Laura Ashley CBE, (7 September 1925 – 17 September 1985) was a Welsh designer. The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British Order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. Events 1251 BC - A Solar eclipse on this date might mark the birth of legendary Heracles at Thebes Greece. Year 1925 ( MCMXXV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1176 - The Battle of Myriokephalon is fought 1462 - The Battle of Świecino (or Battle of Żarnowiec Year 1985 ( MCMLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar)
She became a household name on the strength of her work as a designer and manufacturer of a range of colourful fabrics for clothes and home furnishings.
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Career
Born Laura Mountney in Station Terrace in Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil, Laura was raised in a civil service family as a strict Baptist. Merthyr Tydfil today Government The current Borough boundaries date back to 1974 when the former county borough of Merthyr Tydfil expanded slightly to cover See also Bureaucrat The term civil service has two distinct meanings Branch of governmental service in which individuals are hired on the basis Baptist is a term describing individuals belonging to a Baptist church or a Baptist denomination. The chapel she attended in Dowlais (Hebron) was Welsh language and although she could not understand the language, she loved it, especially the singing. Educated at Marshall’s School in Merthyr Tydfil until 1932, she was then sent to the Elmwood School, Croydon. Croydon is a large town and major commercial centre in South London, and the principal settlement of the London Borough of Croydon. She was evacuated back to Wales, and after attending the Aberdare Secretarial School, she left school at 16. Aberdare (Aberdâr is an industrial Town in the County borough of Rhondda Cynon Taff, Wales, situated (as the name implies at the In World War II, she served in the Women's Royal Naval Service, and then from 1945 to 1952 as a secretary for the National Federation of Womens Institutes in London. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including She met engineer Bernard Albert Ashley, latterly Sir Bernard, at a youth club in Wallington, whom she married in 1949 [1]
While working as a secretary and raising her first two children, part time she designed napkins, table mats and tea-towels which Sir Bernard printed on a machine he had designed in an attic flat in Pimlico, London [2]
The couple had invested £10 in wood for the screen frame, dyes and a few yards of linen. Sir Bernard Ashley (born August 11, 1926) is a Welsh businessman and engineer Wallington is a town in the London Borough of Sutton situated south south-west of Charing Cross. Pimlico is a small area of central London in the City of Westminster that is primarily residential and well known for its collection of small hotels and impressive London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Laura's inspiration to start producing printed fabric came from a Women's Institute display of traditional handicrafts at the Victoria & Albert Museum. The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design housing a permanent collection When Laura looked for small patches carrying Victorian designs to help her make patchworks, she found no such thing existed. Here was an opportunity, and she started to print Victorian style headscarves in 1953. Year 1953 ( MCMLIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.
Catalyst
Audrey Hepburn inadvertently sparked the growth of one of the world's most successful fashion and home furnishing companies. Audrey Hepburn ( &ndash) was an English/Dutch Academy Award - Emmy Award - Tony Award - and Grammy Award -winning film and stage actress Hepburn appeared alongside Gregory Peck in the 1953 film Roman Holiday, wearing a headscarf. Gregory Peck (April 5 1916 &ndash June 12 2003 was an Academy Award -winning and four-time Golden Globe Award-winning American Film Year 1953 ( MCMLIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Roman Holiday is a 1953 Romantic comedy. The film introduced American audiences to Belgian-born actress Audrey Hepburn, who won the Academy As such 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 - Bernard left his city job to print fabrics full time. Mail order is a term which describes the Buying of goods or services by Mail delivery John Lewis is a chain of upmarket Department stores operating throughout Great Britain and popular amongst the British middle class for its high quality This put them on the road to becoming an international company with a brand that is recognized around the globe. Laura designed the prints and Bernard built the printing equipment; 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 was originally registered as Ashley Mountney (Laura's maiden name), Sir Bernard changed the name to Laura Ashley because he felt a woman's name was more appropriate for the type of products.
Expansion
The newly formed company moved to Kent in 1955, but the business was nearly wiped out in 1958, when the river Derwent overflowed - leaving equipment, dyes and fabrics floating in three feet of water. KENT (1400 AM) is a Radio station broadcasting a Adult Standards/MOR format Year 1955 ( MCMLV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar) Year 1958 ( MCMLVIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Turnover rose from £2,000 to £8,000 in 1960, and in light of the birth of the third of their four children, the family moved to Wales in 1961, the country where Laura was born and had spent much of her childhood. Originally located in the social club in Carno, Montgomeryshire; in 1967 the factory moved across to the village's railway station. Carno is a village in Powys, Mid Wales located on the main A470 road between Llanbrynmair & Caersws. Year 1967 ( MCMLXVII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the 1967 Gregorian calendar.
