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Product Description
Product Description
'Big Biba', the final flowering of Barbara Hulanicki's legendary Biba store in London, was a shop like no other, before or since. It was a fabulous fantasy palace that brought the indulgence of Hollywood to the world of retail. Big Biba lasted just two years before it fell victim to recession, but the myth of the most beautiful store in the world continues to enchant both its former habitués and those who came to it too late. Founded as a corner-shop selling just one dress, Biba had grown in less than a decade to become a seven-storey department store filled with own-brand products throughout. Here the committed Bibaphile could buy not only a new wardrobe, fully co-ordinated from head to toe, but also a complete range of cosmetics and soft furnishings, together with the washing powder to care for her clothes, and food for both herself and her pets, all presented in the distinctive Biba packaging. Alternatively she could just hang out, either lounging in the shop-windows (Biba didn't do window-displays), or sipping cocktails upstairs amongst the flamingos that lived in the Roof Garden, or in the Rainbow Room, where on a good night there might be a live performance by the likes of the New York Dolls, Liberace or The Manhattan Transfer. 'Welcome to Big Biba' is dedicated entirely to this dreamland, with over 150 colour photographs of the store and of the products and graphics created for the various departments, from bathrooms to ball-gowns, from cosmetics to colouring-books. Styled by Steven Thomas, the designer of Big Biba itself, and with text by Alwyn W Turner, author of 'The Biba Experience', this book evokes the glamour, humour and fantasy of the store, the audacious style that could turn a shop girl into a Hollywood star.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Absolutely beautiful pictures and a walk through the huge experience that the big Biba shop was. I went there on numerous occasions,latterly with my (then)2 year old daughter who completely adored the children's floor, so much so that we ended up spending the whole day in there quite often. Not that I was complaining! Also remember being encouraged to try on a vevet suit and walk around in it-no I did not nick it but split the trousers in the crotch when taking them off. Great times remembered via this super book which I consider a bargain.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A must have if you're into Biba. Though it only focus on the last Biba shop, , the book contains beautiful quality pictures, a highly visual trip through the store, plus the instore magazine published on the opening and a lovely retro bookmark. If you like Art Deco, fashion, and a bit of the 70's glitter, that's a book for you. Biba will always be a big loss, something that we probably will never experience ever again because it was something of its own time. It was high time someone paid a tribute to the the wildest retail fantasy ever achieved (check also the great other books on the subject 'The Biba Experience' and 'In Biba').
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A great, well researched & beautilfully illustrated book about Bibas attempt at running a department store at the old Derry & Toms site in Kensington High Street, London in the early 1970's. I worked there in the pastry dept. from day one helping to cook the "slighty different" products/dishes created by Barbara Hulanicki, Fitz.(her late husband)& their team, & would see the both of them most days travelling in the staff lift at the rear of the store to work. So this book brought back a lot of memories(mostly happy ones) for me. Just a shame they over extended themselves & couldn't survive you will never see another store quite like the Biba store again. It really was a store of its time.
Just a foot note, apparently it was said at the time that more Biba goods went through the door than went through the tills so this probably helped to play a part in its eventual demise, sad but possibly true.
Just a foot note, apparently it was said at the time that more Biba goods went through the door than went through the tills so this probably helped to play a part in its eventual demise, sad but possibly true.
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