Picture it. London in the 60s. Life was a psychedelic ride and shopping at Big Biba was the fast track to ecstacy. Noted as “the most beautiful store in the world,” no store since has managed to capture the essence of shopping at Big Biba–where the shopping experience that was more than an experience, but an all-out exploration.
The Estee Lauder counter in today’s department stores for example, pale in comparison to the cosmetics counter at Big Biba, where a cruciform display unit of black glass and specially made peach mirrors, were loaded with gobs of makeup & toiletries. Somewhere, someone calculated that, in its prime, the Big Biba cosmetics counter averaged one item sold every seven seconds, when averaged across a week. Standing out in a crowd requires toiletries.
But the toiletries counter is just the tip of the iceburg when it comes to exploring the luxe Biba offered. It offered the height of fashion, what we would definitely consider boho wearables today, shoes to die for and and more whimsical shopping areas that you aren’t likely to find in one store today. One example, and perhaps my favorite, is ”The Mistress Room,” see below. Yes, you read it right, The Mistress Room.
According to Alywn Turner, Author of the Biba Experience: “In one corner of the third floor was the Mistress Room with a huge bed covered in satin sheets and a kitsch pink marble bath. The intention was to sell ‘long satin gloves, naughty negligees, edible underwear and other pieces of ersatz erotica’, though most visitors settled for a pack of playing cards adorned with 1950s-style cheesecake pin-ups.” I doubt Macys would dare be that racy.
Perhaps we can start a petition to bring back Big Biba– it was vintage glam splashed with boho retro at it’s best. But all is not lost. The Biba experience lives on in the printed page at least and has been well documented in several books. Visit Amazon, do search on Big Biba, and see for yoursef. Also visit The Biba Experience at http://www.thebibaexperience.com/index.html and Alywn Turner’s site “Welcome to Big Biba” at: http://www.alwynwturner.com/bigbiba/index.html
