Laura Ashley
| Laura Ashley | |
|---|---|
Ashley in the 1960s.
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| Born |
Laura Mountney 7 September 1925 Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales |
| Died | 17 September 1985 (aged 60) Coventry, West Midlands, England |
| Resting place | St. John the Baptist Church, Carno, Mid Wales |
| Nationality | Welsh |
| Education | Marshall's School, Merthyr Tydfill Elmwood School, Croydon |
| Occupation | Fashion designer/Businesswoman |
| Spouse(s) | Bernard Ashley (m. 1949–85) (her death) |
| Children | 4 |
Laura Ashley (7 September 1925 – 17 September 1985) was a Welsh fashion designer and businesswoman. She originally made furnishing materials in the 1950s, expanding the business into clothing design and manufacture in the 1960s. The Laura Ashley style is characterised by Romantic English designs — often with a 19th-century rural feel — and the use of natural fabrics.
Although her Welsh parents lived in London, her mother returned home to allow Laura Mountney to be born in Wales at her grandmother's home, 31 Station Terrace, in Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil. She was raised in a civil service family as a Strict Baptist. The chapel she attended in Dowlais (Hebron) was Welsh language and although she could not understand it, 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. She was evacuated back to Wales aged 13, but with so many World War II evacuees there were no school places left and she attended Aberdare Secretarial School.
In 1942, at age 16, she left school and served in the Women's Royal Naval Service. During this period she met engineer Bernard Ashley at a youth club in Wallington. After the war, Bernard was posted to India with the Gurkhas, and the pair corresponded by letter. From 1945 to 1952 she worked as a secretary for the National Federation of Women's Institutes in London, marrying Bernard in 1949.
While working as a secretary and raising her first two children, Ashley undertook some development work for the Women's Institute on quilting. Revisiting the craft she had learnt with her grandmother, she began designing headscarves, napkins, table mats and tea-towels which Bernard printed on a machine he had designed in their attic flat at 83 Cambridge Street, Pimlico.
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Wikipedia