"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. Her name lives on through her business. She is buried in the churchyard of St John the Baptist, in Carno, Powys, Wales. Bernard at first ploughed his efforts into Laura Ashley plc, then his Ashleys Halls hotel venture, and latterly in the Elanbach fabrics business. He died of cancer and is buried with Laura. Bernard Ashley (businessman) Sir Bernard Albert Ashley (11 August 1926 – 14 February 2009) was an"
"Laura Ashley plc Laura Ashley plc () is a British textile design company now controlled by the MUI Group of Malaysia. It was founded by Bernard Ashley, an engineer, and his wife Laura Ashley in 1953 then grew over the next 20 years to become an international retail chain. Sales totalled over £276 million in 2000. Its products can be described as quintessentially English. After World War II, Bernard Ashley met Welsh secretary Laura Mountney at a youth club in Wallington, London. While working as a secretary and raising her first two children, part-time she designed napkins, table mats, tea-towels"
"agreements. All of its stores there have now closed and the business as a whole is separately owned from that of its parent company in the UK. The Company was criticised in 2009 for price discrepancies, which meant Irish customers were charged more than their UK counterparts for the same items. Laura Ashley plc Laura Ashley plc () is a British textile design company now controlled by the MUI Group of Malaysia. It was founded by Bernard Ashley, an engineer, and his wife Laura Ashley in 1953 then grew over the next 20 years to become an international retail chain."
"as the couple's own products. Here Laura worked with a seamstress to introduce their first forays into fashion, producing smock like shirts and gardening smocks. The family lived above the shop until moving to Carno, Montgomeryshire. They first set up in the vacant social club, but moved in 1967 to the local railway station, which had been closed two years earlier. Laura and Bernard Ashley had four children who were all involved with the business. David (born 1954/55), the eldest son, designed the shops; one of the daughters, Jane, was the company photographer; another daughter, Emma, and their second son,"
"Carno, Montgomeryshire. The Ashleys' first Welsh factory was originally located in the social club in Carno; in 1967 the factory moved across to the village's former railway station. 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 became 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"
"""fashion and hotels"" by the Sunday Times Rich List. He lived mainly in Brussels, but had houses in Hay-on-Wye and France. After World War II, engineer Bernard Ashley met Welsh secretary Laura Mountney at a youth club in Wallington, London. While working as a secretary and raising her first two children, part-time she designed napkins, table mats, tea-towels which Bernard printed on a machine he had designed in an attic flat in Pimlico, London The couple had invested £10 in wood for the screen frame, dyes and a few yards of linen. From 1953, Bernard left his city job and"
"Bernard Ashley (businessman) Sir Bernard Albert Ashley (11 August 1926 – 14 February 2009) was an English businessperson and engineer. He was the husband of Laura Ashley, and was her business partner from the founding of their fashion-textiles-centred business. An engineer with a love of trains, planes and boats, Ashley was often portrayed in the media as a businessperson instead of a designer – but he had a huge love of colour and design. He had interests in Laura Ashley Holdings and the country-house hotel Llangoed Hall. Ranked 796th richest person in the UK with a fortune of £60m in"
"the Caroline Charles label has stores in London, Cheltenham, Tunbridge Wells, Wilmslow and Exeter. Charles lives in Knightsbridge, London. She was married to environmentalist Malcolm Valentine from 1960 until his death in 2016. They had a son and a daughter. Caroline Charles Caroline Mary Charles (born 18 May 1942) is a British fashion designer. Caroline Mary Charles was born on 18 May 1942, in Cairo, Egypt to British parents of Noel St. John Fairhurst and Helen T. Williams. From a young age she was interested in fashion. She left school at sixteen and studied locally at Swindon Art School from"
"the 1960s – a newspaper suggested that by donning a Laura Ashley number, women could look as beautiful as Katharine Ross in the film ""Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"". 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. In one week alone, London's Fulham Road shop sold 4,000 dresses – which resulted in the new factory in Newtown, Montgomeryshire. It was the opening of the Paris shop in 1974 which was the first to feature the distinctive green frontage and stripped wooden"
