‘Arriba’ Biba…!
So I was pleasantly surprised to find that down at my local Museum was an exhibition celebrating the eponymous fashion brand Biba, which was founded (shock horror) in the early 1960’s even before I was born! Originator Barbara Hulanicki wanted to bring ‘hip n happening’ fashion looks to the masses, this she achieved and more with Biba.
The exhibition concentrated on Biba at its height (no surprise there…), when it opened its largest store (a department store) on Kensington High Street, such was its appeal, it became at the time a major London attraction (I used to know someone who said she used to hang out all day as a teenager and not spend a penny!-cash that is!).
I was a ‘wee nipper’ at the time, I was ‘aware’ of Biba and admired very much the Biba look. So it was a ‘bit of a ‘trip down memory lane’ in a sense, to see this Biba show. The exhibition was not large, but there was enough scope to catch your interest, I especially liked some of the voice overs, which featured some of the women who worked at Biba in their youth, and also the creator of the Iconic Biba logo.
What I could not get or thought did not work at all were the mannequin’s paper ‘spiralled hair’…I mean this was not ‘Biba style’…it would have been more fitting on a historical display, or somewhere else entirely, just not on this Biba exhibit, I hated the hair! There I said it! It was just so wrong! It really did bug me…in fact in the hair makes me think of a judge’s wig.. so as far from Biba as you can imagine! ‘Bibalicious’ it definitely was not!
What I did like though was a film of the Kensington store, seeing the shoppers ‘milling about’ with the’ hip n happening’ voice-over describing the fashion’s of the ‘groovy’ people. Oh how I wished I was there when I was a girl…boogieing away to the ‘Biba’ beat! So I just had to make the most of what was there (which I did) but very sorry I can’t forget or ‘forgive’ that hair! Noooo! (I think I’ll have nightmares now…).
There is ‘no nonsense’ there is no clothes!