LIZ JONES FASHION THERAPY

It is a piece of clothing from my past that I more than anything, what I loved the feeling that I had arrived, and I was more than anything I, since wearing laid made.It is a purple blouse cotton painter Laura Ashley, bought at the end of seventy years on a trip to the flagship store on Sloane Street in London. In these hippy, happy days, Laura Ashley was the only label to see in. My older sister bought a maxi skirt with a polka dot ruffle hem that they wore a white blouse with a collar pie crust. Laura Ashley was a young women in the seventies that Topshop Unique and Marc by Marc Jacobs is today. It was at a time when romantic when we believed, nor do we meet the man of our dreams. It was the costume of my youth. Laura Ashley was a retro, safe, Victoriana touchstone in a time of chaos. No wonder I was wearing this purple dress for so long that they have lost their color. The reason for my trip to the memory lane of fashion, is that I have a pop-up retrospective of Laura Ashley brand clothing archives in Wales handpicked her 60th Will celebrate birthday. I am of clothing and prints I thought I had forgotten surrounded. There is a maximum blue Victorian dress with smocking at the bust. And green prom dress brilliant, filled with puffed sleeves and a boat neck, from the 1985. We have never thought about it, it was made in Wales and England at the time, but in the seventies and eighties with all the distinctive Laura Ashley label. And I'm used to unbelievably low prices on the high street, I am shocked to learn that a simple day dress cotton in 1985 was £ 28.95 - equivalent to about 75 pounds today - so my cotton blouse, a store manager, for the tasted the brand has worked in the late seventies, had told me about £ 25. How can I give him, because my only job was a job washing in a pub, is a mystery. But I was not alone. Who could forget that Diana Spencer uneven Laura Ashley skirt wearing when photographed by the paparazzi in a pose that showed the contours of the legs? It is a brand that has a special place in our hearts. It was founded in 1953 by Laura - then secretary of the National Federation of Women - and her husband Bernard. After visiting an exhibition at the V & A on crafts, Laura was inspired to sew their own patchwork quilts, but was unable to find suitable materials. She decided to print his own designs. So she was happy with the results started producing linen scarves has to present his models. It has invested £ 10 in screens, dyeing and linen. His first attempt is exposed in the exhibition. In 1960 the family moved to Wales, where Laura was born. They began making clothes for gardening and blouses with prints from archives that had been inspired by flowers. The first store was opened in London in Pelham Street, South Kensington in 1968. Although Laura developed simple changes were not the sixties, the decade. In 1970, when she found her stride in Victorian flower sales reached £ 300,000 per year, fueled by the fact that young women began to rebel against the constraints of the mini skirt. The Fulham Road shop sold 4,000 dresses in the week. That Laura Ashley was a phenomenon in the seventies, would be an understatement. Punk for me after moving to London in 1977 to study was daunting. Beautiful girls wore Laura Ashley. In the eighties and nineties Laura Ashley jerseys produces power and sewing. Laura died in a tragic accident when she fell from a stairway in 1985. The label is lost in a sea of ​​shoulder and primary colors. I stopped wearing the label in 1982 when I discovered the most exotic Azzedine Alaia and Donna Karan brands that showed from our body aerobicised instead covered in sections of fixed tissue. But Laura Ashley now work? I like the fact, for autumn / winter 1954 original silk reprint, for 35 pounds. I like some clothes with a circulation heritage: an ethnic print tunic dress with sleeves, £ 65, and a dark blue dress with a pattern iron horse, £ 65 However, the new autumn collection is terrible. Skirts stiff peak. Square sequin jackets. Leopard bags. A biker knitted. Snake print shirt that is not all: It must be pure, with long tails that will blow gray cashmere V-neck in the wool coats are too rough. None of the dresses are made more on these shores, what a shame. The world has changed, and woe betide the brand that does not move with it. But to have a chance to bathe in nostalgia and visit the archive Laura Ashley Wales, and get a good £ 1000, upload a photo of you wearing Laura Ashley on the Facebook page of the brand: the support of the best photo ends 25 July.  I suggest you spend € 1,000 on a year's worth of Laura Ashley candles, perfumed with the scent first launched This is a fragrance that sums up my memories of wearing Laura Ashley during a heat wave at the end of my studies. Sky effect.