The Biba Experience

The Biba Experience is one of the books I have reviewed for this month's My Creative Diva magazine. I felt it was well worth sharing as Biba was such an iconic part of London's fashion and music scene in the 60s and 70s, and this book really brings it to life.

If I could invent a sartorial time machine, my first destination would probably be Biba – a mecca for the young and fashionable in the late 60s and early 70s and a favourite with the likes of Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithful. It was so much more than just a clothes store, with its iconic black and gold logo, and looked like the coolest place to be.

The first store opened in 1964 and ten years later its third incarnation was the first department store to open in London since WWII. Once described as 'the most beautiful store in the world' by The Sunday Times, it sold not only clothes but food, decor, furniture and so much more.

In the weeks leading up to the store's closure in 1975 even the furniture was ransacked (apparently shop lifting had always been part of the Biba experience), a heart breaking sight for founder Barbara Hulanicki who had been forcibly divorced by her board of directors months earlier. She was the life and soul of Biba, and it was destined for destruction without her.

Biba 'fulfilled the rock & roll promise to live fast, die young and leave a beutiful corpse', and this fabulous book tells Barbara and Biba's story, with beautiful photos that capture the glamour, personality, clothes and culture of this relatively short lived but much loved establishment.

The Biba Experience by Alwyn W Turner, £22
Published by Antique Collectors Club
ISBN 9871851495412

The Biba brand is alive today at House of Fraser, who are putting that classic logo to good use. Many items are currently on sale so if you fancy a little piece of a cult brand head over to www.houseoffraser.co.uk.

Biba Jet Rock Collar, currently £36 (was £45)

Biba Feather Clutch Bag, currently £53.63 (was £149)