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 become 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 1960's - a newspaper suggested that by donning a Laura Ashley number, women could look as beautiful as Katharine Ross in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Katharine Juliet Ross (born January 29, 1940 - some sources say 1942 or 1943 - in Los Angeles California) is an Academy Award -nominated Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a American Western film that tells the story of bank robbers Butch Cassidy (played by Paul Newman) and
By 1970, sales had reached £300,000 per year. 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. South Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London. Shrewsbury ( /ˈʃruːzbri/ or /ˈʃroʊzbri/ is the County town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England Bath is a city in Somerset in the south west of England It is situated west of London and south-east of Bristol. In one week alone, London's Fulham Road shop sold 4,000 dresses - which resulted in the new factory in Newtown, Montgomeryshire. Fulham Road is a Street in London, England, that runs from the A219 road in right in the centre of Fulham, in the London Borough Newtown (Y Drenewydd is the largest Town in the County of Powys, Mid Wales with a Population of 12783 (2001 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 USA shop opened in San Francisco. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city Year 1974 ( MCMLXXIV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city A licensing operation led to the opening of department store concessions in Australia, Canada and Japan from 1971 onwards. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. Year 1971 ( MCMLXXI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1971 Gregorian calendar.
By 1975, turnover was £5million per year and the company employed 1,000 people worldwide. Laura turned down the offer of an OBE (she was upset Bernard had not been offered one) but a Queen's Award for Export was accepted in 1977. The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British Order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Queen's Awards for Enterprise is an awards programme for British businesses and other organizations who excel at international trade innovation or sustainable development Also 1977 (album by Ash. Year 1977 ( MCMLXXVII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays Turnover reached £25million as Laura Ashley celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1979 with the launch of a range of perfume. Year 1979 ( MCMLXXIX) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1979 Gregorian calendar) Perfume is a mixture of fragrant Essential oils and Aroma compounds Fixatives and Solvents used to give the human body animals objects and living 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. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics.
After Laura's death
Laura Ashley died of a brain hemorrhage suffered ten days after she fell down the stairs of her daughter's English country home on her 60th birthday. A stroke is the rapidly developing loss of brain functions due to a disturbance in the blood vessels supplying blood to the brain [3]
Two months after Laura's death in 1985, Laura Ashley Holdings plc went public in a flotation that was 34 times oversubscribed. The 1980s saw the knighthood of Sir Bernard Ashley, and the launch of additional child and home furnishings ranges. Sir Bernard Ashley (born August 11, 1926) is a Welsh businessman and engineer
However, by the end of the 1980s Laura Ashley was distinctly out of fashion. Women were making inroads in the boardroom, and sharp suits and shoulder pads were at odds with everything Laura Ashley stood for. Sir Bernard's larger-than-life personality and idiosyncratic style of management meant that he fell out of favour with the City. Idiosyncrasy, from Greek ιδιοσυγκρασία idiosunkrasia, "a peculiar temperament" "habit of body" ( idios "one's own" The City as a linguistic term is a generic name used in various contexts to refer to a particular city
First of the new CEOs
In the early 1990s, Laura Ashley plc was suffering from a combination of over expansion of its retail outlets and dependence on what had become an overly complex and costly outsourced network of manufacturers. In 1991, American James Maxmin, Ph. D. became the CEO at Laura Ashley, after pressure on the autocratic Sir Bernard. Over the next two and a half years, Dr. Maxmin led a series of changes, fixing problems in manufacturing and logistics that foreshadowed principles of his later book, The Support Economy, co-authored with his wife, Harvard Business School Professor Shoshana Zuboff. Shoshana Zuboff is the Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School (retired For example, he entered into a strategic alliance with FedEx, forming a sort of proto-federation, aimed at improving distribution for close to 500 Laura Ashley stores. FedEx Corporation ( is a Logistics services company based in the United States. The alliance was established as a 10-year partnership, but it was relatively open-ended, premised on trust. The objective was to be able to supply 99 percent of Laura Ashley’s merchandise to customers anywhere in the world within 48 hours. The alliance replaced a legacy system that would route a T-shirt manufactured in Hong Kong to a warehouse in Newton, Wales, before sending it to a retail store in Japan.
In 1992, Dr. Maxmin led Laura Ashley to its first gross profits since 1989, and in fiscal 1993, gross profits were expected to reach 12 million pounds. But in early April 1994, two weeks before his wife’s epiphany on national television, Dr. Maxin abruptly resigned from Laura Ashley, citing major differences with Sir Bernard over strategy [4].
