The Legacy of Biba

Twiggy lounges in a Biba ensemble, 1972.

One of Topshop's only true predecessors, Biba was a London fashion store, launched first as a postal boutique in 1964. Their first sale - advertised through the Daily Mirror, a pink gingham dress with a hole cut from the back of the neck, complete with matching kerchief - was an immediate success: sold at the absurdly low price of £1.25, 17,00 orders were placed. The money earned, although meager, allowed Biba to open its very first shop, a building so small that there were no changing rooms.

Biba was, first and foremost, an enterprise borne of love and hardwork. Polish-born and Jerusalem-raised founder, Barbara Hulanicki, had been a lover of fashion since early childhood - she recalls never wanting to wear the same outfit as her two sisters, Beatrice and Biruta (the latter nicknamed Biba), and that although Palestine was "hot and exotic," there were very few shops. Unsurprisingly, she attended the Brighton School of Art, and after finishing college, worked as a freelance fashion illustrator for British Vogue and The Times. Her first minor success came in 1955, when she designed a swimsuit for a contest in the Evening Standard, and took the prize home. The inspiration for the design, candy-colored with a white Eton collar, came from imagining "Audrey Hepburn wearing it in Sabrina."

Barbara poses with her award-winning swimwear in the Evening Standard, 1955.

The gingham dress that started it all, 1964.

There were a few moves throughout Biba's beginnings, one being the infamous building on Kensington High Street, where, in 1971, a bomb was set off inside the store by The Angry Brigade. Following this, Biba moved onto bigger and better things, trailed doggedly by their loyal and enthusiastic clientele; backed by Dorothy Perkins and British Land, Biba moved to a seven-story Derry & Toms department store. It soon became one of the most visited tourist attractions in London. The store itself was something to be marveled at, each floor with its own theme: the music room, which boasted a giant record player (fully operational) as the display for records; enormous cans of Campbell's soup filled with - well, soup; massive dog-shaped displays, modeled after Hulanicki's Great Dane Othello, filled with pet food and treats; the lingerie items were sold on a boudoir platform with bed, nightstand and wardrobe; and much, much more - far too much to ever condense into one blog post.

The boudoir in Biba's department store.

Biba's ground floor display.

Left: Cosmetics display, 1973; Right: Men's shoe display, 1974. Photos taken by Tim White and Tim Street-Porter, respectively.

The Andy Warhol inspired soup section.

Another aspect worth mentioning regarding Biba's legacy is their Art Deco-inspired decor and style. Biba girls sported eyes kohled to the eyebrow, heavy false lashes, and Clara Bow-esque red lips with an exaggerated Cupid's bow. A number of the garments themselves were slim-cut. masculine dresses that would have blended in easily during the 1920s; some were ruffled and patterned, calling to mind modernized 1930s house dresses. However, if anything, Biba was a modern company, determined to sell modern women modern clothes; Hulanicki writes in her autobiography, From A to Biba: "...the classic Biba dolly...was very pretty and young. She had an upturned nose, rosy cheeks and a skinny body with long asparagus legs and tiny feet. She was square-shouldered and quite flat-chested. Her head was perched on a long, swanlike neck. Her face was a perfect oval, her lids were heavy with long, spiky lashes. She looked sweet but was as hard as nails. She did what she felt like at that moment and had no mum to influence her judgement."

The Biba advertisements, along with the cosmetics packaging, look like something straight out of 1925.

Top: A Biba cosmetics chart. Middle: The Biba cosmetics display. Bottom: Some Biba eyeshadows and nail polishes.

After Biba's purchase by Dorothy Perkins, things went downhill rather quickly. Biba was a enormous responsibility, in terms of finance, organization and everything else, and while Dorothy Perkins buying 75% of the company helped, Hulanicki was in conflict with the Board over creative control. After Hulanicki's decision to leave, the British Land Company closed Biba in 1975. 

While there have been many attempts at relaunching Biba, none of them have been successful - most likely because they did not involve Hulanicki. The Biba label was relaunched under designer Bella Freud, but was a spectacular failure, with Hulanicki worrying that the new designs would 'betray their heritage.' Without the original appeal of Biba's catering to teenagers, low prices, and lacking the finesse of the originals, it was widely panned, and closed.

In November of 2009, House of Fraser bought the company. This attempt was successful, easily outselling House of Fraser's other in-house brands. Hulanicki, however, was less than pleased, and continued to design collections for rival Topshop. This story does, however, have a relatively happy ending: in 2014, it was announced that Hulanicki would be a consultant to the brand, after signing an agreement with House of Fraser.

Today, Biba is still regarded as iconic, and one of the definitive '60s fashion brands.

Barbara Hulanicki, 1975.