"flounced skirts and high-necked blouses in traditional floral prints, worn with crocheted shawls. Laura Ashley started out running a small business in Wales in the mid-1960s and the company continued to expand until the accidental death of its owner in 1985. Laura Ashley was not the only designer to look nostalgically to the past. Fashions based on the 1920s, 30s, 40s, and 50s were popular throughout much of the decade, with Hollywood films like ""The Godfather"" and ""The Great Gatsby"", and numerous exhibitions on costume history at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York increasing their popularity. In Japan,"
"at Royal Ascot in 2002, and rose to international fame after showing his Autumn/Winter 2003 collection during the London Fashion Week. Following this, he opened his flagship boutique, Ashley, in 2005. Ashley Isham Ashley Isham (born Eshamuddin Ismail in Singapore in 1976) is a fashion designer. He is currently based in London. Ashley left Singapore in 1996 to take a pattern cutting course at the London College of Fashion, and was later accepted into Middlesex University afterwards, but left before completing his degree. He set up his own label ""Ashley Isham"" in 2000. In 2001, he also opened a boutique"
"Caroline Charles Caroline Mary Charles (born 18 May 1942) is a British fashion designer. Caroline Mary Charles was born on 18 May 1942, in Cairo, Egypt to British parents of Noel St. John Fairhurst and Helen T. Williams. From a young age she was interested in fashion. She left school at sixteen and studied locally at Swindon Art School from 1958–60. Charles did an apprenticeship at Michael Sherard's couture house, after which she worked with Mary Quant, and then worked for a year with the photographer Tony Rawlinson. She started her ""Caroline Charles"" label in 1963, aged 21. Charles was"
"in 2014. Laura and Sir Bernard were married from 1949 until her death in 1985. Laura had four children, the expansion of the business meant the need for an escape point, and for creativity. They bought a house in France in the early 1970s, 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 roped into the business. David (born 1954/55), the eldest son, designed and opened 182 shops across America, daughter Jane was the company photographer; youngest daughter Emma designed textiles and their second son,"
"Nick, was design director for Laura Ashley during its successful floatation in 1985. Nick went on to launch his own brand Nick Ashley, an exclusive menswear range, with a shop in Notting Hill and outlets throughout Japan. Sir Bernard Ashley was the company chairperson of Laura Ashley 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 château in Picardy, a town-house in Brussels, and the villa ""Contenta"" in Lyford Cay, New Providence, Bahamas, currently for sale at $8.5million. In"
"Nick, were part of the company's fashion design team. Bernard was the company chairman and Laura kept a close eye on fabrics. The astonishing success of what proved to be the ultimate cottage industry meant that the Ashleys could afford a yacht, a private plane, the French Château de Remaisnil in Picardy, a town-house in Brussels, and the villa ""Contenta"" in Lyford Cay, New Providence, Bahamas, later purchased for $8.5 million by T. J. Maloney. In 1985, just after her 60th birthday, Laura Ashley fell down the stairs of her daughter's home in the West Midlands and was taken to"
"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, Dr Maxmin abruptly resigned from Laura Ashley, citing major differences over strategy with Sir Bernard. Laura Ashley celebrated its 40th anniversary in 1993, the same year that Sir Bernard retired as chairperson and became honorary life president. In 2000, Sir Bernard set up Elanbach and requested that daughter Emma Shuckburgh (née Ashley), to act as its creative director. Named after Emma's home in the Elan Valley near"
"Alice Temperley Alice Temperley MBE (born 22 July 1975) is an English fashion designer based in London. Her fashion label, Temperley London was launched in 2000. In 2006, ""The Guardian"" noted that she had been described by ""American Vogue"" as the designer making the biggest waves in British fashion. More recently, she has been described as the ""English Ralph Lauren"". Alice Temperley grew up in Somerset, on her parents' cider farm and graduated from the Royal College of Art and Central Saint Martins. She established Temperley London, together with her then boyfriend Lars von Bennigsen in 2000. The brand has"
