Biba and Beyond: Barbara Hulanicki

When I received the invitation to the preview of the ‘Biba and Beyond: Barbara Hulanicki’ exhibition, I was excited to go, but unsure how much I would enjoy it given my distaste for all things ‘70s.  However, I was pleasantly surprised as it was a very well designed show and the range of items displayed goes far beyond what I was expecting.

Barbara Hulanicki’s career was kick-started at the age of 18 (in 1955) when her design for a striped beach-suit was selected by the Evening Standard to be made by Norman Hartnell (most famous for being the Queen’s dressmaker).  After some years as a fashion illustrator, Biba’s Postal Boutique was launched in 1963 with a simple evening skirt.  However, the outfit that really cemented Biba’s reputation at the forefront of style was a matching pink gingham dress and headscarf, designed to accompany an article on the most important women in fashion at the time. 

 

Biba eventually sold 17,000 of dresses in this style

The first shop, (in Kensington, London) followed in 1964 and another in Brighton a year later.  After up-sizing their London shop, relaunching their mail order division (including a catalogue with photographs by Helmut Newton) and producing a hugely popular make up range, Big Biba was opened in 1973.  Big Biba was a department store spread over seven storeys where you could buy the entire lifestyle, from the clothes and makeup to stationary and even lentils!  Barbara left Biba in 1974 over creative differences with the controlling stakeholders, with the company closing  the following year.

With its obvious styling influences of Art Nouveau and 1930s Deco, the Biba brand has always been very romantic.  Biba’s main goal was to provide fashionable but affordable clothes so that the girl on the street could buy herself something new every week, and get a complete outfit in next to no time.

The perfect Biba 'dolly' was very slim, had big doe
eyes, long slender limbs and was annoyingly young

The exhibition certainly goes beyond Biba and is an exploration of all of the different aspects of Barbara Hulanicki’s career.  Examples of her fashion illustrations, interior design and development of Miami Beach (in particular the Marlin Hotel) all intermingle with the dresses she is most famous for.

Twiggy in fake fur coat and hat (c.1973).
Biba never used real fur in any of their collections

Although I’ve never been a great fan of ‘60s and ‘70s fashion, I really enjoyed the exhibition.  It showed the breadth of work Hulanicki has produced, and the relevance she still holds in the world of fashion, as examples of her collections from 2009 and 2012 (for Topshop and George at Asda, respectively) show.

 

From Barbara Hulanicki's capsule collection for Topshop, 2009

 

I would definitely reccomend the exhibition to any one interested in fashion, as it not only shows dozens of examples from the archives of an iconic brand of the '60s and '70s, but also the development of a label and one individual's design career.  I met Barbara afterwards and she was lovely, asking whether I’d enjoyed the exhibition and whether I was ‘in fashion’.

Check out the Schiaparelli 'inspired' top

The exhibition is open now and runs until April 14^th 2013.  Admission £6 for adults.

What Katie Did AW12 Launch and SS13 Preview

Dressed in a combintaion of, among other things, What Katie Did, Kiss Me Deadly and Ayten Gasson (exactly what combination you’ll just have to guess), I headed up in anticipation to the WKD AW12 and SS13 launch at their Portobello Green boutique.

As soon as we arrived, an absolutely delectable chocolate cupcake was placed in one hand and a tea/champagne cocktail was placed in the other (courtesy of The Vintage Patisserie).

I was lucky enough to be able to interview Katie before the AW12 collection was shown.

Being an avid fan of What Katie Did, I’d already seen a few of the pieces online, including the red organza and black lace Lulu and eau-de-nil Clarice ranges.  I think I agree with Katie in that my favourite piece from A/W was the Lulu Torsolette.  To a soundtrack of Billie Holliday (AW12) and Glenn Miller (SS13) the ladies (Ms Violet Crumble, Lenka Padysakova, Miss Betsy Rose, Kate Lomax and Miss Dolly Blow-Up) strutted and sashayed their way through the sumptuous boutique.

In between the collections, we were treated to some burlesque from Miss Miranda and Sophia St Villier - which turned a little Bettie Page towards the end!

  Then came the preview of the SS13 collection (after a short power cut!)  Red appeared quite a strong theme throughout, I particularly liked the two-tone corset and long-line girdle.  The new navy/cream bikini with the bows and side cut-outs is also absolutely gorgeous.

