Biba S/S 07 London

[Lena]

^ exactly my thoughts.. it will sell if its not too expensive, but the styling is horrid and OLD

here the long wwd.com report on this

Bella's Biba
By Samantha Conti
LONDON — The revamped Biba collection made its much-anticipated runway debut here Tuesday night, with ankle-skimming dresses, skinny Edwardian coats and swirly arabesque prints. For designer Bella Freud, reviving the collection has been an almost spiritual experience. "Biba unlocked something in me," she said before the show, where her pals Hugh Grant, Jemima Khan and Phoebe Philo joined such rock 'n' roll types as Lucy Ferry, Amanda Harlech and Anita Pallenberg.

The once-iconic label, which has been revived under fashion entrepreneur Michael Pearce, chief executive officer of Biba and the creative director of the brand, was founded in 1964 by Barbara Hulanicki, a Polish-born illustrator turned fashion pioneer. For more than a decade, the Biba store in swinging London was where Hollywood stars, British royalty, schoolgirls and secretaries alike could buy everything from maxi coats to cherry red lipstick to baked beans. The fashion was a blend of Art Deco, Victoriana, Hollywood glam and North African exotica,*and its racks were filled with bow blouses, piles of platform heels and floppy hats. It was the birth of fast fashion.

"Barbara Hulanicki has done some great work, and has done me a great service. I owe her," said Freud. Freud, 45, is the eldest daughter of the painter Lucian Freud and Bernardine Coverley, and the granddaughter of Sigmund Freud. She worked with Vivienne Westwood before setting up her own label and has been working with Biba for the past year. She said that putting the collection together reminded her of growing up in the Sixties, when she split her time between Marrakech and London "with all of its rain and rebellious youth." The result is a collection that harks back to the old days, but with a fresh twist. Freud tracked down Biba fans and collectors, and tried on as many outfits as she could get her hands on. "I had to feel them and how they actually fit," she said.

For the spring collection, she's re-created a star print from an old Biba store photo and splashed it over cotton poplin shirtdresses, jersey blouses and short drill coats. Elsewhere, swirly, arabesque archive prints spill over caftans and turtleneck dresses. Freud resurrected Thirties and Forties dress shapes with their button fronts and ruching, and brought skinny corduroy jackets back to life. Colors are deep and rich: bottle green, bumblebee yellow, eggplant and aqua blue. The designer said she'd done everything she could to preserve that naïve Biba silhouette, with its narrow shoulders, high armholes and slender torso.
Philo said the dresses were her favorite. "I want to order loads of them. I am so proud of Bella," she said. Pallenberg, who remembers hanging out wearing the original Biba, complete with hat, sunglasses and boots, said she liked the colors most. The line sells at Bergdorf Goodman, Jeffrey New York, Bloomingdale's, Neiman Marcus, Intermix and Saks Fifth Avenue, which is hosting a special event for the label on Sept. 27 in New York. Freud said she would continue "building out of the archive and building a base for the brand. I just want to keep developing the collection in a really thoughtful way."

 

[disco54]

the clothes are really nice but like others said it looks very topshop, in that fabrics dont look high end, and the presentation of the show is not glamourous, when presenting a glamourous label such as biba , you have to have that "TOM FORD" approach , of sexing things up, and using more rich fabrics such as silk, satins and gazar. Also the biba tshirt thing was not necessary. These type of clothes will sell en masse easily ,but freud needed to use more glamour in projecting the brand. To be honest I loved the dresses , i mean its better than those pouf skirts and tent dresses, they are UBER sexy but Freud needed to do justice to such an iconic brand such as biba. Well its her first show ...im sure her fall collection will be much better , because BIBA coats are to die for.

 

[Lucia-]

lol I can c Frodo Baggins wearing this stuff...

The reason why I would wear it
I didn't know the label, so I didn't have any expectations. I like some pieces, but I don't like the styling and the make-up is awful. If I could get it for H&M prices, I think I would buy some of it.

 

[liberty33r1b]

the dresses are nice, nothing special, but nice.....overall, i have to say i'm as disappointed as everyone else is, i really expected something more, something more special....

 

[susie_bubble]

Yes.... it could have been SO special is the thing.....I really had this set vision in my mind of how it could have turned out - perhaps I've been immersing myself too deep into the Biba history books and I know Freud couldn't have just reproduced stuff from the Biba archive but still..... to ignore them completely was just a bad move IMO....

It probably will sell......but honestly, I've seen more Biba-esque inspired things in Topshop than this actual Biba collection!

 

[Angie C]

Sorry for sounding like I've been living under a rock, but why do they do this? As already said, if they are trying to revive the brand, should'nt they at least try to put it in the same price range as it once was?

After reading the article it sounds (and looks) like they could't even decide if they were trying to re-make the original Biba or make something modern of it (and with modern I mean something else than just using new materials or make a "new" pattern from what originally was interior decor)

Now I feel like I've been watching a Lenny Kravitz video from the 90s.

 

[KhaoticKharma]

I like the glittery black top over the brown shirt in post 3... it's pretty.

The styling is awful, but the individual pieces are nice. I think Sienna Miller and the Kate Moss wannabe set should have a field day with this.

 

[melt977]

I think Sienna Miller and the Kate Moss wannabe set should have a field day with this.

Even thay have seemed to have moved on form this (at least for a second)...

This is a bad collection for my taste...

echoing most of you guys, where's the Biba glam we all expected? When you directly relate your collection to the past of the brand you are trying to revive you should at least make sure that you stick to its essence. In this case, it should have been glamour.

I'm afraid that this is quite far from ti... seems more like a poor relative of the original...

And I honestly don't know who will be willing to pay the price for this stuff... maybe Bella's rich friends... I will be surprised if it sells as well as they expect it...

 

[Lena]

Bella is such a celebrity designer, so her 'experiment' will get support from her friends, but like Susie, guess i had huge expectations from the styling and 'mood' of this collection..

it would be better if they just reproduced vintage originals instead of trying to modernise Biba and anyway, i find this re-launch seems already outdated..
by the time they signed the business papers and put the collection out, the 'biba nostalgia' mood was already 'burned out' by TopShop , Zara etc.

 

[disco54]

bottom line ...you know celebs are going to wear this ...once it does...it will catch on in teen fashion .....those dresses in the collection were really nice ...just the whole packaging of it is ghetto...

 

[disco54]

again if phoebe philo liked it so much maybe ...we are being to hard on it ...i mean its her first collection...but for fall she has to rise to the occasion

 

[dearnike]

I love the platforms!!

 

[cavanaugh]

when i think of how this biba collection should have been, i think of the biba inspired section of the spring/summer 2005 dior collection. perhaps a little less over the top than that, but with the same spirit.

this really falls short, the ideas were good...but the execution was very poor

 

[Deleted member 82231]

It's not good when the thing I like the best in the collection is the Tshirt...

 

[taperjeangirl]

Biba should have been left well alone. Will stick to vintage pieces.

 

[Miss Galliano]

it look sterrible.. very ugly.. this is really bad!!!

 

[Lena]

from style.com

 

[Lena]

only four average/ok looks in the whole style.com selection??
this show had the worst make up i've seen this season..

 

[MUXU]

like others said..bad styling
i love that big hat from post 2 though

 

[melt977]

this show had the worst make up i've seen this season..

Maybe they thought that they would make up for the lack of biba glamour through make-up... this must be one of the worse interpretations of a house legacy in all the revivals I've seen in recent years... it really bothers me that the collection is so weak... as if they didn't try hard enough or didn't care enough for it... did they really think that people would like it just because they called it Biba?...