There’s an iconic building with a turret in my town which once housed the Laura Ashley shop (upstairs home, downstairs clothes) and I still see its closure as one of the low-points of my life.
That’s how much I miss my Laura Ashley fix.
But if I’m completely honest, I probably stopped shopping for anything but homewares in the mid-90s. As Chloe Street of The Evening Standard said after Laura Ashley was taken into administration (March 2020) the stores were just not ‘Laura Ashley enough’ to please its hardcore fans.
I’ve spent many a happy hour looking through those classic Laura Ashley catalogues and can see how the fashion side went from fabulously quirky (60s-late 80s) to frumpy dowager (90s) to forgettably dull (Noughties-on). In one catalogue (1995) some of the separates wouldn’t have looked out of place in the mature lady section of BHS.
But let’s not kick a once loved old friend when she’s down. Laura Ashley clothes rocked my world and, from my mid-teens on, there was always something in my wardrobe bearing the famous label. I was even married in an Edwardian dress (in 1988, I’m not quite that old).
I’m not alone in my reverie. Nearly all of my friends have soft spot for a Laura Ashley item from their younger days.
Michele Mountstephen, who collects and sells vintage toys via Cowsboys and Custard, feels pangs of nostalgia for two unforgettable Laura Ashley garments from the past.
“One was a dark green smock which I wore during my art college days in the 70s along with cheesecloth loons and Kickers,” she laughs.
“But my favourite was a long pure white Victorian style nightie. My mother took me to the Oxford store to buy it for a visit to my boyfriend’s family. I felt like the heroine in a Barbara Cartland novel.”
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I loved that dress -
Niece Sarah at our wedding in 1988 -
So stiff, no petticoat required
In celebration of the fact that Laura Ashley will be relaunched in the spring through Next online (starting with homewares), Jolly Volley has put together a personal count-down featuring ten of Laura Ashley’s greatest contributions to fashion; with a guide to current day values.*
*As always when you’re talking vintage prices, it’s only possible to give guide to current valuations and these are based on eBay transactions from December 2020-February 2021. You’ll often pay more through specialist dealers but they often repair and restore their secondhand stock.
Whether you’re a seller or buyer – Laura Ashley vintage (pre-90s) is red hot right now. But, with a Laura Ashley garment being loaded onto eBay every few seconds, the market is awash with garments claiming to be 70s or 80s originals or labelled ‘vintage’ (it’s not a legal term) when they are clearly 90s/2000s.
- If you are buying online, it’s often difficult to age clothes as Laura Ashley’s clothes were styled to look like period clothing. I’ve seen a lot of post-80s Laura Ashley clothing labelled vintage or even, in one case, ‘antique’… technically impossible as the company only began making clothes in 1966.
- If you’re in the market for vintage Laura Ashley you need to be a sleuth. Look carefully at the condition/details (see collars and cuffs below) and study the the labels – 70s and 80s labels tend to include the country of origin (often Carno and/or Wales).
- A lot of Laura Ashley vintage stock is selling at inflated prices. If you’re tempted to splurge please make sure it fits – vintage Laura Ashley sizes will be much smaller.
10. Candy striped sundresses
Images, from the left, Etsy (£112.93), 1984 catalogue, Etsy £135, 1980s catalogue, sundress on eBay, £125
Deckchair stripes…Okay, so people may have stopped you in the street and asked for ‘Just one Cornetto’ but it’s good to remind ourselves that Laura Ashley wasn’t just about florals.
Recently sold prices
9. Country house classics
This collection may date from 1983/84 but it would take you to a country house weekend at Balmoral in 2021. This was produced when Laura Ashley (1925-85) was at the helm of the global business and she encouraged her designers to produce unpretentious classics which could hang in a woman’s closet forever.
Designed by a woman who loved the countryside and period clothing; there isn’t a thing in the collection (above) would look out of place for a romp through the bracken with the corgis today.
Recently sold prices
From the left; A navy blue polka dot 1980s dress £120 on eBay, Edwardian-style cape £216, eBay. Paisley cord dress £129.99 eBay, blazer £54.99, eBay. Tweed coat, £85, eBay.
8. Broderie anglaise
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Vintage Sister -
Then; 1980s -
Now; still beautiful
Late 70s, early 80s and every teenager was on the hunt for Victorian frills. Thanks to the new romantics and old romances like Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1979), youngsters flocked to flea markets for Victorian nightwear and frilly bloomers and to Laura Ashley where – pocket money permitting – they’d buy beautifully crafted cotton shirts which were so well made…they look as beautiful on eBay as they did in the stores 40 years ago.
Sigh…
Recently sold prices
7. French navy ‘uniforms’
Laura Ashley loved a uniform. Laura (then Mountney) served in the WRNS. Colleague Margaret Boothroyd recalls her friend Laura had a ‘trim figure, dark hair and brown eyes, small features, and was always interesting in conversation with a lovely little laugh’ and ‘clothing sense’.
