diff --git a/ldm/data/laion.py b/ldm/data/laion.py
index 588549e..73d928b 100644
--- a/ldm/data/laion.py
+++ b/ldm/data/laion.py
@@ -148,7 +148,18 @@ class WebDataModuleFromConfig(pl.LightningDataModule):
 
         nodesplitter = wds.shardlists.split_by_node if self.multinode else wds.shardlists.single_node_only
 
-        tars = os.path.join(self.tar_base, dataset_config.shards)
+        if self.tar_base == "__improvedaesthetic__":
+            print("## Warning, loading the same improved aesthetic dataset "
+                    "for all splits and ignoring shards parameter.")
+            urls = []
+            for i in range(1, 65):
+                for j in range(512):
+                    for k in range(5):
+                        urls.append(f's3://s-laion/improved-aesthetics-laion-2B-en-subsets/aesthetics/{i:02d}/{j:03d}/{k:05d}.tar')
+            tars = [f'pipe:aws s3 cp {url} -' for url in urls]
+        else:
+            tars = os.path.join(self.tar_base, dataset_config.shards)
+
         dset = wds.WebDataset(
                 tars,
                 nodesplitter=nodesplitter,