When Barbara Hulanicki, born in Warsaw in 1936, created Biba in 1964 with her husband Stephen Fitz-Simon, the couple quickly ignited the London fashion scene, which the designer described as “so grey”.
Now a new exhibition, The Biba Story: 1964-1975, at the Fashion & Textiles Museum in London, will introduce one of Britain’s most famous brands to a whole new audience.
Although Hulanicki, now 87 and living in Miami, closed shop in 1976, the brand has survived independently of her, most recently as a franchise owned by the beleaguered House of Fraser brand.
Hulanicki’s original designs are also getting a second life, decades after being sold in the original store on Abingdon Road in upscale Kensington.
An original 1970s Biba knitted cardigan, size 12, with tag, is currently on sale for £200 on vintage clothing site shopcurious.com.
On popular site Vinted, an 18-carat gold onyx Biba ring will currently set you back £1,495, while a pair of rare original raspberry pink suede Biba shoes from 1973 are on eBay for £145.
A new exhibition The Biba Story: 1964-1975 has opened at the Fashion & Textiles Museum in London. Designer Barbara Hulanicki, 87, who opened her first boutique in 1964, and Twiggy, 74, a model for the brand, pictured at the exhibition opening this week.
British fashion designer and owner of Biba boutiques, Barbara Hulanicki, photographed at the height of her fame in the 1970s
Twiggy pictured lying on a leopard skin bed in the Biba store in Kensington in 1971
Fans of the brand included anyone who was around in the 1960s at the time, with Twiggy, the Rolling Stones, Cilla Black and Marianne Faithfull all regulars at the Kensington store.
Indeed, Twiggy, now 74, who rose to fame as a model in the 1960s, became the face of the brand and was alongside Hulanicki at the exhibition launch this week.
The two women were joined by other fashion icons, including Anna Sui and Dame Zandra Rhodes. Hulanicki’s husband, Fitz-Simon, died in 1997, and the fashion designer has remained single ever since.
Twiggy has long been considered one of the original models and first became known for her piercing blue eyes and beautiful bone structure.
Resale Market: Original Biba clothing can sell in the thousands; left: This 1970s Biba knitted cardigan, complete with label, is currently priced at £200 on shopcurious.com. Right: And on Vinted, this onyx ring has an asking price of £1,495.
Anything from before 1976 can get expensive: a pair of pink suede shoes has an asking price of £150 on eBay
New audience: The exhibition inaugurated this week at the Fashion and Textile Museum
The brand’s cosmetics, modeled by Twiggy in the early 1970s, were hugely successful globally.
Twiggy wearing a black dress with a black hat and pink suede high heels in the Biba store in Kensington in 1971
A model wearing wide-leg pants, a striped tube top and a turban-style hat at the Biba store in London
Launch: The late singer Cilla Black and television presenter Cathy McGowan helped open the new Biba store on Kensington Church Street in February 1966.
Last year the model, who is married to Leigh Lawson, revealed how other designers came and went, but she always loved Hulanicki’s clothes.
She said Vogue: ‘Honestly, my heart has always belonged to Biba. At that time, I had become friends with its designer Barbara Hulanicki, who is still my style icon. Every time she designed a collection, she sent one of everything in a taxi. Heaven.
“I wore his pieces with clothes I found at Kensington Market – shiny velvet pants and Afghan coats that smelled really horrible when it rained.” Ah, the things we do for fashion. This will never change.
The brand closed its doors in 1976… but other companies, including House of Fraser, have since revived it, without Hulanicki’s involvement.
The brand began life as a mail order company in 1963. Business moved slowly until 1964, when Hulanicki created a pink gingham dress that cost 25 shillings.
It was advertised in the Daily Mirror and received 4,000 orders in 24 hours. In 1973, Biba sold clothing, furniture and cosmetics. (In 1974 turnover was £1 million. Only in makeup sales. Only in Japan.)
The brand’s success led it to move into a bold new space, a seven-story store inside an art deco building on High Street Kensington.
A blend of Art Nouveau decor and rock ‘n’ roll decadence, it was more than a retail space: it was the city’s hippest hangout.
The store sold everything from lipstick to dog food; had a roof garden; and there was even a playground filled with a carousel; and a rainbow-colored restaurant that consumed 1,200 covers a day.
The brand has expanded beyond dresses to include shoes, jewelry and hats.
“The louder the music, the faster the girls moved and the more people appeared in the store,” Hulanicki later recalled, whose brown pinstriped dresses, sparkling skirts and fitted clothes in earthy colors sold like buns.
As post-war austerity began to fade and more women enjoyed independent living and employment, the brand’s makeup range became a fashion solution rather than many women could afford it. A smoky kohl eye and bright red lipstick have become the brand’s signature look.
At the other end of the financial spectrum, members of the royal family, including Princess Anne, came for a ride.
But the good times couldn’t last forever, and in 1976 the store closed for good. In November 2009, the brand was successfully relaunched at House of Fraser without Hulanicki on board, starting with fashion and then adding accessories and interiors lines.
The collections were initially sold out, with many designs reminiscent of the iconic glamor of the ’60s.
However, the waning fortunes of House of Fraser mean that Biba’s most recent incarnation has also run its course.
The story of Biba: 1964-1975 runs from March 22 to September 8
