Thanks to the Brighton Museum Biba show in 2012 and the rave reviews it attracted, many in the packed audience for An Evening With Barbara Hulanicki will know that she studied at Brighton College of Art and actually opened a branch of Biba in Queens Road.
The packed audience to hear Barbara Hulanicki describe her career, felt proud to own a bit of her.
We felt that she belonged in the Music Room of the Royal Pavilion, a space just as brilliantly exotic as Biba in Kensington High Street, only without Bryan Ferry and Ronnie Wood in the cloakroom.
We owe an enchanted evening to Martin Pel, curator of costume at Brighton Museum. His 2012 Biba Exhibition, clearly an indication of a long running love affair, prompted his new book The Biba Years, 1963 – 1975 written with Barbara Hulanicki and featuring many of the famous fashion photographs flashed up on lantern slides.
We might have forgotten Ingrid Boulting or Abingdon Road, but we never forgot chocolate lipstick and gingham shift dresses.
In her mesmerising talk, Barbara, a tiny waif in black, explained how her crisp, simple clothes were a reaction to complicated and expensive couture - and how their impact and their style borrowed from the Hollywood Greats.
It all looked so simple: genius always does.
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