Laura Ashley to be Honoured at Bath Fashion Museum

An exhibit will be held at the Bath Fashion Museum this Summer to celebrate the life and work of legendary designer - Laura Ashley.

The Fashion Museum will showcase over 70 Laura Ashley dresses in a special summer exhibition on display from 13th July to 26th August.

The display will capture the Laura Ashley look that in the 1960s and 1970s inspired a generation of women to dress as though they were milkmaid Tess of the d’Urbervilles from Thomas Hardy’s novel, or Cathy from Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.

Rosemary Harden, the Manager of Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Fashion Museum, said: “We’re celebrating the vision of the romantic heroine that Laura Ashley gave to fashion in the late 1960s and 1970s. A classic example was the chaste cotton print maxi-dress in earth-hewn natural colours – whisking us away with the notion of life in a golden age; a pastoral idyll far from the mad city life.”

Rosemary Harden, Fashion Museum Manager, commented: “The Fashion Museum is thrilled to be able to stage this exhibition in such a landmark year for both Laura Ashley, and for the museum. It has been exciting to work directly with the Archive team at Laura Ashley in London and mid-Wales, and an honour to have the opportunity to display a selection of their iconic dresses alongside examples from the Fashion Museum’s own collection.”

Angela Jeffery, Archivist at Laura Ashley Ltd, said: “We’re very excited to be working with the Fashion Museum on the occasion of Laura Ashley’s 60^th anniversary and we can’t wait to see the end results in July and August.

For more information visit www.fashionmuseum.co.uk or call 01225 477789.