The Biba Look: Photography & Fashion
Ahead of fashion legend Barbara Hulanicki’s 90th birthday this December, a new display at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery celebrates the revolutionary designer’s extraordinary impact on British fashion.
The Biba Look: Photography & Fashion, opening on 3 October 2026, explores how Hulanicki transformed Biba from a London boutique into a national fashion phenomenon with the launch of the first Biba photographic catalogue in April 1968.
Six Biba catalogues were created over an 18 month period and were Hulanicki’s opportunity to create editorial-style images and work with the photographers of her choice including Helmut Newton, Sarah Moon, Donald Silverstein, Hans Feurer and Harris Peccinotti.
The exhibition presents original photographs from all six Biba catalogues, including images never before shown in public, alongside Barbara Hulanicki’s own photography. Through the catalogues and her collaborations with photographers Barbara Hulanicki could share her total vision of Biba style. In the photographs we see fully coordinated looks in which clothing, accessories and attitude combine to create the distinctive head-to-toe styling that became synonymous with the brand. Also on display is one outfit from each of the catalogues. Together, they reveal how photography and fashion helped create one of Britain’s most iconic fashion brands.
From New York-inspired film-noir shoots to intimate, atmospheric portraits taken in Hulanicki’s own home, the exhibition captures a distinctive photographic visual identity that helped define Biba. Early works by Helmut Newton demonstrate what would become the essentials of his style in the 1970s, evident in the poses and relationships between the models, whilst Sarah Moon’s romantic and atmospheric images are narrative in style and perfectly complement Hulanicki’s vision of Biba.
By working directly with leading photographers of the day, Hulanicki created images that not only defined Biba’s distinctive visual style, but also helped shape the language of fashion photography and its evolution from the 1960s to the present day. Alongside the 32 photographs by Barbara Hulanicki, Donald Silverstein, Hans Feurer, Helmut Newton, Harri Peccinotti, and Sarah Moon, the exhibition will also feature one outfit from each of the six Biba catalogues.
These outfits include a red flanesta nightshirt with a high collar and deep cuffs, drawing its stylistic influence from the Edwardian era; a tailored trouser suit; a spider-lace peplum suit with a fitted jacket and long skirt and a navy-blue and white polka-dot cotton drill jacket and skirt. The clothing displays a range of Hulanucki’s influences including military style dress, slim-fit tailoring, beachwear, and ultra feminine evening wear, all designed in the distinctive Biba style.