Like all WRENS, Laura was issued a jacket, skirt, navy raincoat and greatcoat, two pairs of shoes, gloves, three white shirts and a black tie and ‘A nice cheeky little hat’.
Laura was in heaven and memory of this dashing uniform seeped into many of her later designs.
Recently sold prices
6. Chunky knits
Anyone who is over 30 will recall Laura Ashley’s back catalogue (especially from the Laura Ashley PLC days) was not all about wonderful Victorian whimsy and cotton pie-crusts. Some of the later styles were so fuddy-duddy; it was common to hear the sobriquet Laura Ghastly.
But let’s leave those appliquéd knits and dowdy twinsets in the past where they belong.
Look for anything Scottish, Fair Isle/Aran/cable knit – these knits still look great, they are toasty and they’ve got a punchy secondhand value.
Recently sold prices
5. Riding coats
Forget frills, Laura Ashley’s full length riding coats were always sharply tailored.
While if is often referred to as the riding coat – referencing the period riding habits with their tightly fitted jackets over a full skirt – Laura Ashley combined the elegance of equestrian style with Victorian frock and a just twist of the Russian military great coat.
Recently sold prices
4. Magnificent collars & cuffs
Top left is a 1970s bridal gown for sale on Etsy £259.42 and bottom left is an image from Madame Guillotine blog
Yoke, ruffled, handkerchief, muslin, pie-crust, scalloped, ribboned, tasselled and bibbed…Laura Ashley had a head for a period collar.
And those cuffs (see my favourite right).
Laura Ashley understood that adding some exquisite trimming – a velvet cuff or lace collar, a ruffle or a bustle – would beautify her clothes without raising prices beyond the average purse.
Okay, so the flamboyant Byron-esque lace cuff might be for people who plan to do nothing more than lounge chastely on a chaise longue but that old saying is true; when it comes to clothes, the devil is in the detail.
Recently sold prices
3. Bold (bonkers) patterns
Laura Ashley started an empire thanks to a passion for handicrafts which saw her – with the help of husband Bernard who rigged up a silkscreen – printing patterns onto fabric at her own kitchen table.
Laura’s reoccurring motifs were inspired by nature – flowers, birds, fruit – and would run through her entire collections. You could have roses rambling over your sofa, bedding, tea towels and dresses. While hemlines and styles may have changed over the decades, what made Laura Ashley so very Laura Ashley were those bold, sometimes bonkers patterns (often mined from old bits of patchwork quilts) on the fabrics.
Recently sold prices
2. The ‘prairie’ dress, 1970s
“Laura Ashley inspired every IT dress in 2019,” says Elinor Block of Who What Wear fashion company.
I’m no fashionista but lockdown has seen re-booted versions of this particular 1970s dress everywhere in 20/21.
Never mind the younger generation’s passion for the prairie; women old enough to have worn these dresses first time round are also rather dewy-eyed. Why? I can’t put it better than historian and author Melanie Clegg.
“It’s an elegant, politely bohemian style perfect for middle class ladies of an arty bent who haven’t grown out of wanting to dress up.”
Recently sold prices
1. Edwardian boating party
I’m a nice girl and that’s why I love a sailor dress. I know Laura Ashley vintage aficionados will take me to task for putting a 1980s dress at #1 but it’s my list and the hippy-dippy 70s smocks did not float my boat at all. I was young in the 1980s and that’s where all my fondest memories of floating around in a Laura Ashley frock lie.
In April 1988, I even wore a cream version of the Edwardian boating party dress on my wedding day.
I can still recall how stiff and starched the cotton drill fabric was on that dress and I’d happily wear it out today…but for the fact I’m at least four sizes bigger and it had terrible yellow staining under the arms (that’s marriage for you).
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Sold by Garmentory -
Madam Popoff Vintage
I’ve spent hours looking at the Edwardian style sailor dresses and tunics in 1980s Laura Ashley catalogues and comparing them with pictures posted by young women in the same outfits on vintage sites and Instagram…and they look just as good if not better. There’s nothing ‘kooky’ or ‘grandmillenial‘ about this look.
Be it in the 1920s, 1980s or 2021; the naval look is still very much afloat – and the prices are holding water too (see below).
Recently sold prices
Conclusion: I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that proper fashion designers used to look down on Laura Ashley with her parochial penchant for florals and flounce…but it’s funny how things come around. She’s now influencing all the bright young things in the fashion world as versions of her iconic prairie dress sweep away all-comers once again.
Looking through my photographs, I was clearly a huge fan. Just about every outfit I was photographed in during the 80s featured something from my favourite shop.
And now Laura Ashley is back – with clothing lines in the pipe-line (we hope) I’m predicting this unforgettable brand is about to get a whole new raft of fans…