As if the cupcakes and cocktails were not enough, we were also given goodie bags, with discount vouchers and a sample of Bésame Cream Rouge (I’ve not tried it properly yet but it has a lovely smooth texture). 

If the picture just aren't enough, we filmed all of the show (and the interview with Katie) which you can see here.

I can’t wait for the SS13 selection to become available – but there’s just too much choice!

 

Brighton not Hove, actually

A fairly quick post today.  I thought as I’ve been in my new flat for a month now, I’d show you a few pictures of my new ‘hood.  For those of you who know Brighton, I’ve moved near the border with Hove, actually (importantly still in Brighton though!) sort of near the Seven Dials.  From where I used to live, in the heart of Studentland near Lewes Road, it’s rather different (definitely for the better). Enjoy!

I can see the sea!

 

If you've seen 'Wimbledon' you may recognise this place,
although they changed it into a bookies in the film.



Oh, and 'Hove, actually' is a bit of an in-joke of what residents of Hove reply when people mistakenly assume they are from Brighton (“No, I’m from Hove, actually).  I think it’s even printed on one of the buses.  Let me know what you think about the photos, or just Brighton in general.

Come along with me on down to New Orleans

I was quite intrigued when we were invited to Storyville, an event organised by the Nightjar bar.  I was even more intrigued by the theme and dress code, “a hot-blooded tribute to New Orleans” and Bordello Chic, respectively.  Storyville was the name given to the red light district operating in New Orleans between 1897-1917, so I was expecting a certain amount of debauchery - think America’s answer to Bohemian Monmartre with added creole, voodoo and a few southern belles thrown in.

The dress code was going to be a bit of a problem.  You see, I’ve just moved house (I’ll be posting later on my new abode, the architecture round here is so beautiful it needs its own post) and as such only had one dress at my new flat.  Luckily, it was a handmade 1930s day dress in a wonderful ditsy-printed lime green artificial silk, so I thought I may be able to get away with it.  



The odd fan pose is due to the big blue ink stamp on my arm
(I think I confused the doorman by wearing gloves)

 Anyway, back to the event.  The venue (Factory 7 in Shoreditch) was very well decorated, with ivy-draped street signs, two opulent four poster beds, atmospheric lighting in reds and greens as well as three bars (one of which was a dedicated to the green fairy).  One original element I really liked was the presence of the actors and performers walking around the venue.  More impressively, most of these vagrants, madams and courtesans had hidden talents; among them a breakdancer, an opera singer, and aerial and fire artists.

 I had a quick chat with Natalie Fern who was the costume designer responsible for dressing these performers.  Based in Manchester, Natalie sourced a lot of the costumes from the Royal Exchange. She had to adapt some of the looks, particularly the prostitutes, to fit in more with the modern expectations of what a courtesan should look like.  She talked of how voodoo was also an influence, as were the performers’ particular skills; with the fire act wearing blacks and reds, and the aerialist looking ethereal in white.  

Natalie also spoke of how she found it difficult dressing the men due the fact that changes in men’s fashions throughout the 20^th century were rather subtle - the width of a lapel or the size of the turn-ups perhaps altering the look by decades.  She wanted to make the ‘Gentleman Jack’ figure to look slightly more roguish to differentiate him from your ordinary seersucker clad southern gentleman.  It was refreshing to hear that most of her inspiration came from google (and also an unlikely source in ‘The Princess and the Frog’).

  

Beforehand, I had seen that Swing Patrol would be there, but rather than a performance or lesson, I think they were just populating the dance floor (not that I minded - I got quite a few dances in Scott, thethe chap behind Swing Patrol who we interviewed last year).

Although £25 may seem a bit pricey, you were getting a lot for your money.  The night ran from 7pm-4am and there seemed to be some form of entertainment for most of that time.  Apart from the aforementioned wandering performers, there was a pianist, four bands (we were only able to stay long enough to see the brilliant Basin Street Brawlers– the joys of having to catch the last train) and a free tasting lesson over at the absinthe bar (courtesy of Enigma absinthe).  We tried some of the Jambalaya (which was rather expensive and a little disappointing) and a couple of glasses of New Orleans punch (a refreshing cocktail of Southern Comfort, Ameretto, apple and rhubarb, root beer and nectarines) which although very tasty, could’ve done with being a little ‘punchier’.

