Biba at the Fashion and Textile Museum – by Joyce

Jane and I enjoyed this exhibition on Tuesday (27th May 2024). We got there at 11.15 am only to find it was fully booked till 12noon! We’ve been to the museum many times and have never been turned away before, just shows how popular this exhibition is. So we booked a 12noon slot and went down Bermondsey Street to Gails for a coffee, cake and catch-up.

The exhibition is the story of Biba which existed for just over a decade, from 1964 to 1975, but within those years revolutionised retailing and democratised fashion.

Barbara Hulanicki, the founder, studied fashion at Brighton Art School. She went on to be a fashion illustrator working with couturiers and their collections and realised how out of step they were with the emerging world of youth culture and the lives of young women.

Jane and I remembered the clothes, the Art Deco and Art Nouveau influenced styles but since we both made our own clothes at that time neither of us had been to her shop in Kensington. Interestingly we both thought she had been in Carnaby Street. The memory plays tricks! I think the styles were copied for the dress pattern market, e.g. McCalls.

We remembered the feather boas and felt cloche hats on display with the dresses. Early champions of the Biba style were Cathy McGowan and Cilla Black. Mary Quant opened her shop on the King’s Road about the same time.

In the design studio we could make temporary collages of dresses with scraps of fabric and do you remember those paper dolls we could dress with paper clothes with tabs on that folded over the shoulders? Well they were there too, to be coloured in as the mood took you!

There was also a room at the beginning of the exhibition devoted mostly to Twiggy and 1920’s fashions.

The shop was quite busy and afterwards we went across the road to a cafe for lunch.

The Museum is at 83 Bermondsey Street, SE1 3XF, go to London Bridge Station , turn left and it’s a 5 min walk. Probably a good idea to book, following our experience. But we weren’t in a hurry and glad to have time for a chat.