Biba & Beyond exhibition.

Biba by Barbara Hulanicki

Biba, a brand that changed the way young women of the 60’s and 70’s dressed. Barbara Huluanicki is noted as the first designer to create affordable and well designed clothes for women. The iconic brand transformed the high street shopping experience allowing customers to adopt a look popularized by the ‘it girls’ of the time such as Audrey Hepburn and Twiggy.

The Biba and Beyond exhibition looks at the rise of the fashion concept that is Biba and at Hulanicki’s life, challenges and longevity in careers besides the fashion industry in interior design and architecture. 

The exhibition held in the Brighton Museum  the town that Hulanicki grew up in. After the assassination of her father. The family moved from Palestine and settled in the seaside town of Brighton in the UK. The exhibition chronologically tells the story of her life including  her relationship her then husband and now deceased Stephen Fritz-Simon who was at the helm of Biba driving the business of the brand. 

In the space of a decade Biba grew from a modest boutique in Kensington to a seven story department store with several shops with one also in Brighton the town that she grew up in. As the Brand grew the dolly girl aesthetic stayed the same with skinny fit designs and bias cut dresses. The Biba customer wasn’t just a girl it was a generation.