"Alexa Chung Alexa Chung (born 5 November 1983) is a British writer, television presenter, model, and fashion designer. She has authored the books ""It"" (2013) and ""it: Über Style"" (2014), and has launched her eponymous fashion brand in May 2017. Chung was born in Privett, Hampshire, the daughter of Gillian and Phillip Chung. Her father is of Chinese ancestry, while her mother is of English descent. Chung attended secondary school at the local Perins School and spent sixth form at Peter Symonds College, Winchester. She was accepted at King's College London to study English, but was scouted by a modelling"
"Laura Shields Laura Shields (born 19 September 1984) is an English model and beauty pageant titleholder. Born in Oldham, Greater Manchester and brought up in neighbouring Rochdale, to a Sri Lankan mother and an English father. She was signed to Elite Modelling Agency before her 15th birthday but is no longer a signed model at the agency. Shields became Miss UK International and represented the UK in Miss International 2004, placing in the top 10, and was the 3rd runner up in Miss Europe 2005. She was a model on the NBC show ""Deal or No Deal"", holding case number"
"controlled directly or indirectly by the company's chairman Dr Khoo Kay Peng. But the company failed to capitalise on its trademark look - probably due to employing its 11th chief executive in 14 years. 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 lawsuit against L'Oréal, which manufactured the Laura Ashley perfumes. At Christmas 2004, the chain parted company with couture designer Alistair Blair, who had previously designed for Dior and Givenchy. The Laura Ashley brand is now represented in the USA largely through licensing"
"– exclusive to Social Deconstruction Lisa Lashes Lisa Lashes (born Lisa Dawn Rose-Wyatt on 23 April 1971 in Holbrooks, Coventry, England), is an English electronic dance music DJ and music producer known for mixing numerous Euphoria albums and for her Lashed dance music events. She has headlined European and international music festivals such as Global Gathering, Creamfields, Nocturnal Wonderland and Dance Valley, UK events such as Godskitchen, Gatecrasher, Inside Out and Planet Love and in recent years she has toured China, Canada, US, Russia, Australia and New Zealand. Lisa Dawn Rose Wyatt was born in Holbrooks, Coventry, where she grew"
"Tamara Salman Tamara Salman (born in Baghdad, Iraq) half-Iraqi, half-British is a British designer and business woman. Her accessories company launched in 2013. She was appointed Creative director for Liberty of London in 2004 where she remained for 6 years, her role was to update the brand's image and revive its signature prints and produce an own brand accessories and home collection. She has worked in the fashion industry since graduating from art school, working for some of Europe's most prestigious fashion houses, including Romeo Gigli and Prada. In 2012 she started researching and developing her own accessories business which"
"Emma Hope Emma Mary Constance Hope MBE (born July 1962) is a British shoe designer. Emma Hope was born in July 1962 in Portsmouth. Her father, who died in 2005, was a Captain in the Royal Navy, and her mother is a former fashion journalist. They lived in Singapore until she was five. She was educated at Sevenoaks School, and Cordwainers College, London. When Hope graduated, ""Harper's and Queen"" named her alongside John Galliano as someone to be aware of. Hope started out designing shoes for Laura Ashley, Betty Jackson and Jean Muir. Her first shop was opened in Islington"
"Ashley Williams (designer) Ashley Williams (born 28 July 1988) is a British fashion designer. Williams earned a bachelor's degree in fashion design from the University of Westminster in 2012. Williams showed her first collection as part of Fashion East in February 2013, who she showed for three seasons before making her first solo runway show at London Fashion Week in September 2014 with her S/S 2015 collection. She was a recipient of the British Fashion Council's Newgen award in 2014, and continued to receive this for a number of seasons. Williams won Emerging Designer of The Year at the ELLE"
"Sylvia Ashley Sylvia, Lady Ashley (1 April 1904 – 29 June 1977) was an English model, actress, and socialite who was best known for her marriages to British aristocrats and American movie stars. Ashley was born Edith Louisa Sylvia Hawkes in Paddington, London, England, a daughter of Arthur Hawkes and Edith Florence Hyde. (Although she preferred giving her year of birth as 1906, the England and Wales Civil Registration Index, Vol. 1a, Page 26, shows it was recorded during the June quarter of 1904, District of Paddington.) Her sister, Lillian Vera Hawkes (6 March 1910 – 1 January 1997), married"
