How Biba founder Barbara Hulanicki – with a little help from Twiggy – sparked a 1960s fashion revolution in ‘grey London’, and the British brand’s vintage pieces now sell for thousands of dollars on second-hand sites
When Barbara Hulanicki, born in Warsaw in 1936, founded Biba with her husband Stephen Fitz-Simon in 1964, the pair quickly set London’s fashion scene, which the designer described as ‘so grey’, on fire.
Now a new exhibition, The Biba Story: 1964-1975 at London’s Fashion & Textiles Museum, will introduce one of Britain’s most famous brands to a whole new audience.
Although Hulanicki, now 87 and living in Miami, closed its doors in 1976, the brand has lived on independently of her, most recently as a franchise owned by the beleaguered House of Fraser brand.
Hulanicki’s original designs are also enjoying a second life, decades after they graced the shelves of the original store on Abingdon Road in upmarket Kensington.
An original 1970s Biba knitted waistcoat, with label, is currently on sale for £200 on vintage clothing website shopcurious.com.
On the much-loved site Vinted, a Biba 18kt gold onyx ring currently costs £1,495, while a pair of rare original Biba raspberry pink suede leather shoes from 1973 can be found on eBay for £145.
A new exhibition The Biba Story: 1964-1975 has opened at London’s Fashion & Textiles Museum. Designer Barbara Hulanicki, 87, who opened her first store in 1964, and Twiggy, 74, who modeled for the brand, pictured at the exhibition opening this week
British fashion designer and owner of Biba boutiques, Barbara Hulanicki, pictured at the height of her fame in the 1970s
Twiggy pictured stretching on a leopard skin bed in Biba’s Kensington store in 1971
The brand’s fans included anyone who was anyone at the time in the 1960s, with Twiggy, the Rolling Stones, Cilla Black and Marianne Faithfull all regulars at the Kensington store.
Twiggy, now 74, who rose to fame as a 1960s model, became the face of the label and was at Hulanicki’s side 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.
Long considered one of the original supermodels, Twiggy first rose to prominence with her piercing blue eyes and beautiful bone structure.
Resale market: Original Biba clothing can fetch thousands of euros; left: This 1970s Biba knitted waistcoat, with label, is currently on sale for £200 on shopcurious.com. Right: And on Vinted, this onyx ring has an asking price of £1,495
Anything pre-1976 can command a decent price: a pair of pink suede shoes has an asking price of £150 on eBay
New audience: the exhibition that opened this week in the Fashion and Textile Museum
The brand’s cosmetics, designed by Twiggy in the early 1970s, proved to be a big hit worldwide
Twiggy wearing a black dress with a black hat and pink suede high heels in Biba’s Kensington store in 1971
A model wearing wide-leg trousers, a striped top and a turban-style hat at the Biba boutique in London
Launch: The late singer Cilla Black and broadcaster Cathy McGowan helped set up the new Biba boutique on Kensington Church Street in February 1966
Last year the model, married to Leigh Lawson, revealed how other designers came and went, but she always loved Hulanicki’s clothes.
She said Fashion: ‘Honestly, my heart has always belonged to Biba. By then I had become friends with creator Barbara Hulanicki, who remains my style icon. Every time she designed a collection, she sent one of everything in a taxi. Heaven.
‘I wore her pieces with clothes I found at Kensington Market: brightly colored velvet trousers and Afghan coats that smelled awful when it rained. Ah, the things we do for fashion. It will never change.’
The brand closed in 1976… but other companies, including House of Fraser, have since relaunched it, without Hulanicki’s involvement.
The brand actually started as a mail order company in 1963. Things slowly evolved 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 within 24 hours. In 1973 Biba sold clothing, furniture and cosmetics. (In 1974 it had a turnover of £1 million. Only in sales of make-up. Only in Japan.)
The brand’s success has seen it move into a bold new space, in a seven-storey store in an art deco building on High Street Kensington.
A mix of Art Nouveau decor and rock ‘n’ roll decadence, it was more than a retail space: it was the city’s hippest meeting place.
The store sold everything from lipstick to dog food; had a roof garden; and even had a playground full of a carousel; and a rainbow-colored restaurant that took in 1,200 covers per day.
The brand expanded beyond dresses to include shoes, jewelry and hats
“The louder the music played, the faster the girls moved and more people showed up in the store,” Hulanicki later recalled, whose brown pinstripe dresses, glittery skirts and figure-hugging clothes in earthy colors sold like hotcakes.
As post-war austerity began to ease and more and more women enjoyed independent lives and jobs, the brand’s makeup range became a fashion product that many women could afford. A smoky kohl eye and bright red lipstick became the brand’s signature look.
At the other end of the financial spectrum, members of the royal family, including Princess Anne, stopped by to snoop.
But the good times couldn’t last forever and in 1976 the store closed for good. In November 2009, the brand successfully relaunched at House of Fraser without Hulanicki on board, starting with fashion and then adding accessories and interior design lines.
The collections initially sold out and many designs were reminiscent of the iconic, original 1960s glamour.
However, the dwindling fortunes of House of Fraser itself ensure that the most recent incarnation of Biba has also reached its end.
The Biba story: 1964-1975 runs from March 22 to September 8