The most glorious fashion retailer of the 60′s and 70′s, Biba was the totally original brainchild of Barbara Hulanicki, a skilled fashion drawer-turned- designer born in Poland. Unlike most of the fashion conglomerates of today, the Biba business had humble beginnings. Starting off as a mail-order boutique with a few cheap garments cut all to the same tiny size, Barbara saw her designs take off in a big way.

Made for the impossibly slim tennager and young adult, Barbara described the perfect Biba girls as ‘fresh little foals with long legs, bright faces and round dolly eyes’.

The clothes themselves were frequently dark, romantic and owed much to the styles of previous decades – Art Deco especially. The colour palette, save for the odd venture into the more sequinned 70′s glam look, stayed resolutely dark and rich – plums, rusty browns and inky blues.

Some common features of Biba clothes include high arm holes, bishop sleeves and covered buttons. Today vintage Biba clothes are incredibly desirable and reasonably rare.