Bring Oot Your Biba is our new project that celebrates Dovecot's exhibition, The Biba Story, 1964-1975, and what the brand means to you. We are asking for your stories to feature on the Dovecot Studios blog. We will be publishing submissions on here throughout the run of the exhibition, so join us to honour Biba’s iconic designs!
These Boots Were Made for Bar Stools
I received these fabulous green suede boots from my late friend, Sue. Biba boots flew off the shelves, but the fashionable Sue managed to have two pairs: one red and one green, the latter of which was given to me. I recall the boots looked great but were incredibly uncomfortable to wear, but I did manage to dance and go to parties in them – they look best when sitting atop a high bar stool in a fashionable Biba outfit. I have very fond memories of visiting Big Biba and even got to dine in the roof-top garden among the flamingos.
– Linda Campbell
Dotted Around the World
Jacket, c. 1970
Originally from Nottingham, I had moved to London in late 1966, to live with my boyfriend, a local musician. His name was Alvin Lee, and is sadly no longer with us. He and his band became Ten Years After in 1967 and went on to tour Europe, America and even Japan and took my Biba jacket with me. In 2024, I had a book published about those ten years titled Magical Highs, Alvin Lee & Me. A Sixties Woodstock Memoir (Spenwood Books). I toured for five years with Alvin and Ten Years After, I was with him at Woodstock 1969.
– Loraine Burgon
Behind the Scenes at Biba
During the summer of 1975 my girlfriend and I got a holiday job working at the Kensington High St Biba store. Here is a photograph of Annie and I from around that time. We considered ourselves pretty hip and cool to be working in the trendy Biba store.
Aged 17 and still at school, Annie and I were taken on as sales assistants at Biba. From recollection, we worked six days a week and were paid £14. On arrival at work each week, we selected our ‘uniform’ which was worn for the next six days. The uniform comprised of clothing from the Biba range on sale in the store. The clothes were hanging in the staff room for us to choose. If you arrived late, the choice was more limited. Fortunately, as Annie and I were both a small size six or eight, we usually found something to fit us. At the end of each week the shop would wash the clothes and return them to the staff room rail. We chose different clothes most weeks. One outfit consisted of peach canvas wide flared trousers with a matching peach and white striped T-shirt.
Annie worked in handbags and recalls famous customers coming into the store, including David Bowie. I worked in makeup which was situated on the right hand side of the store. We also worked downstairs where most of the clothes were on display. We assisted customers and took clothes away from the changing room to replace on display. The lighting was subdued downstairs and the décor dark in line with Biba’s colour pallet. There was a mezzanine floor with children’s clothes above the ground floor. Perhaps because of our age, we were not asked to work there. Throughout the day, music played on a loop. Tunes by Buddy Holly and the Beatles Revolver album featured heavily. I loved the music, but some staff found it repetitive. There appeared to be quite a high turnover in personnel.
At the end of the day, when leaving the store, a security guard searched staff bags, including makeup bags, to check that nothing was stolen. It was a short, direct ride home by bus home to Chiswick for Annie and I. Biba was conveniently located for summer holiday employment. We have little to show from our Biba experience except the dress photographed, which no longer fits me, and a pack of playing cards that Annie no longer uses. But it was a memorable time in our lives. We’re glad we played a small part in the store’s history.
– Jeannie Macdonald
Spotted in Biba
Back in July 1975 I bought a number of items from the Biba store in Kensington and a leopard print pill box hat with clutch bag and muff to match were a prized set. I had also bought a fabulous swing back coat in black in the store which I wore with the set.
I can remember stepping off the bus and sashaying down Princes Street in the whole ensemble. Felt a million dollars! My hair was very long and copper red and I pinned some up to give me a look to go with the hat! Platform shoes in green suede completed the outfit as I went to a shop in Hanover Street called Bus Stop to buy make up. Here is a photo of me wearing the Biba t-shirt with the gold logo on the front, you can just make out the logo.
– Maureen Tremmel
Veronica’s Story
Veronica and I met at a mod club, The Gamp, in Victoria Street as seventeen year olds in 1964. Since then we would make an annual pilgrimage to London to buy clothes, more specifically for Veronica to visit Biba. On one memorable occasion in 1966, whilst in Biba, Veronica was in the changing rooms and I was waiting patiently, Brigitte Bardot walked in, who was filming in London at that time. Unfortunately I was not allowed to photograph her by her minders but needless to say I was
smitten. Another time I was photographing Veronica and a friend, who had both just purchased the famous Biba feather boas, not realising that Brian Jones (The Rolling Stones) was in the distant background.
Veronica wasn’t so keen on the large Biba store in Kensington High Street as she felt it has lost that mystique so began to order from a mail order catalogue. Over the years Veronica donated her Biba clothes to Cancer Research and sadly
passed away 4 years ago after 53 years of marriage. I know she would be delighted for me to share her story with you.
– Charlie Hearn
Captured on Camera
In 1966 my teacher training college in Aberdeen offered the speech and drama students the opportunity to attend a course in London which was intended to expand our knowledge of theatre beyond the Shakespeare, Burns and Chaucer we had been taught in school. The newly formed National Theatre Company production of Oedipus starring John Gielgud certainly did that!
With time to explore London for the first time we headed for the wonderful new shop called Biba. Having recovered from the shock of communal changing rooms, I bought a Biba dress. I wore it when we attended a live Television production of the Roy Hudd show and was thrilled when the cameras picked out my friend and me in our fabulous new outfits. The dress has long since gone but not the memories.
