In 2021, Batsheva Hay and Laura Ashley teamed as much as create their first collaborative ready-to-wear collection crammed with archival, colourful Laura Ashley prints. The partnership was a natural one — Hay’s entire namesake brand originated after wearing a vintage Laura Ashley dress “to threads,” the designer told WWD of her deeply personal connection to the label. 

To have fun Laura Ashley’s seventieth anniversary, the duo is releasing their fourth limited-edition Laura Ashley x Batsheva collaborative collection, featuring a Coney Island Beach set and campaign featuring Hay within the playful, girly looks with photographs by her husband, Alexei.

“The anniversary felt like a special moment for the prints, and one to actually dig into the very essence of Laura Ashley. All the beach shoot, for me, was also that because for the opposite capsules I’ve done to this point, we shot in places which can be outdoors, but not necessarily ‘very Laura Ashley.’ The old Laura Ashley catalogs could be within the Welsh countryside or on the beach in England, so I actually spent a variety of time searching through as lots of the old catalogs as the corporate had of their archives, really going into a few of those beach shoots.

“There are a number of photographs where I’m wearing the white hat with the tulle — there have been so many [archival] light tulle hats, that type of thing. It just worked so well. Because I used to be trying to select those quintessential, beautiful, spring-summer Laura Ashley prints, it was the proper moment for that quintessential beach shoot,” Hay said, adding that “things got here up” inevitably shooting on the amusement park adjoining to the beach. As an example, Coney Island’s Polar Bear Club swimming or a gaggle of individuals making a music video wearing a large eyeball, which naturally became a part of the campaign shoot and added a cheeky spirit to the already playfully pretty, layered print-on-print looks.

To mark the anniversary, Hay noted the importance of reissuing Laura Ashley’s most precious and archival motifs — the main target being on the brand’s pastel Tulips and lightweight blue Honigtopf Shells prints. 

“With the anniversary, I believe that it was lots more of a world vision with the corporate about those prints which can be essentially the most precious and archival. We actually coordinated on this Tulips print — they’re specializing in this print for the anniversary, and I believed it’d be fun to make a tie-in with a dress to the matching duvet cover and pillow set. We were excited about bringing a whole bed onto the beach — but we did have the duvet covers and pillows,” Hay said of certainly one of the campaign images, featuring the designer midair (the trampoline was noted as certainly one of the items Hay’s team did bring on location), donning a long-sleeved, midlength, roomy dress with matching pillow in hand (Laura Ashley relaunched its home collection in 2021).

Other styles throughout the gathering take cues from an ‘80s design aesthetic, corresponding to ruched dresses (like a bestselling square-neck minidress) and playful tops, and includes the launch of trousers and shorts for the primary time.  

“We did these pants, called the Hauls trouser — it’s almost a pirate shape, I find it irresistible, and there’s a pair of shorts that flare out, these type of very ‘80s bottoms. I’d actually never done a pant or pair of shorts for Laura Ashley, slightly long skirts, so I attempted to do some pieces that aren’t just cottagecore. There’s a spaghetti top, the Becca shirt, that’s a bit of tank you possibly can wear with jeans in a Honigtopf Shells print in light blue — there are a number of pieces in that print,” Hay said. “Then I did a number of dresses which can be kind of wonderful with this whole spring-summer thing with having your sleeves fall off. There’s a gown that really has boning in it — it’s a gown in the best way the Laura Ashley catalogs would, they’d all the time have bridal-level dresses — and I did it in two prints, the tulips and a really chintzy brick color. Those are really the standouts — it’s not the one you’d necessarily wear to work, but is a serious dress.”

When asked what Laura Ashley’s seventieth anniversary meant to her, Hay said, “I believe, to begin with, as a designer, it’s very meaningful to have work related to a person who had such a selected vision and a complete lifestyle around that long. It’s pretty spectacular, especially for a girl in fashion,” Hay said. “There’s a lot I hook up with in regards to the brand — its unique aesthetic, its easy unpretentiousness but beautiful deal with a complete world. There’s a lot it stands for that has been really influential for me — my mother loved Laura Ashley, my grandmother would buy me little Laura Ashley things. To realize it’s endured this long is amazing and that a few of those things are only treasures from back then. Then the importance of preserving the artwork and assets — especially from back then, when a lot gets lost. That period of time is so special to have anything saved so nicely from.”

The Laura Ashley x Batsheva capsule collection is made up of 28 limited-edition, 100% cotton styles, priced $105 to $325, and is being released Monday.