ViSITINg tHe LAUra AShLEY ARchivE

As you can see from my last post (I know it was AGES ago) I love Laura Ashley. This love has is all the fault of my mother who ever since the LA company was young has loved the brand and its chintzy, Victorianna prints. This August I was lucky enough to get the chance to go and visit the Laura Ashley archive at their London headquarters. It was such a privilege as it is a private archive and special permission had to be asked for my visit. I arrived at 10am and was met by the lovely current archivist who took me under her wing for the day and let me hang out in the archive which she joked was the cupboard under the stairs. It was in fact a small room under some stairs but packed full of treasures and a bit over whelming for the Laura Ashley enthusiast. I was expecting only to have a few hours max to have my nosey at the LA treats but Angela said she could give me most of the day and she spent quite a few hours talking to me about the company, the prints, Laura herself and archiving, which I have become increasingly interested in. The information and opinions she gave me were really insightful and gave me invaluable information that will be brilliant for my dissertation research. I was then allowed loose in the archive, that is apparently just starting to be collated into some sort of order now, she told me. It has taken them around 14 years to collate all the artefact's which until the archives (there is a bigger one in Wales) were set up had been stored in cardboard boxes, exposed to the elements. A lot of great stuff had to be thrown out she told me, as it was mouldy and ruined. I was then gave me tour of the system, showing me where the marketing, hand painted designs, inspirations and final prints were kept. She also showed me some of the 1st Ashley-Moutney tea towel and head scarf designs that are extremely rare and were printed by Bernard Ashley on their kitchen table, in the 1950s. I tried then to make some sense of what I wanted to see and pulled out some key things to look at but I feel I missed so much in my excitement. You could probably spend days in there being inspired by all the nic nacs. It was strange to see painted art work of designs that I actually remember from my childhood. At one point I got far too excited by the fact that I was holding in my hand the original painted design of the fabric that my old curtains had been made out of. But my favourite part was the fabric swatch cabinet! It was just full of pattern and if there is one thing I love its pattern. Hundreds of different swatches from decades of Laura Ashley prints, mostly 1970s and 1980s, when they were in their prime. It was the ultimate treasure trove for any fabric lover and I had to be dragged away to go for lunch in the company canteen. After lunch the archivist took me to meet some of the designers and took me on a tour of the CAD suits. It was great to get to chat to some members of the design team and get a feel of what it is like to work for Laura Ashley LTD today. They told me about the hectic deadlines, the headache of colour matching and the miracle that is the digital printer and I left insanely jealous of their jobs.

Visiting the Laura Ashley archive is by far one of the best experiences I have had. They were really welcoming and willing to talk about what they did and the company as a whole. All the information from I got that day from chatting to staff is far too much to fit into this post, so you'll just have to wait until I have collated it all for my dissertation. I am so glad I got the opportunity to visit this summer as it has given me so much food for thought when thinking about both my design and dissertation work for this final year. It was a once in a life time experience and one I’ll never forget. I only wish my mum, her number one fan, had been allowed to share it with me! She will just have to make do with the photos.

Here are a few!

 

WorK PlacEment WiTH lAUra SPRinG

Hello I'm back...only just! And its been quite a summer. Over the last few months I have jet setted 1st to beautiful Rome, then I popped down to visit the Laura Ashley archive in London and finally off to Paris for a few days of shopping, sight seeing and pastry's a plenty. Amongst all this I have managed to fit in 2 work placements and maybe a bit of Uni work too! Phew! Shall I tell you all about it?

My 1st week of work placement was with the lovely Laura Spring in mid July. Laura is an independent maker/designer who specialises in bespoke printed design. Her current range contains vibrant, colourful prints inspired by the great British weather, which she turns into unique textile products, clothing and luggage. Whilst I was working with her I fell in love with her over sized duffel bag and cute retro rucksack, as well as everything else she creates. http://www.lauraspring.co.uk/lauraspring/products.html

I was helping Laura out at her inspiring studio in a converted Victorian house on a leafy Glasgow street, where she designs with the help of her whippet puppy dog called Chips. At the door I was always greeted by Izzy the adopted cat and a freshly made cuppa and the tea kept on coming through out the day much to my delight. Laura is the biggest tea jenny i know! As this was 1st placement with a professional designer maker, I didn't really know what to expect from the week but I left with a much greater insight and knowledge of running a small, successful textile business and the wish that it was in fact my actual  job! Success!

