This is a slim volume, a mere 88 pages, but does it pack a punch. I have seen it before on ebay but took it little interest. I have a copy of 'The Laura Ashley Book of Home Decorating' and that really isn't up to much; whatever the merit of the text it is spoilt the by terrible photography. However, last week I was trawling through Youtube and came across a short video by Isla Simpson on this book and I was deeply impressed by what I saw.
In the early Eighties Laura Ashley Ltd bought and renovated a large terraced house in west London. This book illustrates the results. (There is a section at the back of 'before and after' shots.) Though this is not all quite to my taste you really have to admire their ambition. This is a bruvura performance, an equal to anything being produced in the more posher end of the interior design business. The text makes it plain - this is not merely a recreation of a mid-Victorian middle class interior. There is, after all a modern kitchen in the basement. Kitchen apart, however, this project really could only have been made in the Post-War period. It shares the sort of aesthetics that were illustrated in Mary Gilliat's 'English Style' of 1967. See here for my post on that wonderful book. In parts there is even a residual 60s/70s bohemianism. I've always thought that Laura Ashley falls more easily into the Post-war scene than popularly thought. Modernism's hegemony may have rigidly enforced in the realm of architecture, but failed elsewhere.
This project does however mark a change in Laura Ashley's outlook towards the grander and the historically informed, less cottage. The results here are stunning.
This project does however mark a change in Laura Ashley's outlook towards the grander and the historically informed, less cottage. The results here are stunning.
The research and intelligent text are by art historian Jane Clifford and the excellent photography by Arabella Campbell-McNair-Wilson.
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