It is an event I would definitely go to again, and hopefully be able to enjoy more before having to leave.  I would say that if it were made slightly shorter to bring down the price, it may have been even more popular.   I must add that I am indebted to my dear friend Caroline for accompanying me and providing some of the photos on here (she is the resident N’awlins expert of my friends).



Caroline with our new friend Gentleman Jack

 Natalie Fern can be conatcted at Natalie.fern1@googlemail.com

A hat is an accent. It can set a mood. It can tell the world you are witty or romantic, timid or daring

Again, sorry for the lack of posting - but I have now moved into my new house and have the internet back (yay!) so I'll be able to post much more often.

Recently, I have become very interested in hats – especially from the ‘40s and ‘50s.  I’m not sure if everyone has found this, but it’s quite difficult to find nice hats in a good condition, that don’t cost the earth.  This Shop Rocks on Brick Lane has possibly one of the best selections of hats I’ve ever seen, but with the majority of my favourites being well over £100, they’re a little out of my price range.  This scarcity of hats that I could afford (and didn’t look like someone had just sat on them) led me to try and create some of my own.

Now, as I didn’t know any of the techniques or have any of the materials necessary to become the next Stephen Jones, I opted for cutting up old hats and making pretty new ones.  Here are a couple of those ‘upcycled’ (if you’ll excuse the phrase) hats and what they originally looked like.

I had to be told how to smoke in the photo of me - I was just worried about my
CC41 gloves catching fire! - taken by Russ Bell for The Chap magazine

After my fairly reckless quitting-my-normal-job-in-a-shop-so-I-can-work-for-the-Vintage-News-properly episode, I had a couple of days a week ‘spare’ as it were.  When I saw a tweet about a millinery internship, I decided that was how I wanted to spend those extra days.  The only trouble was that firstly, I have no millinery training and secondly, the internship was in London!  I didn’t let that deter me and so I headed to Battersea for my first day.

The internship is with Bundle MacLaren (who is absolutely lovely) and it's all very relaxed, just stitching away in her front room, with ladies popping in to pick up their bespoke creations.  Everyday I’ve been given something new to do – I’ve learnt so much!  So far I’ve made silk orchids, covered blocked bases in lace and silk, as well as preparing and mounting peacock swords.  One of the peacock sword hats that I made ended up on the Vogue website in their coverage of Ascot! 

 I’m taking a break for a few weeks what with the Olympics and Bundle being on holiday, but here are a few of the hats I’ve made over the past few sessions.
Oh, and the title of this post is a quote from Lilly Daché, one of my favourite milliners of the first half of the 20th century.

Vintage Nation and Emma Duggan photography

Apologies for the quite substantial gap since the last post, we've been very busy in the office launching the new website which went live yesterday.

This was originally meant to be a post about Vintage Nation at Brighton Racecourse, but as it was quite a while ago, I have quite forgotten what I was going to write.  Organisers and sponsors included Judy's Vintage Fair, Hairport and Crabbie's.  I do remember there were some fantastic bands that day (including old favourites the Swing Ninjas and Mr B) and another friend of ours, Simon Webster, was one of the DJs that day.  I also interviewed the members of Bad Bad Whiskey, a brilliant skifflebilly band who I’ve seen a few times around Brighton (playing gigs, not just lurking).  Have a look at the newsreel if you'd like to know more as I've not really put anything here!

Anyway, what I thought I’d write about was a lovely photographer who took my picture (along with 30 other attendees).  Her name was Emma Duggan and she was one of the nicest photographers I’ve had the pleasure to work with.  Emma was choosing a few people whose outfits she liked to record for here website.  When it came to my turn,  Emma told me exactly how to pose, which is such a relief when you don’t like having your photo taken!  Anyway, here are three of the pictures she took of me. 

Featuring our lovely (working) postcard camera and my recently lost card case (if anyone at the Chap Olympiad found it, I would dearly love to have it back – it’s full of my business cards so you should know it’s mine). 

My outfit for the day mostly came from my mum – I was wearing a ‘30s-style pink dress from the 1980s, a russet suede ‘Hunters’ jacket from the ‘40s that the mater bought in the ‘80s.  I picked up the shoes from a charity shop for a couple of pounds and the gloves, I think I bought at a previous fair at the Racecourse.

If you'd like to have a look at more of her photos from the day, or would just like to look through her work, have a look at her blog here.  Thank you to Emma for the lovely photos - and for sending them to me by the next morning!