Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 12, 1993 TAG: 9309100132
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KARIN DAVIES ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LONDON LENGTH: Long
The English country apparel and home furnishings company is celebrating its 40th anniversary by returning to its romantic roots.
In the late 1980s, Laura Ashley Holdings PLC was fleetingly distracted by a seductive shrug of well-padded power shoulders. Forsaking the Victorian fashion sense of its namesake and its loyal customers, the firm tried to take its garments from the garden into the boardroom.
It didn't work.
After three years of losses, Laura Ashley finally posted a profit of 667,000 pounds ($1 million) for the year that ended Jan. 29 by reviving much-loved looks and restructuring its production and retailing systems.
"Laura Ashley is not power dressing," said Jim Maxmin, the company's new American chief executive. "It was a style clearly not for the '80s."
Fashion has turned Laura Ashley's way for the 1990s.
The anti-fashion trend launched by Seattle grunge rockers has brought back the floral frock - although its favored pairing is with clunky black boots, rather than pretty slippers preferred by Laura Ashley.
The Laura Ashley button-through frocks of the 1970s have been updated - they are less structured and are made with cotton-viscose blends rather than pure cotton which makes them drape softly.
"They're not the same shape, and they're not even the same florals but they say the same thing - they say I feel good, I feel pretty, and I am in a romantic mood today," said Stephen Grant, global collection development director.
The firm's design sense faltered after Laura Ashley died in 1985 in a fall at her daughter's home, said The Daily Telegraph's fashion editor, Kathryn Samuel.
"Bernard Ashley and their son Nick, who became design director, didn't have the same touch as she did. Nick nudged the firm in the direction of ... the gabardine double-breasted jacket - and it didn't do very well."
Grant said when he was hired nearly two years ago he knew he had to be faithful to the late Mrs. Ashley's ideas to succeed.
He said he pored over her correspondence, "trying to get a handle on what criteria she used," and makes regular trips to the Welsh valleys to soak up the scenery that inspired Mrs. Ashley.
While creating new designs, Mrs. Ashley used an eclectic mixture of sources, from patchwork quilts to the end papers of old books. She stored them away and from time to time returned to them, working old ideas into new prints and styles.
Designers still return to her hoard. "Mood boards" featuring swatches fabric, a clump of yarn, a corner of wallpaper are propped up on desks at the firm's headquarters, a light and airy converted bus garage in the fashionable London neighborhood of Chelsea.
In 40 years the firm has gone from kitchen table to international retailer of English country-style women's and children's clothing and home furnishings. Laura Ashley has 550 shops with dark-green fronts and blackberry sprig motif worldwide, 186 of them in the United States.
Laura Ashley, like Ralph Lauren, will dress both you and your home.
There are adorable sailor-suit and flowered rompers for babies (with matching dresses for mother), pretty pinafores for little girls, flouncy frocks for a school ball, and practical linens for a graduate's first job.
After a wedding wrapped in Laura Ashley lacy whites, a new bride can decorate her home with wallpaper featuring pastoral scenes, chintz curtains and inviting armchairs. Light fixtures, vases and even writing paper are made to match.
"I like the leggings best of all but sometimes my friends and I go into Laura Ashley just to smell the perfume," said Carmen Mohammed, an art student at Oxford University.
"We are truly a lifestyle brand," Grant said. "Laura Ashley appeals to 10 percent of people worldwide. It's not limited to a particular product or a particular age group. It's limited to a way of looking at life."
Bernard and Laura Ashley began their business in 1953 by printing sprigged flowers on linen tea towels and perky head scarves in the kitchen of their London apartment. They had no experience and little money but lots of enthusiasm and a talent for design.
In 1961, the family moved to the green and rolling hills of Wales, where Mrs. Ashley had spent part of her childhood in the care of a grandmother with Victorian values.
Mrs. Ashley's creativity flourished, inspired by nature and the local myths and legends.
Her modest but elegant garments reflected "that she felt uncomfortable as a woman of 39, 40 wearing a mini skirt as we do now. You've had a few children and you want to cover up," said her daughter Jane, who was born the same year as the company.
The first Laura Ashley shop opened in London in 1968, offering an alternative to the brave new world of the mini skirt. Women queued for hours to buy fresh cotton dresses, in a rainbow of natural colors, flowers, bright geometrics, even mythical Welsh lions.
One of the challenges facing Laura Ashley today is updating a traditional look.
It is accomplished, for example, by brightening the color palate used for home designs and adding bolder, more masculine designs to the more typical florals, Grant said.
Despite Mrs. Ashley's death and her husband's retirement this spring, Laura Ashley tries to maintain a sense that it is a family business.
Business suits are seldom seen at company headquarters. A canteen serves subsidized, wholesome food. In Wales, factories close at midday so workers can spend time with families.
Maxmin has tried to make his employees aware of all aspects of the firm. Everyone, right up to the board level, must spend at least six days a year serving customers. A chalk board at the headquarters entrance lists the value of Laura Ashley stock.
Perhaps as a hedge against straying again, Laura Ashley even stated its mission in an annual report: "to establish an enduring relationship with those who share a love of the special lifestyle that is Laura Ashley."
by CNB