– Anna Hamilton
Bridal Blouse
Blouse, 1969 | Dress, 1968
I started buying Biba clothes in the late 60’s from the mail order catalogues. I waited in anticipation for each one to come out, I drooled over the photos which were very avant garde. My favourite piece was a white blouse with pirate sleeves, deep cuffs and covered buttons, cost £3/15/6 new. I got married in this blouse. There was nothing like Biba in Edinburgh, the colours, the cut, the design, the material all fabulous...Everything I ordered from the catalogues was promptly delivered and as described in the catalogue. Biba was unique, ahead of her time, a trend setter, fabulous.
– Carole Jackson
Perfect in Plum
Dress, c. 1971
Louise Mackenzie was wearing Biba ever since Biba’s Postal Boutique mail order service. She recalls going to every store and once, at Abingdon Road, Barbara Hulanicki coming out with a tray of tea for customers. This flowing plum dress was one of the many dresses she purchased from Biba. She recalls the fit being suitable for her as a maternity dress as well as non-maternity wear. She was delighted to see the same dress featured in Biba: The Fashion Brand that Defined a Generation (2024) in photographs of the Bergdorf Goodman shop windows (on page 117).
A Teenage Dream in Biba
As a teenager in the early 70s, I aspired to be a Biba babe. Saturday trips to the High Street Kensington shop were magical, wandering round the vast store, feeling the exotic materials and trying on the dresses. The roof garden was an oasis, and I was amazed that boring items like fridges could come in purple! Sadly, almost everything was out of my price range, but I did buy the make-up and a blue lurex scarf which I still have.
– Sally Cross
Sisterhood, Style and a Red Dress
Dress, c.1971
Here's my Biba Story, or rather my sister's Biba story. Sadly my sister died 30 years ago and when clearing her clothes I just couldn't part with this Biba dress and what it meant to me. In 1971 at the age of 16 and living in rural Essex I was very envious of my sister, then 20, who had started working and living in London. Always very stylish, she loved the Biba store and everything in it. In the early days of working and paying rent for the first time her budget was tight. So rather than a Biba dress, she bought this lovely nightdress but wore it as a dress. I loved that dress and the London life it represented, away from parental eyes where your bohemian style could be admired as you floated around Kensington, Kings Road and Carnaby St in your red nightdress!
– Cathy Malone
Swishing Through the Seventies
I don’t actually remember buying them, but it must have been in 1974, the year after Biba opened in the old Derry & Toms store on Kensington High Street. I do remember being utterly charmed by the interior – the dark glamour of velvet and peacock feathers. I even found myself standing next to Bianca Jagger at the cosmetics counter. More glamour still. I loved the colour of the flares I bought – a bright lime green – and I adored swishing about in them. We needed glamour in the 1970s. They were dark, febrile times of strikes, protest marches and electricity blackouts. After rent and fares there was rarely much left for food; I had to save just to go out. So Biba’s glamour was very welcome fun.
– Marjory Horne
Fifteen and Fashionably Free
Dress, 1967
When I was 15 my mother gave me a dress allowance of £5 a month, just about the price of a Biba cotton dress - perfect! My friends and I started hanging out in the Church Street Biba every weekend. Surrounded by traditional shops, which we considered boring, it felt really special to sit amongst the feather boas, hatstands and aspidestras just people watching and planning what we would buy. No one cared how long you stayed there and it felt so grown up and cool. One of my first purchases in 1967 was a wavy stripe cotton dress in Biba signature dark colours of blue, brown and navy, with contrast white collar and cuffs. My favourite dress was a brown and white check summer dress with tight bodice and puff sleeves which attracted a lot of attention from boys! I met a boy at a bus stop while wearing this dress on a hot summer day. We dated for a while and he asked me to wear the same dress to his birthday party in January, which was held in a freezing church hall. I got a terrible cold as a result of obliging him!
– Carolyn Bevan
Nine Years Old at Biba
I vividly remember my first visit to Biba in London. I must have been about nine or ten. We lived in West Yorkshire, so it meant a train journey to London, a treat in itself. Mum and I wandered around this incredible shop in awe, so excited just to be there. Even now, at 62, I can still picture the sumptuous black and gold interior: huge pot plants, cosy corners, and bold, richly coloured clothes hanging from hat stands. There were rugs, seating and swags of fringed curtains. It was a shopping experience like no other. I can’t remember what I bought, but I carefully saved the small carrier bag as a keepsake. It’s quite incredible that a visit to a shop can leave such a lasting impression.
– Sally White
From Biba to Bride
Dress, 1968
The cream satin dress was bought from a Biba mail order catalogue in 1968. I loved the dress so much that I had it taken to bits to form a pattern for my wedding in June 1969. I was determined not to have the usual 'long meringue' that was popular then. I was married in the registry office and really wanted a short dress. The actual wedding dress is in Glasgow's Costume collection, along with other clothing from that era. We moved to London in 1972. We lived in Finchley, and I taught in Hackney in Hoxton. This meant I was able to visit the Big Biba shop on a very regular basis after school. I just loved it and bought loads of the home products and wallpaper etc. The shop was unique and unlike anything else on offer in the UK never mind Scotland. It was an absolute feast for all my sesnses and a mind-blowing creative use of that building.
– Lesley Dunlop
Please note that we are no longer accepting submissions.