Do you remember Biba?

We were in Brighton this week and visited the Biba exhibition, it's there till April so well worth a look especially if, like me, you remember Biba "back in the day". I only had one genuine garment, and that was second-hand from another girl at my boarding school. I remember it well though - it was a muted dusky aubergine skinny rib top with elbow length sleeves and a square neckline.

I confess I don't always read captions at exhibitions, but these interested me. The crop-top trouser suit in the middle of the photo above was worn by a bride at her wedding! I remember those reallllly wide legged trousers.

The caption here reminded me of something I'd totally forgotten. You can't tell from the photo, but at that time we all had chunky 3" heels and big platforms on our shoes - so trouser hems had to be much longer at the front than the back, so that the front would just touch your shoe while the back dragged on the ground.
Why? Who knows!
I was never very tall so usually ended up cutting off most of the wide part of the trouser legs.

The only Biba attribute I achieved in my teens was the flat chest LOL and I wasn't too pleased about that!

I remember going to the Biba store in London, must have been around 1973. 

I bought a nail varnish I think,  that was the only thing my pocket-money would stretch to.

I wish I could have watched this instructional video on the "Biba eyes" back then. 

I could manage to make up one eye but could never get the other to look the same. 

We all loved the Biba packaging.

I hadn't realised it all started with a newspaper competition - this is 1955, the year before I was born.

I absolutely love the coat in the middle of the photo below, I'd wear that right now if I could. 

I did have a brown coat in the 70s with "frog fastenings" like this one, but nowhere near as stylish.

Biba and Twiggy are linked in my memory. 

She was (and still is) so very beautiful. It's fake fur of course.

I said to the exhibition curator how I wished I'd kept some of my 70s clothes - she said most of the visitors in my age group had said the same. So hang on to those fashions, people! One day they'll be worth a mint!