Word: laura
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...further excellent passage, for in the course of listening to her bugged conversations and photographing her comings and goings with powerful lenses, Sharky's professionally justified voyeurism turns to romantic longing, not to say obsession, and, eventually, a plot twist that has been good ever since Laura's face was first glimpsed in a misty light...
...first the company grew slowly, held back by a lack of long-term capital for expansion. But with Laura doing the designs and Bernard organizing the factories, which now number 14, the firm eventually prospered. The couple's two sons and two daughters also help out in the marketing and design departments of the company...
...they have a division of views too. Says she: "The company is design-dominated, not accountant-dominated." Bernard interjects: "I'm not sure that is quite right. We are run by profit managers." She responds: "I don't mind accountants-as long as they keep their place." Laura admits that she no longer attends company board meetings because "it was not a good idea for a husband and wife to be there together...
Since the mid-'70s, Laura Ashley Ltd. has ridden the Victorian revival and the renewed appreciation of delicate, curving and ornamental patterns in place of austere and mechanical design. The number of the firm's shops has increased from 55 to 100 since 1978, while sales have gone from $34.8 million to almost $100 million. The company's fastest-growing market at present is the U.S., where annual sales this year will almost double to $13 million. After opening new shops last month in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Cleveland and outside Chicago, Laura Ashley now has 15 stores...
...yacht Britannia. The Ashleys now live much of the year in a 17-bedroom, 18th century chateau in northern France. At a small airfield near by, Bernard keeps a Beechcraft King Air plane, which he uses to fly off to business meetings. And while fashion trends come and go, Laura Ashley in tends to continue selling ruffles and romance. Says she: "What the eye sees is important. High tech is too hard; people need softness." -By Kenneth M. Pierce. Reported by Mary Cronin/London and Jane Van Tassel/New York