Biba was a look that resurrected the 1920s glam (which I love love) within the hip hip era of swinging London. It was a severe look, copied and recycled to this day, with lots of berry colors and prints, gold and black, turbans, prairie dresses and tights in a sort of Gypsy way. To go along with it, came a good, seductive face. Biba creator Barbara Hulanicki called this Biba girl with a "bright face and dolly eyes" the "Dudu" look.
The first Biba boutique and the Biba Cosmetics Counter at Big Biba
(from the book Big Biba)
Twiggy in Dudu look
(from his lovely book Making Faces)
The sales girls were also iconic and were dressed to the hilts as a Biba girl. Too good to stand it.
Below is an authentic Biba Dudu look how-to advert for
the cosmetics line. Gorgeous.
Here's the cool thing. When I was pretty little, my mom gave me a makeup case full of cool old makeup to play with. Tons of it. I knew it was old. I knew a lot of it was Mary Quant (which I'll cover soon). And maybe I played with those more because everything was pink and blue and had a giant flower on it. Recently, however, I was back in the house, and I noticed what I thought to be a makeup case that should have been in my old room. So I took it out of the garage, but the lock wouldn't open. Which confused me. After I busted the lock open, I was happy to see this wasn't the makeup case I had in my room during high school. This was a time capsule from younger days, and it contained a lot of the make up I used to play with. I noticed the Mary Quant pieces, and then...I noticed a lot of black cases. Especially lipstick. Needless to say, I freaked out when I saw the Biba labels all over the black cases, though most are faded, worn out, or completely gone.
This is the real deal. Either my mom picked them up in London (she was a total mod) OR someone in my family who did makeup in the 60s and 70s gave them to her. (Sorry the pic sucks. But my camera is packed up.) There is: a YELLOW 2 COLOUR STICK (foundation stick), a BIBA BROWN eyeliner, a lip brush, and 7 lipsticks in BORDEAUX (a very very berry/wine color), GOLD (!!! it is gold, with a hint of pink in it...it's a little sparkly), TURKEY (which looks very chocolate), SILVER (exactly that), two of DARK PEARL AMETHYST (which is actually really light silver...very "pearly" with a violet hue to it), and my favorite... METALLIC GRANDMA! Which is like a dark slate blue/purple metallic shade. (UPDATED 8/2012: I never did any swatches of the colors...so I made sure to take care of that today...see the amazing lipstick colors below....! The real deal!)
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| left to right: Biba lipsticks in GOLD, BORDEAUX, DARK PEARL AMETHYST |
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| left to right: Biba lipsticks in TURKEY, METALLIC GRANDMA,SILVER... i suspect in the picture above of Twiggy that she's probably wearing the color turkey on her lips. |
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| vintage biba lipsticks in natural light left to right: TURKEY, METALLIC GRANDMA, SILVER, GOLD, BORDEAUX, DARK PEARL AMETHYST |
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| vintage biba lipsticks with flash left to right: TURKEY, METALLIC GRANDMA, SILVER, GOLD, BORDEAUX, DARK PEARL AMETHYST |
Biba logo on the front of the cosmetics.
You'll see a lot of Biba on here. Because I just love it and BABS (Barbara Hulanicki), and I wish I had a full wardrobe of this stuff. There are only so many cities in the world where you can makeup like a Biba girl any day of the week, for any occasion. Just because. I might have to settle down in one of these spots. ♡
♥ for more Biba posts click here ♥
If you enjoy this era and these Biba girls, then you might like the novel ARCADIA which showcases another Glam Rock era, the Heavy Metal scene of the Sunset Strip in the late 80s...lots of hair, makeup and fashion mayhem....! Click here for more info and here to purchase the book! You can also see the interview and review on Vice.com! \m/
♥ for more Biba posts click here ♥
If you enjoy this era and these Biba girls, then you might like the novel ARCADIA which showcases another Glam Rock era, the Heavy Metal scene of the Sunset Strip in the late 80s...lots of hair, makeup and fashion mayhem....! Click here for more info and here to purchase the book! You can also see the interview and review on Vice.com! \m/
first image from italian vogue
other Biba images from books mentioned
makeup images my own...if you use those images, please credit the blog: nancyfashionfancy.blogspot.com NANCY GIRL.
I really like this article! So wonderful that you were able to come upon such a treasure.
ReplyDeleteAwesome find! I love this look, too, am going to recreate and get a pic very, very soon. I know EXACTLY what you mean about living somewhere where you could do this everyday. Hey babe, maybe for now we can just do it where we do!
ReplyDelete