Throughout the course of the week Laura had me pattern cutting, sewing bag linings, helping with new product development and a wee bit of dye mixing and screen printing too. Everything went quite well, much to my relief, that was until the screen sliding disaster!  We were printing one length of fabric for a final bag, this also being the final piece of fabric. No room for mistakes then! It was all going well until when passing the squeegee to Laura I lent too far and shunted the screen down the fabric and smudged the whole thing! I felt terrible and skulked off back to pinning together pencil cases, but after calming down with a cup of tea the print was saved and the bag completed. I however stepped down from printing that particular project so as not to temp fate.

I am so glad I got the chance to work with Laura Spring this summer, as at the end of the day I had a really good week, full of cake and laughs! On a more serious note though, the week gave me an invaluable insight into what could on the other side of this final year and what is possible with hard work and determination.  It was great to hear about setting up a textile business and the challenges and triumphs of the journey from someone who has done just that and the experience has definitely thrown another possibility into the mix when thinking about a where I want textile design to take me.

All in all an inspiring week and I'm sure I will call upon what I learnt from the experience, during the coming year. But if there is one thing I learnt from Laura Spring that I will never forget, its to keep an eye out for screens over hanging the table. I am certain I will never screen slide again!

LoVING LAuRA AShleY

Over the last few weeks I have rekindled my love for Laura Ashley. I have been firing facts I have learned about Laura at everyone and about how she built up her business, from printing tea towels in the kitchen of her small flat to an international retail empire. I have begun reading the biography 'A Life By Design' by Anne Sebba, which gives us an insight into the woman behind the brand. 

 I didn't know until recently that neither Laura nor her husband Bernard were originally designers. Before her children were born Laura was a secretary in the handicrafts department at the headquarters of the National Federation of Women's Institutes, where she fitted right in, indulging her love of knitting and dressmaking at every opportunity. It was joked that the WI woman was Laura's alter ego, she regularly attended courses and workshops and her eyes were opened to the art of patch work by an exhibition at the V&A. It was around this time that her husband Bernard (who worked for the Investment trust) got on board and together they built their 1st silk screen so Laura could print fabrics for her quilts. In the early days it was really Bernard who learnt all about printing and eagerly put it into practice producing simple, graphic head scarfs and table mats. The scarfs became such a success because of the subsequent release of the film "Roman Holiday", which sported chic Italian girls wearing head scarfs with style. Laura took their wares to John Lewis on Oxford street who agreed to stock them. Within hours they had sold out. This was the beginning of the Laura Ashley story!

After this Laura took a back seat to bring up their young children and Bernard built up the printing business. A point that I found particularly interesting was that when Bernard began printing Victorian inspired tea towels he thought that this domestic product should have a woman's signature on it. "Thus was his fate sealed. On some of the towels a printed copy of Laura Ashley's signature even formed part of the design." The Laura Ashley brand was born!

The process of how a normal woman called Laura became "Laura Ashley" the brand and global chain that defined a generation, is really informative when doing research for my Design In the Market Module. For my make believe business plan I intend to set up a textiles brand along the same lines Laura Ashley and more recently Cath Kidston. They both epitomise their business, personify their product and have created a lifestyle. I think creating a lifestyle to aspire to as well as a unique product is a lot to do with their success. Also a canny knowledge of trend forecasting and sticking to their niche and unique selling point, something that I need to establish so as not to become just another chintzy textile brand. I need something new, unique and brave. This is what Laura Ashley wanted to achieve and did achieve when she began her journey in 1953! 

I think the book "A Life By Design" will continue to be helpful to my module research.

NESTA FiNanCe...YOu WHaT?

