1975, turnover was £5 million per year and the company employed 1,000 people worldwide. Laura turned down the offer of an OBE because her husband Bernard was not also offered the honour, but a Queen's Award for Export was accepted in 1977. Turnover reached £25 million in 1979, and a range of perfume was launched. The addition of a home in France enabled Laura to go back to her roots of fabric design, and the company launched its home furnishings collections. At one point the company was the largest employer in north Powys, with an excess of 13,000 staff in 500 shops and 13 factories according the BBC. In 1982, the book The Laura Ashley Book of Home Decorating was published.
By the time of Laura Ashley's death in 1985, the company had over 220 stores around the world, employed over 4,000 people and turned over US$130 million annually. The New York Times wrote of Ashley’s style of fashion: “With their high necks, full skirts, mutton sleeves, and lace and ruffle adornments, these dresses, along with prim pin-tucked cotton blouses, lace-trimmed nightgowns, and grosgrain-ribbon-tied hats, solidified the ‘Laura Ashley look.’”
From Wikipedia’s article on Laura Ashley (company), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5