Barbara Hulanicki
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Born in Warsaw, to Polish parents, after studying at Brighton Art College, Hulanicki won a London Evening Standard competition for beachwear in 1955. She began her career in fashion as a freelance fashion illustrator, working for various magazines, including Vogue, Tatler and Women's Wear Daily.
Hulanicki sold her first designs by a small mail-order business, featured in the fashion columns of newspapers such as the Daily Mirror. In 1964 she opened her Biba shop in Kensington, with the help of her late husband, Stephen Fitz-Simon. The shop soon became famous for its stylishly decadent atmosphere and lavish decor inspired Art Nouveau and Art Deco. It became a hangout for artists film stars and rock musicians, including Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Marianne Faithfull and Cathy McGowan, presenter of Ready Steady Go!, among the regulars. In the shop affordable mini-skirts, floppy felt hats, feather boas, velvet trouser suits and uni-sex T-shirts dyed in rich, muted colors were eagerly snapped up by a young clientele. Anna Wintour got her start in fashion as an employee. Biba finally closed its doors in 1976.
After the closure of Biba, Hulanicki continued to work in the fashion industry, designing for such fashion designers as Fiorucci and Cacharel and for twelve years, from 1980 to 1992, designed a successful line of children's wear, Minirock, licensed to the Japanese market.
She presently resides in Miami, Florida where she has a successful interior design business, designing hotels for Chris Blackwell in Jamaica and the Bahamas. She recently designed wallpaper for habitat shops in Europe and is launching a fashion and home range in India.
