I have almost finished reading From A to Biba: The Autobiography of Barbara Hulanicki, and I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in history, fashion and most importantly retailing. Biba was the first to appeal to the teenage fashion market in the UK, and essentially one of the first to offer clothing that the youth at the time were so craving, at a low price.
The best way I can describe it is, imagine a time before any high street retailing existed - that's right, no Sportsgirl, no Top Shop, no H&M. The only place you could shop were stores that only catered to the 30+ crowd. Then, someone opens a store that stocks cool, interesting clothes. Clothes that can only be worn by the young, extra short mini skirts, tall suede boots, playsuits, tiny coats, big floppy hats. Everyone wonders, how come no one has thought of this before? This is Biba. They were pioneers in an area of fashion retailing that now seems so basic, so ingrained in western culture, no one thinks twice about it.
Last night, I read in her book the paragraph below. Wow. It encapsulates the excitement of and difficulties of youth mass market retailing, so perfectly. And as a youth retailer, had me wishing, if only Barbara Hulanicki could be my mentor!
"The young wanted to be led but not dictated to. It is fatal to be too far ahead just for the sake of being able to say that you were the first. It is much more difficult to be just one small step in front of the public. It's useless to present them with clothes they don't understand. You have to respect street wisdom and nous. I was deliberately rather unaware of what other people were doing at the time because I found it discouraging to look too carefully." Barbara Hulanicki.
Barbara Hulanicki in 1975.
