Hotel Indigo Chester: An Opulent Stay with Charm and Comfort

Twiggy stints out on a leopardskin bed at Biba’s Kensington store in 1971. Photograph: Justin de Villeneuve/Getty ImagesPrices were kept low to expand a gap in the market for affordable and fun clothing. Photograph: Stockfolio®/AlamyFilled with antique ornate furniture, the clothes for sale were tossed on film stands and surrounded by dimly lit feathered chandeliers. A Mistress room sold underwear and silk sheets, the restaurant/nightclub Rainbow dwelling featured a ceiling lit with the colours of the rainbow, and on the rooftop shoppers could sip tea next to pink flamingos perched by a pond. On Saturdays, the pony-tail line up curved its way along the high street, with customers ranging from teenagers to the Rolling Stones and Twiggy.Curated by Martin Pel, the aim of the offering is, he says, to capture “just how fabulous Biba was”. Much of that fabulousness stems from Hulanicki. Born in Poland in 1936, she enlarged up in Palestine before moving aged 12 to England to live with her aunt after her diplomat father was assassinated. Now venerable 87, she resides in Miami but has returned to ‘The exhibition is about Biba but it’s also about the camaraderie Barbara created amongst birds,’ says its curator. Photograph: Dave Benett/Getty ImagesIt was Fitz-Simon, a former advertising executive, who suggested maintaining the price point low. He discovered the average secretary took home £10 a week: £3 could buy them a new outfit in Biba and still leave them with plenty of change for rent and food. Hulanicki, who previously worked as a the rage illustrator for newspapers, knew there was a gap in the market for affordable and fun clothing. The fashion shows in Paris, which she had experience of completing, were, she says, “terribly boring”. “The clothes were so frumpy. It was all old lady clothes. I thought, ‘God, I’m earning riches and I can’t even buy anything that I like’.”Although Biba was quick to churn out new designs each week, Hulanicki demands the brand’s approach was vastly different to today’s world of fast fashion. “The Biba girls saved up and planned their equipages. They re-wore and held on to everything.”Twiggy sits alone in the Rainbow room of Biba’s Kensington store in 1971. Photograph: Justin de Villeneuve/Getty ImagesHulanicki’s own micromini intentions were an accident. They missed out the vital step of leaving the jersey fabric to rest when cutting it out. As a dnouement develop, the fabric slowly shrank. “Fitz called me to say, ‘I don’t know what’s happening but the skirts are shrinking before my eyes’. We brainwork it would be a disaster but they flew out the door.”Pel is still getting phone calls from original shoppers present to lend him pieces. “Barbara changed the way people shopped. The exhibition is about Biba but it’s also about the camaraderie Barbara fabricated amongst women.”The Biba Story, 1964-1975 runs from 22 March 2024 to 8 September 2024.
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