Early autobiography of Barbara Hulanicki, whose Biba store grew from one room to a five-story department store as it became an icon of hip ’60s and ’70s London and a hangout for artists, movie stars, and rock musicians, including David Bowie, Twiggy, and Marianne Faithfull. Biba’s black-and-gold Deco-style logo is still a familiar symbol of Swinging London’s heyday as a world capital of fashion, music, and the arts, but in the early 1970s Hulanicki and her husband, Stephen Fitz-Simon, lost control of their business and for Barbara, Biba was gone. This lively autobiography evokes the adventurous spirit of the 1960s and describes an extraordinary life with clarity and wit.
Reviews: `A new edition of this charming and wry look at the Swinging Sixties through the eyes of Hulanicki, founder of Biba, the hippest shop in London' --Harpers Bazaar, 2007 `By turns poignant, hilarious and downright surreal, it's the perfect glam holiday read' --Elle Decoration, 2007 'With the Art Deco-era elegance that she made so popular in the seventies back again, the timing of designer Barbara Hulanicki's reissued memoir From A to Biba couldn't be better' --Vogue (US), 2007
Born in Poland, raised in England and now a resident of Miami, Barbara Hulanicki OBE is a British fashion icon. Hulanicki began her fashion career in the early 1960s working as a freelance fashion illustrator for the major publications of the day including Women’s Wear Daily, British Vogue, The Times, The Observer and the Sunday Times.