Biba, the face of 1960s and early 1970s fashion, was named after its moving spirit, the fashion designer Biba (Barbara) Hulanicki.

From its first small premises in Abingdon Road, High Street Kensington, London, in 1964, it quickly moved to bigger premises in 1965 and then, in 1969, to a couple of shops next door to each other and knocked through to make one showroom at the bottom of Kensington Church Street.

The shop was dark; it was stylish; it was cutting edge fashion with a retro feel; it was boas and Twiggy and maroon velvets and floppy hats and it was hugely successful and influential.

In 1974 it moved into the seven floors of the old Derry & Toms department store back in Kensington High Street, but the huge scale of the new building rather overwhelmed the old Biba feel, and this was also a time of economic turbulence.  In 1975 it closed.