Barbara Hulanicki back at Biba after 39 years

Iconic fashion label Biba and its founder, Barbara Hulanicki, are joining forces once again. The Polish-born 78 year old designer has signed a consultancy agreement with House of Fraser, which own the rights to the brand.

The Sunday Times reports that Hulanicki, who founded Biba fifty years ago and left the brand eleven years later, is to design a capsule collection for the label which will be sold in stores next fall. "It's the first time somebody has asked me to be involved in Biba again," Hulanicki told the paper.

Hulanicki founded Biba together with her late husband, Stephen Fitz-Simon, as a postal order business in 1964. The brand later opened a shop in Chelsea, and after much success with its affordable fashion, opened a super store, 'Big Biba', in Kensington in 1974. The brand was a hit with celebrities and teenagers alike and flourished in the sixties and early seventies, but hit upon hard times and was forced to close not long after Hulanicki left the business in 1975.

Biba enjoyed several reincarnations over the years, with Bella Freud designing for the label in 2006 and again in 2009 when House of Fraser acquired the name. At the time Hulanicki was critical of how expensive the label had become, saying the price point was always intended to be more like Woolworths.

Hulanicki, who in the meantime has worked as an interior designer in Miami and now consults on Asda's George apparel collection, will design a capsule collection for Biba that will differentiate from the main collection sold at House of Fraser.