Barbara Hulanicki lauched the Biba label with her husband John Fitz Simon in 1963, initially selling clothes by mail order through newspaper advertisements. The success of her affordable, fashionable designs enabled them to open a series of shops in Kensington, London.

Hulanicki created romantic, nostalgic garments for women swept up in the growing craze for second-hand dresses. They loved her sludgy 'Auntie' colours: chocolate browns, rich plums, deep blues. The Biba cosmetics range, with its sepia lipsticks, dark kohls and khaki eye-shadows, completed a look which precociously blended youthful rebellion with vampish, silent-movie sophistication.