About the Show

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Beneficiaries

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Exhibitors

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Champagne Gala

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Book Signing Luncheon

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Sponsors

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Ticket Information

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Travel

Weaving is in Martin Wood’s blood, having come from an old British Bradford Textile family. Trained as a designer of textiles, interiors and gardens, Wood had an established career path before his life took an unexpected turn when he began also to weave stories of times past into richly historic books. And, as The New York Times has pointed out, he has “a winning way with words,” bringing those times to life.

Wood never set out to be a writer — “it sort of happened,” he reflects. He started out by contributing magazine articles here and there, usually for free. The book thing happened, he explains, because he met an American in California, Judith Tankard, who shared his interest in garden designer Gertrude Jekyll. Eventually, they decided to collaborate on a book about Miss Jekyll’s house (Gertrude Jekyll at Munstead Wood; Sutton Publishing, Ltd, 1997).

Wood’s new book, Laura Ashley, is actually his third in an “accumulation” he is assembling with publisher Frances Lincoln Ltd on 20thcentury taste makers. It seemed like a logical progression to write about Laura and Bernard Ashley, who knew the subjects of his first two books, Nancy Lancaster (English Country House Style, 2005 ) and John Fowler (Prince of Decorators, 2007). The appeal also stemmed from differences among their clientele. Nancy and John, as Wood refers to them, were basically the top of the market, whereas Laura was a mass market brand, with very middle-class clients and in this way aspirational.

Wood’s account of the Laura Ashley company tells the story of a Welsh bride and her Londonborn husband who never set out to be fashion designers nor interior decorators. Rather, in the early 1950s Bernard Ashley asked his wife, Laura, to develop a small business so that he could quit his day job and become a writer (a profession at which he was never successful). When Laura was unable to find small printed fabrics to create patchwork goods from home, Bernard created the tools to produce printed fabrics literally on their kitchen table. The small, simple patterns that Laura favored became one of the hallmarks of the Laura Ashley brand.

The company developed from neck scarves, through tea towels and into garment manufacture, and then interior decoration to become an iconic brand. Along the way, Bernard supplied the drive and business acumen and Laura the knack for identifying and exploiting a trend almost before it arrived and the uncanny ability to select commercially viable patterns. From simple garments that were welcomed counterpoints to miniskirts and hot pants and an interior- design style based on the use of contrasting floral patterns in coordinating colors for bedding, curtains and wallpaper, the Laura Ashley brand popularity exploded in the 1970s.

In just 30-odd years, until the time of Laura’s death in 1985 after a fall down a flight of stairs, the business that bore her name grew to 200 shops around the world and employed over 4,000.

It is only through the masterful diplomacy of Mr. Wood in bringing together the Malaysian firm that now owns the Laura Ashley company, and her family represented by Sir Bernard Ashley, that this project was successful. Laura Ashley is richly drawn from first-hand accounts of the Ashley family, friends and colleagues, and illustrated with over 200 photographs and drawings, many never previously published.

Having never met Laura Ashley, Wood gained the respect of Sir Bernard (or BA, as he insisted on being called) through their mutual backgrounds in textiles. Wood recalls of BA, “He knew of our family mill, although we were wool, not cotton, people. I used to tease him by saying, ‘Yes, BA, but remember we were weavers.’ He would retort, ‘I know, I’m just a bloody printer!’ We got on well.” Sir Bernard read the manuscript and merely corrected small errors of fact. Had he lived another month or two, he would have seen the page layouts. Alas, it was not to be, and Bernard Ashley died in February 2009.

Martin Wood is looking forward to a future project on “Sister Parish,” an interior designer and friend of Nancy Lancaster and John Fowler, most notably known for her work for the Kennedys at the White House, thus continuing the series on 20th-century taste makers.

Be prepared to be entertained by Martin Wood as he brings his wit, wisdom and energy to the Commonwealth Club on Feb. 5, 2010, in conjunction with RAMAF’s 48th Annual Antiques & Fine Arts Show. Come away enthralled by the personal stories behind the Laura Ashley legend.