In the City, shares in Laura Ashley – which is seeking a bailout – are plummeting – but if you head a little further south, to Kent, the brand’s value seems to be at an all-time high. In my favourite vintage clothing shop, Madam Popoff in Margate, there is such demand for Laura Ashley pieces that they can barely keep them on the rails. The 1970s prairie dresses go for up to £250. On eBay, there is a roaring trade in secondhand Laura Ashley. You could go to a wedding in a vintage find and discover that an older guest wore that very outfit to the groom’s christening.
Every woman I know is baffled by the fact that as a brand, Laura Ashley seemed to have served its customers brilliantly 30 or 40 years ago, and yet doesn’t sell anything we want to buy today. Its archive is expertly preserved and maintained, but it’s hard to find any evidence of it within the current collection. A promising collaboration with Urban Outfitters failed to please fans of the old look; the vintage prints were reworked into grungy, crotch skimming midi dresses.
The company started because Laura Mountney – nee Ashley – could not find the Victorian-style fabrics she wanted for quilting and so designed her own. By the 80s, Mountney’s designs had made their way into the wardrobes of women all over the UK. And when Princess Diana wore a Laura Ashley shirt in an official photograph, demand surged spectacularly.
The distinctive Laura Ashley look has a visible impact on today’s most successful luxury brands. Net-a-Porter, Doên, Zimmerman, Ulla Johnson and the Vampire’s Wife are all making floral, romantic prairie dresses that could have come straight from a Laura Ashley shop in 1985. Demand is strong enough for Zimmerman to charge £1,200 for its tiered, ruffled floral-print silk-chiffon midi dress. While accessibility was always at the heart of Laura Ashley’s pricing – fans would save up for special occasion dresses, but they wouldn’t remortgage their houses – I have no doubt that if the brand were to scrap the current collection and reissue a selection of classic designs, shoppers would flock to spend, and save the company. It is a fantastic opportunity for a British label to create a sustainable collection, too. I would love to see Laura Ashley reusing end-of-line fabric, reworking unsold vintage stock, and creating limited edition pieces from recycled material.
We might love the retro romance of Laura Ashley, but the old designs seem strikingly modern, too. They have everything we are looking for right now – colour, statement prints, skirts to move in, and perhaps most importantly, pockets and sleeves. Everyone who watched and loved Little Women knows the best part of a prairie dress is that it does all the work for you. They look fabulous with messy hair and sturdy boots. At its peak, Laura Ashley’s popularity was based on the fact that it brought the past into the present. The shoppers of the 70s and 80s craved Victoriana. Laura Ashley is a beloved British brand, and I hope it’s part of our fashion future – but I suspect this will only be the case if it delves into its heritage and revisits its greatest hits.
