Barbara Hulanicki Chats About Her Cute New TopShop Line

Barbara Hulanicki is the woman behind the legendary British label Biba. Mega-retailer TopShop invited this fixture of the swinging London fashion scene (who's been transplanted to Miami for a few years) to come up with a collection, and the first day the line hit stores, it sold as much as they expected to sell in a week. Not surprising, as the line of flirty skirts and frocks, signature Biba prints and sexy swimwear is truly cute. Run, don't walk, kids! But if you miss it this time around, worry not: Hulanicki is already at work on a follow-up collection. I recently chatted with Hulanicki about her collab.

So tell me, how did you come together with TopShop?
Oh, I did some illustrations and I had an exhibition in London and the buyer from Top Shop came in to look at the illustrations, and she said, ‘Would you like to do a collection‘ and I said, ‘Yes, of course I would.’

Did you know about TopShop? Are you a bargain fashion shopper?
Oh, yes. It’s not only bargain, though.

That’s true. It’s more expensive than people expect.
No, no, I’ve known it for years. It’s always the first port-of-call. Do you like the shop in NY?

I do. I went to a dinner launching it. Whenever I went to London, I would go to TopShop but it would always be a little too crowded and crazy for me. but I still went to see what the kids are up to…so hip and fun!
It’s good first thing in the morning, actually -- less crazy.

It’s always been a special thing to do on a trip to London. I wonder if New Yorkers will continue to embrace it here?
But I think it’s sort of different, you know? The stock is much bigger in London. But no, I love the one in New York. It’s really nice.

What was your approach to your collection? Did they give you guidelines?
I sent them 90 drawings and they weeded them out. They’re a wonderful crew to work with; it’s really great. And I sent them a whole load of prints, you know, because they have to go through all the hierarchy as well, it has to be OK-ed by all the money-people and so on. So that’s really how it works, and it worked really well.

Did they give you guidelines in advance saying we need to keep it in this price range?
No, I was the one. I was moaning, 'don’t you make it too expensive! They’ll crucify me if it’s too expensive.' No, no, because they asked me where I would like to be, and I said 'I want to be right on the floor, nitty-gritty.' In New York it’s a little bit higher, but prices in London, it’s really good prices.

Did you have an inspiration for it? Your usual approach?
See what sticks.

So, how did the collection turn out? How would you describe it?
One of the briefs they gave me, was don’t make it Biba -- to me it looks just like Biba. That’s great, I love that. So it was natural. It just happened… I wanted those really lovely fabrics. The chiffons weren’t fake polyester…

And it’s going to be in stores now?
They sold a whole prospected week in one day. They really sold out.

It’ll be gone by the time this goes up! So, tell me about life in Miami.
We went here for six months to do this job with Ronnie Wood, Woody’s on the Beach. Three years later, we were still working on it, rock 'n’ roll style, then I met Chris Blackwell and sort of rolled on from there, stayed on and on and on, loved it. Well, it was really interesting here, you know, in the beginning, there were lots and lots of people here… kind of different now. Love the lifestyle.

Do you think you’ll stay there?
I think it’s a very good base. It’s a great base, I'm designing some buildings in the Bahamas, and Italy, I’m doing some stuff in Italy, some handbags for Cucinello, I do a consultancy in L.A., so it’s a great base. I love America!

And America loves you. All right Barbara, congratulations on the big success. Hopefully that will inspire them to extend…
No, I’ve done the next one! Yes!

Congratulations…