A former seamstress has been reunited with a vintage Laura Ashley wedding dress she helped make in Machynlleth more than 30 years ago.
Having helped make the dress in 1992, in the famed fashion designer’s factory and bridal suite in Machynlleth, Sharon Wells was reunited with the dress while it was on display at the Machynlleth Museum of Modern Art.
Ms Wells, who is now a teaching assistant in her home village of Corris, was one of a team of seven seamstresses who made the dress in the Machynlleth site.
She said: “It was lovely to be reunited with the dress and a real blast from the past, especially as it had the tag signed by me still with it.
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“I was one of seven seamstresses selected to work on dresses and suits for brides, bridesmaids and pageboys from start to finish. We would put our signatures on tags with the finished garments and it was just lucky that my name was on this wedding dress. It was very much a team effort.
“I once had a ‘thank you’ letter from a lady in America who had worn a wedding dress which had my name on the tag. I did enjoy being part of the bridal team as it always felt a privilege to make a wedding dress for somebody’s special day.”
The dress now features in a special exhibit at MOMA, titled ‘For the Love of Laura Ashley’, which runs from June 24 to September 6.
This 10-week exhibition has been organised by Ann Evans, founder of Heritage Hub 4 Mid Wales, to help preserve the legacy of Laura Ashley.
The Heritage Hub is a group of volunteers, whose aims include to enhance local civic pride in significant entrepreneurial pioneers from the region, including Laura Ashley, who opened her first shop in Machynlleth in 1961.
Ann, who worked for Laura Ashley for 20 years from 1975, wanted to find something special for the Machynlleth exhibition and purchased the dress from an Oxfam charity shop in Oxfordshire after finding it on social media.
She said: “It’s a perfect example of quality work by Laura Ashley seamstresses in the company’s Machynlleth factory bridal studio."
She also hopes the dress will become part of a Heritage Hub archive collection for a permanent Laura Ashley Heritage Hub, which she is hoping to set up by 2025, the one hundredth birthday of the famed fashion designer.
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