Laura Ashley
(1925-1985)
Laura Mountney Ashley was born September 7, 1925, in Dowlais - Glamorgan, Wales. She married Bernard Ashley in 1949. In the 1950’s they moved to Carno, Wales, which is now the headquarters of the firm's international operations. Here she concentrated in making her designs
, and her husband printed and merchandised them.
A major influence on her dress designing was her uniform as a Wren in World War II. She studied 18th and 19th century prints in museum collections for her miniature floral patterns, which she preferred in subdued colors. Her success was quick and extraordinary. Her fabrics were first sold in two of the smaller but highly fashionable London department stores; Heal’s and Liberty's. At the end of the 1960s Ashley opened her first retail store in London. Her first American shop opened in 1974 in San Francisco.
The Laura Ashley firm published three major books during her lifetime: Fabric of Society: A Century of People and Their Clothes 1770-1870 by Jane Tozer and Sarah Levitt and A House in the Cotswolds and The Laura Ashley Book of Home Decorating by Elizabeth Dickson and Margaret Calvin, with a foreword by Laura Ashley. Laura Ashley received the Queen’s award for Export Achievement in 1977.
