Although my mother received this book as a present for her birthday some years ago, it seems to me that it might as well been my own celebration of entering into the world (pseudo-70s)! Filled with awesome photographs of the elaborate shop windows, caked on dummies and eye numbing decorative patterns, this book on the history of short lived department store Biba it ultimately not one to miss for those of you who enjoy delving into nostalgic fashion history. It makes me think which British contemporary department store could be classified as an adequate equivalent today that perhaps encapsulates 21st century living? Is it possible to have such a totalising concept store in postmodernism? If we consider Harrods or Selfridges, they appear to have profitable branded concessions clustered within their megastructure; whilst the Dover Street Market or Liberty appears to be too reservedly cool for such a endeavour. I suppose what I am angling for, is a department store that has the cluttered, home feel, yet a disneyfied aspect of Biba today.
Basically. Biba. Rocks.
Basically. Biba. Rocks.