The NESTA workshops are still blowing my mind! The last workshop was on the dreaded subject of finance. We got shown slides on finance modelling, direct costs and indirect costs, cash flow and goodness knows what else. However when all this was making me never want to set up a business, I did find this quote from Johanna Basford quite interesting and inspiring.“It’s taken me a while to get over my belief that you have to be on the breadline to be running a successful creative business. Now I realise it is about making money… we sell designs, we make money, then we can be more creative and take on more new projects!" I think most people, myself included, have accepted their fate that as an artist or designer they'll make very little money. Johanna is a big inspiration, having made it as an independent and very successful designer. Her saying that you can do it and make money, gives me hope and a belief that it needn't be a life on the breadline.

Another interesting section of the workshop was on the website Kickstarter http://www.kickstarter.com/
 This is an American website that helps small business and business ventures get funding by getting people to pledge a percentage of the needed money in return for a product or experience. This particular website is only for US residents but its a really good way of raising a little or a lot of funds whilst keeping 100% ownership. We did an exercise that involved creating a mock up of a Kickstarter profile. This really helped me to refine my business idea and come up with a catchy Bio and Mission Statement. Our tutor suggested using creative and quirky language to create a memorable  statement that completely sums up the company. This made me think of the Mary Portas' new brand 'Kinky Knickers'. She has got her branding just right with her vintage pin ups box and cheeky yet quintessentially British slogans. 'Top knickers for the finest of bottoms'. These define the totally UK made product.

This I can just about get my head around. The rest of the financial gargin  is going to take some time, as at the moment its going in one ear and straight out of the other!

PRintIng FRom My BOUdoIR!

As of late its been getting a bit crowded in the print room at Duncan Of Jordanstone, so running behind schedule fro the 'Society of Dyers and Colourists' competition I decided to set up Amy Buchanan print studios. So laughably sandwiched between my wardrobe and window I turned my desk into a make shift print table. Using a window cleaning squeegee as a print squeegee and my shower as a screen washer I got to work and with the radio blasting I was in my element!
Here is a pretty pattern the printing inks made in the bath. Pattern in everything and all that!

A biT OF NesTA

A few weeks ago when NESTA was mentioned I didn't really know what people were talking about! Now I am beginning to understand what they're all about and how they can benefit me. In our current design in the market module, we are working through the NESTA toolkit a creating a hypothetical creative business idea. Eventually we will write a business plan for our idea, culminating all of our new found business knowledge. In the first few sessions already we have thought of an idea, written a mission statement, done work sheets on our values to help us define our goals, thought about our branding, what our business will enhance and replace and imagined our future and fake evidence. 

Initially when thinking and talking about 'what we wanted to be when we grow up', I found it a bit daunting and didn't want to commit. When asked what I wanted to do, I replied 'get a job doing something textile related' but I think I was missing the point. For this project we have to think BIG, imaging an ideal scenario and  then work on how to get there. I decided in an ideal world I would like to have a textile range that spanned fashion and interiors, perhaps have several shops or concessions and make myself a brand. My big inspiration is Cath Kidston, she has done exactly this and become extremely successful in the process. 

Working through the NESTA books has given me some food for thought about setting up a business or even creating a product. A couple of points that i found interesting are

• You're not the centre of your idea, your customers are.
• You don't need to do everything yourself. Build partnerships and alliances.
• Customers have to want what your offering
• You have to continuously innovate to compete and survive.

At the moment I still feel a little overwhelmed by the prospect of setting up my own business. The worksheets, although informative and thought provoking are still  quite confusing and I am realising the amount of work and planning involved. I believe strongly that after a few more work sheets it'll just click and I'll be well on my way.

Watch this space for more NESTA updates!

PreSENTINg OUr PrEsEntatION

So we got our presentation grades back and to our surprise our visuals for Judy R Clark earned us a very exciting A1. We decided to play to our strengths and instead of making a fancy power point we created an almost pin board style piece on a big wall in our studio. We then took  photos of the different sections to correspond with our speech. Comments we received were that it was 'very textiley', that there was loads to look at and it was visually impressive on the big screen. I think creating the presentation was my favourite part of the project as I've always loved scrap booking and this was like a giant scrap book. I think our approach totally complimented Judy's eclectic and fun design style!