The fashion and homewear brand Laura Ashley started at the Welsh designer’s Pilmlico attic flat in central London in 1953.
Having undertaken some quilting work with her local Women’s Institute, Ashley started sewing headscarves, napkins, table mats and tea-towels on her kitchen table.
Her husband Bernard would print them using his own machine and the couple took mail orders and sold stock to High Street retailers such as John Lewis.
Mr Ashley quit his city job so he could devote all his time to the printing business and the company moved to Kent in 1955.
But after the third of their four children were born the family re-located to her native Wales in 1960.
The fashion and homewear brand Laura Ashley started at the Welsh designer’s Pilmlico attic flat in central London in 1953 (shop front pictured)
Laura and Bernard opened their first shop in Machynlleth, Powys in 1961.
Branching out to dresses and home interiors, the couple opened under the name Laura Ashley for the first time in Pelham Street, South Kensington, in 1968.
They expanded abroad with a shop in Paris in and San Francisco both opening in 1974.
The brand did well on the High Street throughout the 1970s, bringing French chic and luxurious soft and hard furnishings to Britain’s middle classes.
But it wasn’t until the 1980s that it reached dizzying success, when Princess Diana threw her support behind the designer and was often seen in her dresses.
As time has gone on, with fast fashion dominating the landscape, the brand has relied increasingly on its homewear to make money. But with Ikea, Made.com and Habitat hot on its heels, the company has struggled to cling onto its previous success.
The country bride: A full-length Laura wedding gown of ivory cotton trimmed with cotton roses is pictured from decades gone by
A slump in demand for its chintz furniture in particular has resulted in multi-million-pound losses in recent years.
After a mini-revival in the late 1990s under new owners MUI – backed by Malaysian tycoon Khoo Kay Peng – Laura Ashley has found it difficult to compete with more modern, cheaper rivals like Zara.
In December 2018, the brand announced it would close 40 stores across the country.
In early 2020, Laura Ashley announced losses of £4million in the six months to December 31. They were saved from going bust after US bank and major lender Wells Fargo stepped in with an emergency funding deal.
They invested in a new chief executive, Katharine Poulter amid the ‘disappointing sales’, who has vowed to return the brand to its 1980s heyday.
Ms Poulter has 25 years of retail experience with companies including Marks & Spencer, Habitat and Wilko.
The brand did well on the High Street throughout the 1970s, bringing French chic and luxurious soft and hard furnishings into people’s homes (catalogue image pictured)