Laura Ashley

Welsh entrepreneur and fashion and furniture designer. Her clothing design style was marked by a romantic, nineteenth-century, pastoral character and by the use of non-synthetic materials.

During World War II, she joined the Women's Royal Naval Service. After the war, she worked as a secretary and designer of quilts and scarves.

She was raised in England and Wales by Baptist parents. Her marriage to engineer and fellow designer Bernard Ashley produced four children.

She was a contemporary of Broadway costume designer Patricia Zipprodt.