Dress

This dress sums up the subversive spirit of Biba with its demure, pussy-bow tie neckline, and exaggerated long sleeves combined with the shockingly short,skirt length. Barbara Hulanicki sourced fabrics revived from 1920s and '30s art deco and reinterpreted them for the next generation, creating wearable, distinctive dresses that were made in sometimes small runs, in London factories, that were sold in her west London boutique at prices accessible to young ordinary women as well as pop singers and models. Designs such as this, skinny and shaped to the body with clever pattern cutting, laid the foundations for Hulanicki's lifestyle brand that has enduring appeal, long after the closure of the

Dress · London · 1971. printed viscose. By Hulanicki, Barbara. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.