The third of our black and white pictures

I’ve already shared more about the first and second pictures which now hang framed on our bedroom wall, today the image choice turns away from holiday memories and is a much more day to day image, or it was until we moved.

We’d lived in our London house in Blackheath for just over twenty years before we moved to rural Nottinghamshire, and we were keen to have some of our Greenwich life represented in our four black and white picture choices - it had been a big, infact the biggest, part of our lives together.

We wanted something that represented the area, rather than our old house, but something that wasn’t quite the usual shot of Greenwich. Greenwich Park was an obvious choice as we both enjoyed using that space but choosing a single image was tough, so we needed something else.

We regular walked along the Thames Path, and more often than that MOH spent many weekend mornings cycling that way too - I did too at times, but the uphill route home wasn’t a favourite of mine!

This is a photo that I’ve shared here before, and was taken on one of those longer (and permitted) lockdown walks, which explains why there’s few people around - a time when the world was just as crazy (if not more so) than it is today. In the original post I also shared how that walk had revived memories of when MOH proposed, it wasn’t in this spot, but it was on a jetty further along from here. The weather wasn’t like this on that day, it was February and snow was forecast - which of course wasn’t in his plans, and snow is rarely in my plans at all!

In this photo I think there’s more detail in the coloured version - you can see the white twisted columns of the cable car more clearly, but in the black and white version I think it’s the Thames overall that is most prominent.

It’s a great image to have of our long time home, it evokes so many memories of living there and of the area’s heritage, so it’s another great inclusion in our series of four black and white pictures.

The Biba lifestyle brand

The Biba Story exhibition at Zandra Rhodes’ Fashion & Textile museum was definitely worth a visit, and told Barbara Hulanicki’s story through fashion illustrations and some of the wonderful outfits, but it also claimed that Biba was the first world’s lifestyle label, which is quite a claim.

Today our lives are full to the brim of brands which aim to encompass every part of our life, and as with anything some stay around while others come and go. But imagine trailblazing in that area and the reactions you’d get.

As the show notes said ‘Barbara Hulanicki began by ‘dressing the girl in the street; by 1973 she had fashioned Biba into a lifestyle’. The first non-clothing Biba product was a 1967 diary, which included recommendations for other places of interest for Biba customers to visit.

The Biba department store on Kensington High Street had departments for clothes, furnishings, wallpapers and cosmetics all in the distinctive Biba colour palette. By 1973 you could eat, sleep and breathe Biba, from newborn babies to adult, with products for the home and garden - and in-store dining and food for the home too.

And it was great to see some of these items on display.

The display started off as you might expect - a vanity case, some tights and then there were the diaries and address books. An ashtray and matches, plus packs of cards and some lights too - the silver coloured one in the centre caught my eye, reminding me of a lamp I had. On reflection its nothing like this lamp, mine was white ceramic with a frosted glass sphere in front of the female holding up her skirt. I thought it was super elegant, and kept it for many years even though the frosted glass sphere shattered at some point along the way.

Biba was clearly an aspirational brand, just look at those soups: Consommé, Lobster, Vichyssoise, Shark’s Fin, Bird’s Nest and Real Turtle - no mock turtles here! Even the names of those soups transport me back to my childhood, not that I think we ever ate any of those, or maybe we did and it was described by my parents as ‘chicken soup’!

And what decadent jars for the pulses - yellow split peas, chickpeas, red lentils and haricot beans, condiments chutneys, including sweet spiced walnuts.

The booze is also of its time isn’t it - cherry, red currant and blackberry wines (and more which I can’t quite make the labels out), plus of course roasted & salted mixed nuts, or pistachios - all very ‘To the Manor Born’.

But it was the eyeshadow palette that looked most familiar to me, and clearly I’ve never owned one so perhaps mum had one - but as well as the makeup, there’s brushes, creams and potions I’m sure for every conceivable use.

What an absolute discovery of an exhibition, and what a time to experience the start of lifestyle brands as we’re oh so familiar with today.

The Biba Story: The outfits

So after sharing the fashion illustrations and wishing I could draw as well today I’m sharing some of the outfits on display. The exhibition, which we saw last summer shared the Biba story from 1964 when the first Biba Boutique opened to 1975 when the legendary Big Biba closed its doors; it explored how Biba blossomed to become the world’s first lifestyle label which ‘sparked a revolution in how people shopped’ and how Biba became the brand that epitomises the 60s and 70s fashion.

So even though I was only in double figures towards the end of the 70s many of the designs on display looked familiar and I’m sure influenced the clothes I wore growing up. There were also designs that I’d happily wear today, but I guess that’s part of what makes a great design.

The first Biba boutique opened in Kensington in 1965 and was quickly a success for fashion-savvy teenagers and young women with its inexpensive and fashionable, but low-cost clothing. The interior of the boutique had a nightclub feel with dark interiors, Art-Nouveau inspired wallpaper and curtains which obscured the outside world - which in a way seems similar to the Hollister store in Stratford when that opened in the late 2000s.

The black and white print jumpsuit is quite a statement isn’t it? It was worn by the artist Jill Richter for her wedding in May 1965, and while trousers had become acceptable as informal wear for women in the 30s, in the 60s trousers were still considered inappropriate for women’s professional lives or for formal occasions. Which seems unimaginable today.

The blue and green chiffon dress in the photo above dates from the summer of 1967 when it was sold and worn, Barbara said that they were determined that customers would be able to buy summer clothes in summer and autumn clothes in autumn, something we take for granted today. But it was interesting to learn that before the revolution of 1960s London fashion, clothes were investments, and this was a new way of thinking.

These dresses have a different feel don’t they - the blue one on the left is from 1970 and the exhibition notes say that it ‘captures the new mood at biba with the development of the Biba “Dolly Bird” of the mid-1960s into the Biba woman’ - language of its time, but definitely a more refined look. These were part of the Biba couture department which was dedicated to selling the high-end Biba range, and costing around ten times of standard Biba clothing - it only lasted for eighteen months though, closing in 1971.

It’s the second outfit (from the left) in the photo below that brings back memories - I’m sure mum made both herself and me a similar outfit to this for a wedding, though in different material to this, and to each other. I’m sure mine was a much simpler version, but I remember being proud to be wearing something so grown up!

The outfit next to it - the wrap-over top and skirt, is one of those I’d be happy to wear today, but actually it dates to 1972. The trouser suit on the right though, not so much!

These outfits are later, with the black dress printed with a carnation design dating to 1974 as does the floral dress in three colourways at the back of the photo. Again both designs that wouldn’t look out of place today, but also captures Hulanicki’s ideal Biba look of the period - almost reminiscent of the Cadbury’s Flake advert too, if you’re of a certain age!

And I’ll leave you with one final outfit - it’s bright and fun and no doubt made whoever wore it feel a million dollars.

Barbara Hulanicki and the Biba story started by dressing the girl on the street, but more was to come and the next part of the exhibition was dedicated to Biba as the world’s first lifestyle label - more on that soon.