Fashion + Textile Museum’s exhibition
The Biba Story (1964-1975)
By Robina Dam
When we think of Sixties Britain, there is a split between the bowler-hatted and pinstriped-suited population versus the new youth culture that threw up The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Mary Quant and Twiggy. And in that time of change, a fashion illustrator called Barbara Hulanicki decided to try a new way of approaching affordable fashion.
She and her husband, Stephen Fitz-Simon, whom she simply called Fitz,had set up a mail-order company in 1963 to sell fashionable but inexpensive clothes. Its phenomenal success – when 17,000 dresses in the typical 1960s pink gingham style were sold – led to the launch of the first Biba store in 1964. The shop and the label became a huge hit of their time.
“I wanted to make clothes for people in the street, and Fitz and I always tried to get prices down, down, down,” said Hulanicki famously.
She may have set out to make outfits affordable for ordinary people but just as equally the fashion element drew in rock stars, models and actresses who added to the ‘cool’ factor. Everyone from Mick Jagger, David Bowie and Marianne Faithful hung out at the Biba emporium trying on feather boas, miniskirts and floppy felt hats. A recognisable palette of purples, browns and mustard-yellows featured heavily in Biba prints.
The Biba label then expanded from clothing to accessories and also ventured into cosmetics. At its height, it was one of the most successful brands in the Swinging Sixties to the mid-1970s: a real British icon. However, Barbara Hulanicki, who was originally from Poland, had to leave her home in Warsaw after the assassination of her father, and moved to the UK as a child.
Hulanicki and her husband remained creatively hands-on running Biba and taking it from a small boutique to a seven-storey department store at its peak. Sadly, it came to a commercial end in 1975 which is why this exhibition focusses just on that period from start to finish.
But in many aspects, Hulanicki was a pioneer of fast fashion, making something that used to be elitist and expensive have popular reach. Fashions may come and go, but the Biba effects have stayed on.
For when the Art Talks crew and volunteers (with thanks to Mischon) went to a nearby coffee shop to talk about the designs that they had most liked, nearly everyone had found an outfit or item that they felt was totally wearable now.
The Biba Story (1964-1975) exhibition runs till 8 September 2024 at the Fashion + Textile Museum. 83 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3XF, +44 (0)20 7407 8664; check for opening times and concession prices at fashiontextilemuseum.org
Picture credits: Robina Dam
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