Laura Ashley celebrated its 40th anniversary in 1993, the same year that Sir Bernard retired as chairman and became honorary life president. The Ashley family retain an interest in the business and its development. The launch of a children's range and a furniture range helped deflect the looming crisis but by 1997, after a torrid few years and numerous chief executives, the company was in serious financial difficulties.
MUI Asia takeover
In May 1998, MUI Asia Limited became a major shareholder in Laura Ashley Holdings plc and under the new management, this world famous international brand was back in profit. Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) Malayan United Industries Berhad (MUI was founded in 1960 The main businesses of the group includes retailing hotels food and confectionery financial services property travel and Rescued from the receivers in 1998, 58 per cent of the shares are believed to be controlled directly or indirectly by the company's chairman Dr Khoo Kay Peng [5]
But the company failed to capitalise on its trademark look - probably due to employing its 11th chief executive in 14 years. Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) It closed its flagship store on London's Regent Street in late 2005 because of rent increases, and in March 2005 it launched a £28m law suit against L'Oreal, which manufactured the Laura Ashley perfumes. The L'Oréal Group is the world's largest Cosmetics and Beauty company and is headquartered in the Paris suburb of Clichy, France At Christmas 2004, the chain parted company with couture designer Alistair Blair, who had previously designed for Dior and Givenchy. "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " Christian Dior ( January 21, 1905 &ndash October 23, 1957) was an influential French Fashion designer, best known as the Givenchy ( pronounced or zhee-von-shee) is a French brand of clothing accessories Perfumes and Cosmetics with
In the U. S. in 2005 and 2006 the "Laura Ashley" label is found applied to inexpensive items that lack the "look," sold in department stores such as Sears and Kohl's, further diluting the value of the brand. The home furnishing items are slightly better, continuing to use some of the classic Laura Ashley textile designs.
Ms Lillian Tan, who has been chief executive since January, plans to reduce fashion from 22 per cent of sales to 14 per cent this year - with stores cutting back the space they give to clothes in favour of home furnishings, now the most profitable part of the business.
In early 2008 Laura Ashley launched a mattress line with Comfort Solutions. The Comfort solution brand is part of King Koil. A top five Mattress company that has produced high quality product for over 110 years. The mix of Laura Ashley and Comfort Solutions has brought a high range of style to the world of bland eggshell white, all too common in the mattress world.
Personal life
Laura and Sir Bernard (married 1949), were a great complement to each other - both inside the business, and in their personal life. Laura had four children, and loved family life, but the expansion of the business meant the need for an escape point, and for creativity. They bought a house in France in the early 1970's, and kept in touch with the family and business through flying, with Sir Bernard's accomplished skills as a pilot.
The Ashley children were all involved with the business. David, the eldest son now in his early fifties, designed the shops; daughter Jane was the company photographer; another daughter Emma and their second son Nick were part of the company's fashion design team. Sir Bernard Ashley was the company chairman and Laura kept a close eye on fabrics. The astonishing success of what proved to be the ultimate cottage industry, bought the Ashleys a yacht, a private plane, a French chateau in Picardy, a town-house in Brussels, and the villa Contenta in Lyford Cay, New Providence, Bahamas, just purchased for $8. Picardy (Picardie is an historical Province of France, in the north of France. Brussels (Bruxelles pronounced; Brussel pronounced) officially the Brussels Capital-Region, is The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an independent sovereign English -speaking country consisting of two thousand Cays and 5 million dollars by TJ Maloney. [6]
In 1985, on her 60th birthday, while she was visiting her children in the UK, Laura fell down the stairs and was rushed to hospital where she died ten days later. It was a sudden and unexpected loss but her name lives on through her business. She is buried in the churchyard of St John the Baptist, in Carno, Powys, Wales
Foundation
The Laura Ashley Foundation was set up in 1987, in memory of Laura Ashley who had died a year before, by Sir Bernard to help individuals realise their potential and release talent. This article is about the county of Wales For the ancient kingdom see Kingdom of Powys. It is very much a family affair and the Ashley family are actively involved in the day to day running of the foundation.
References
- ^ BBC - South East Wales Arts - Laura Ashley
- ^ Copestake and Mounteney Newsletter 2
- ^ Malaysian magnate leads English rose to the block, The Age, June 29, 2005. The Age is a Broadsheet daily Newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854 Events 512 - A Solar eclipse is recorded by a monastic chronicler in Ireland. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.
- ^ http://www.thesupporteconomy.com/reviews15.html
- ^ The Scotsman
- ^ http://www.damianos.com/Listings/ListingDetail.ASPX?LID=10415308
External links
- Laura Ashley company (requires Macromedia Flash)
- National gallery portraits
- Funding Universe article on Laura Ashley plc
- Designer portrait on Rosenthalusa.com
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