Dress, Biba by Barbara Hulanicki, white cotton minidress with red binding and hand-painted blue and red 'Mod target' motif, London, 1964

White cotton dress, cut straight as a shift, with red binding at armholes and neckline, red and blue hand-painted Mod Target on front. The dress was shortened a few years after purchase.

Given by Dr Hermione Harris

Barbara Hulanicki launched the Biba label with her husband John Fitz Simon in 1963, initially selling clothes by mail order through newspaper advertisements. The success of their affordable, youthful designs enabled them to open a small shop in Abingdon Road in Kensington the following year. As the business expanded they relocated to ever grander premises in the Kensington area. Many of London’s fashionable new boutiques catered only for well-off customers (Mary Quant’s Bazaar, for example), but Biba attracted glamorous pop stars, bohemian aristocrats and impoverished students alike.

This dress is a rare example from the early years of Biba, when the business was based on Abingdon Road, from September 1964 to 1965. The dress features a hand-painted red and blue target motif, which became popularly known as the “Mod Target”. Originally used as a RAF logo during the Second World War, the target motif was appropriated by the Mod movement in the early 1960s and became central to the fashion iconography of the youth culture.

This dress was purchased from the first Biba retail shop on Abingdon Road, London, in 1964. The original owner shortened the dress a few years later to bring it closer to the fashionable 'mini' length.

Barbara Hulanicki launched the Biba label with her husband John Fitz Simon in 1963, initially selling clothes by mail order through newspaper advertisements. The success of their affordable, youthful designs enabled them to open a small shop in Abingdon Road in Kensington the following year. As the business expanded they relocated to ever grander premises in the Kensington area. Many of London’s fashionable new boutiques catered only for well-off customers (Mary Quant’s Bazaar, for example), but Biba attracted glamorous pop stars, bohemian aristocrats and impoverished students alike.

This dress is a rare example from the early years of Biba, when the business was based on Abingdon Road, from September 1964 to 1965. The dress features a hand-painted red and blue target motif, which became popularly known as the “Mod Target”. Originally used as a RAF logo during the Second World War, the target motif was appropriated by the Mod movement in the early 1960s and became central to the fashion iconography of the youth culture.

T.40-2019