A very short dress or minidress made from a viscose fabric printed with a small white graphic motif on black, worn by Danuta Laughton, Biba, 1971

A very short dress or minidress made from a viscose fabric printed with a small white graphic motif on a black ground. Made with a high round neckline attached to a folded stand collar which extends into broad 'pussy bow' neck ties. The dress has very generous overhanging sleeves, puffed at the shoulder, tight at the upper arm, and finished with elasticated wristbands. It is cut with very short shoulder seams and four narrow panels, flaring to the hem from a very narrow bust and waist, and fastening at the centre back with a hook and eye, and a zip (52.5 cm long). The bust is shaped with distinctive Biba 'L' shaped darts. Small single darts shape the back panels to fit the shoulders beneath the stand collar either side of the centre-back zip.

Given by Danuta and Peter Laughton

Danuta Laughton sometimes wore this dress to work, but as a blouse with a black pencil skirt.

This dress sums up the subversive spirit of Biba with its demure, pussy-bow tie neckline, and exaggerated long sleeves combined with the shockingly short,skirt length. Barbara Hulanicki sourced fabrics revived from 1920s and '30s art deco and reinterpreted them for the next generation, creating wearable, distinctive dresses that were made in sometimes small runs, in London factories, that were sold in her west London boutique at prices accessible to young ordinary women as well as pop singers and models. Designs such as this, skinny and shaped to the body with clever pattern cutting, laid the foundations for Hulanicki's lifestyle brand that has enduring appeal, long after the closure of the Kensington 'Big Biba' store in 1975.

T.2392-2021