"Asha Leo Asha Leo (born on 5 January 1982) is a British fashion model and television presenter of Welsh and Indian descent. Leo attended the University of the Arts, London College of Fashion, with alumnae and alumni such as Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen & Matthew Williamson. Leo obtained her degree in Fashion Promotion : Journalism, Broadcast & PR, graduating with honors. Leo, discovered at the age of 13, has enjoyed many years as a successful international model. This career has included travelling all over the world for her clients. Working for Ralph Lauren, Louis Vuitton, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu and Vogue"
"Lisa Lashes Lisa Lashes (born Lisa Dawn Rose-Wyatt on 23 April 1971 in Holbrooks, Coventry, England), is an English electronic dance music DJ and music producer known for mixing numerous Euphoria albums and for her Lashed dance music events. She has headlined European and international music festivals such as Global Gathering, Creamfields, Nocturnal Wonderland and Dance Valley, UK events such as Godskitchen, Gatecrasher, Inside Out and Planet Love and in recent years she has toured China, Canada, US, Russia, Australia and New Zealand. Lisa Dawn Rose Wyatt was born in Holbrooks, Coventry, where she grew up with her mother, father,"
"they lived together in London and later in New York where Chung purchased an apartment in East Village. In a 2013 interview, Chung stated that Turner remained her ""best friend"". The former couple were seen together on a number of occasions in 2014. In 2016, she returned to London to launch a clothing label. Alexa Chung Alexa Chung (born 5 November 1983) is a British writer, television presenter, model, and fashion designer. She has authored the books ""It"" (2013) and ""it: Über Style"" (2014), and has launched her eponymous fashion brand in May 2017. Chung was born in Privett, Hampshire,"
"Halle was also awarded the Blue Butterfly Trust Mark for Positive Luxury for the company's strict corporate social responsibility program. Olivia von Halle Olivia von Halle (née Falconer) is a British fashion designer. Olivia was born in 1983 in Newcastle upon Tyne. She moved to Fairseat, Kent aged two and attended Tonbridge Grammar School for Girls and Combe Bank. She studied Textile and Fashion Management at the University of Leeds. Olivia initially worked as a trend forecaster at The Future Laboratory in London. She moved to Shanghai, China in 2008 where she continued working freelance for The Future Laboratory and"
"for the Duchess of York"" . Cierach continues to dress members of the Royal family, including The Princess Royal and The Duchess of Cambridge. Cierach's other notable creations include a dress made of chocolate and the world's most expensive abaya. Cierach also appeared in the ITV Series Ladette to Lady in 2006. Lindka Cierach Lindka Rosalind Wanda Cierach is a British couturier and fashion designer. Notable clients include members of British and European Royal Families, Helen Mirren, Lady Victoria Hervey and Cherie Blair among others. Cierach was born in Lesotho, Africa on 8 June 1952 to Polish-British parents. She spent"
"unique strength throughout the years. 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 name was changed to Laura Ashley because Bernard felt a woman's name was more appropriate for the type of products. The new company moved to Kent in 1955, but the business was nearly wiped out in 1958, when the River Darent overflowed – leaving equipment, dyes, and fabrics floating in three feet of water. Turnover rose from £2,000 to £8,000 in 1960, which left them looking for"
"Style Awards 2015. Georgia May Jagger, Lili Sumner, and Claire Barrow have all modelled for her. Williams has collaborated with Superga, Red or Dead and others. Ashley Williams (designer) Ashley Williams (born 28 July 1988) is a British fashion designer. Williams earned a bachelor's degree in fashion design from the University of Westminster in 2012. Williams showed her first collection as part of Fashion East in February 2013, who she showed for three seasons before making her first solo runway show at London Fashion Week in September 2014 with her S/S 2015 collection. She was a recipient of the British"
"Laura Bailey (model) Laura Bailey (born 6 August 1972) is an English model and writer. Born in London, England, she has modelled campaigns for Guess jeans, L'Oreal, Jaguar, Jaeger, Marks and Spencer, Bella Freud, Radley and Temperley London. Bailey also works as a writer and has written for ""Vogue"", ""Harper's Bazaar"", ""Vanity Fair"", ""Glamour"", ""The Independent"", ""The Daily Telegraph"" and ""The Sunday Times"". She is a Cultural Ambassador for the British Fashion Council and an Ambassador for Oxfam. In September 2011, Bailey was announced as a contributing editor to British ""Vogue"". She also writes a blog for Vogue.co.uk. Laura is"