Milestones: Sep. 30, 1985

DIED. Laura Ashley, 60, Welsh-born designer who with her husband Bernard turned her Victorian-inspired, flower-sprigged fabrics into ruffled, romantic fashions and a multimillion-dollar international clothing and housewares empire; of head injuries sustained in an accidental fall; in Coventry, England. What began in 1953 with tea towels silk-screened on the kitchen table of their London flat and sold to local shops became in 1967 the first Laura Ashley shop in London and is today a family-run business encompassing more than 200 shops from Milan to Melbourne, 70 of them in the U.S.

...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!