This Is No Garden-Variety Tea Party : Laura Ashley: Luncheons at the Victorian McCharles House will feature styles from the South Coast Plaza boutique.
Laura Ashley has become synonymous with femininity of the sugar-and-spice variety: pretty fabrics, classic silhouettes, embroidered lace and nostalgic outfitting for the body or the home.
Think Laura Ashley, and a tea party in an English garden comes to mind, complete with finger sandwiches and scones. Certainly this is a genteel fantasy in the fast-paced, fast-food world of Southern California, but for local fans of yesteryear, the South Coast Plaza Laura Ashley boutique and the McCharles House in Tustin will revive the scene during three tea-time fashion shows Sunday.
Attendees will preview 20 Laura Ashley outfits from the fall and holiday collections while nibbling on chicken curry and cucumber and dill sandwiches, scones with lemon curd and cream, fruitcake jewels, raspberry tartlet and chocolate cake. A chamber ensemble will perform, and guests can sip port, sherry, champagne or a specially blended house tea.
“The tea was designed especially to reflect the Laura Ashley lifestyle,” said Vivian Heredia, who co-owns the Victorian house-turned restaurant with her mother, Audrey. The 1885 McCharles House in Old Town Tustin, decked in vintage-inspired holiday decorations, is a good backdrop for the clothing.
This is the fourth season Laura Ashley has shown a collection at the Victorian tea house. The event has become so popular that a third tea was scheduled for this year. The one-hour fashion-show luncheons begin at 11 a.m. and 1 and 3 p.m.
The spotlight will be on outerwear as well as casual, career and holiday wear. In four decades, the United Kingdom-based line has altered only slightly from year to year, silhouettes and fabrics staying consistently classic, with changes occurring mostly in color schemes. As Tina Dusenbery, assistant manager at the South Coast Plaza Laura Ashley store, says: “We’re not trendy.”
Women and girls will model drop-waist, tea-length pinafores with square necklines over crisp white cotton blouses with generous lace collars and long, puffed sleeves. Much of the season’s day wear appears in tartan plaids or baby wale (a mini rail cord) in a palette of red lacquer, baronial blue, spruce and old gold.
Some might not consider Laura Ashley a source for power suits, but outfits from a full line of coordinating wool pieces--jackets, skirts in varying lengths, pants and shorts in mushroom, charcoal, midnight blue and black--will be shown. These work on every level on the corporate ladder.
The label is best known for its evening and holiday dresses. This season’s “Opera” line includes silk party dresses such as an Audrey Hepburn-inspired shift shape with a beaded neckline in black, or a version with a shawl collar, cinch waist and full skirt in old gold or black.
The line makes considerable use of matte cotton velvet, a high quality fabric that keeps its look after several wearings. Ballerina-inspired dresses and stirrup pants are cut from the lush velvet, which comes in baronial blue, midnight blue and black.
Customer demand has brought back the signature jewelry collection from a long hiatus. Classic strands of pearls for wrist and neck are present. But new to the label are retro sterling silver pieces and long cords of Venetian glass beads in autumn shades.
Dusenbery wanted the models to embody Laura Ashley, which meant meant doing away with professional models and opting for people who wear the label.
“We use a lot of our good customers and their children in our shows, because they really suit the look and feel,” Dusenbery says.
For information, call (714) 731-4063.
