Laura Ashley: Plaque celebrates designer's Welsh roots

Seventy years ago, a Welsh woman started a fabric printing business from the kitchen of her London flat.

From those humble beginnings, Laura Ashley and her husband Bernard went on to grow a global brand.

They designed and produced fashion, fabrics and homeware from their headquarters in a small mid Wales village.

Now a plaque has been unveiled in Newtown, Powys to commemorate the links between the area and the company.

An exhibition of Laura Ashley Heritage quilts has also opened in the town's library.

Laura Ashley was born in Dowlais near Merthyr Tydfil in 1925.

She was inspired to design and print headscarves and tea towels by a visit to the Victoria and Albert museum in 1953.

She and Bernard opened their first shop in Machynlleth in 1961, and in 1967 established the headquarters in a huge factory in Carno, 12 miles from Newtown.

In its heyday, the factory in Carno employed more than 500 people and garments made there would go to shops around the world.

The company would pay for buses to bring workers in from towns and villages across north Powys. Laura Ashley was also seen as being ahead of her time in allowing mothers to leave work early to collect their children from school.

Lynne Jones worked as a wallpaper printer in Carno from 1979 to 1995.

He said: "I did an apprenticeship after leaving school for four years, and earned £40 a week. After coming to work for Laura Ashley, within a month I was earning £70 a week.

"She looked after women and children. They were allowed to come and go as they liked, and work from home too.

"I remember helping my mother to turn clothes inside out when I was very small. She was a farmer's wife and sewed for Laura Ashley from home, and earned good money too."

In a letter to the organiser of the exhibition, Laura and Bernard's son, Nick Ashley, wrote that Laura "used to freely admit that she owed all of her success to the people of mid Wales".

He added: "My mother offered plenty of opportunity as she was designing and making sewn products. This was a winning formula, local women were flocking to Carno to join in the friendly working atmosphere."

David Emanuel, another iconic Welsh fashion designer who designed Princess Diana's wedding dress, said Laura Ashley was an inspiration.

"The thought of a Welsh woman from Merthyr setting up this global operation, it gave you hope and you think, 'Well, perhaps I could be like that one day'," he said.

"She was wonderful and of course the look - it just took over the planet really."

Before her marriage, the Princess of Wales had been photographed wearing Laura Ashley's designs. David Emanuel says that, while Laura Ashley was not a direct inspiration for the famous wedding dress, she was a big overall influence on work of the time.

"Did Laura have an influence on the gown? Well, you live through it, you know it was fashion. Talking about Diana's wedding gown, we did our history, we looked at other royal brides through the ages.

"It was a very romantic time and Laura Ashley was right on the button, right there in this huge global business, and I think she has to be Wales's first fashion brand worldwide.

"I'm delighted that she's being honoured and quite rightly so. Her name is in fashion history. You cannot forget Laura Ashley."

The exhibition has been organised by Ann Evans, who worked for Laura Ashley for 20 years.

She said : "It's a celebration of the legacy of Laura Ashley in mid Wales, and the wealth of jobs that they provided for young people.

"She had an inspirational view on things and she empowered younger people and even older people that were working from home.

"She was definitely ahead of the time in terms of making sure that the women were dictating their hours, not the business."

The company surpassed agriculture as the largest employer in north Powys, at its peak employing more than 13,000 staff in 500 shops and 13 factories worldwide.

Carys Mair Jones, a lecturer in Art and Design in Newtown who has her own clothing brand called Barn Dancer, says Laura Ashley still has a place in contemporary fashion.

"She's definitely still relevant. It might not be obvious, but maybe subconsciously with all the floral prints, they're still around on the high street, just on a slightly different garment, and just in a more contemporary way," she said.

"We're still talking about her now, so it's obvious that she made a big impact."

Laura Ashley died in 1985, after falling at her daughter's home when she was just 60 years old.

The company went on, but over the following decades there was a gradual decline and hundreds of jobs were lost in mid Wales and elsewhere. The factory in Carno closed in 2005. The brand is still available, producing fashion and homeware.

Although nothing is made in mid Wales anymore, many people still remember the good years with affection

Ann Evans added: "A lot of people in this area still love their memories of working with Laura Ashley. The friendships that grew within the business have lasted a lifetime."