House of Fraser re-launches Biba

The Biba brand will launch in the retailer's store on London's Oxford Street on Wednesday and at other stores in the UK the following day. Daisy Lowe, the model, will be the face of the brand. It will sell womenswear and accessories.

Biba - "distinctive, decadent, flamboyant and unique"

The first Biba store was opened on Abingdon Road in London's Kensington in 1964 by Barbara Hulanicki. The label attracted models and rock stars - including Mick Jagger and The Beatles - and took on cult status. Two more stores were opened in the Kensington area before the brand expanded in the 1970s when "big Biba" was launched in its own department store. Spread over seven floors, the shop on High Street Kensington was one of the UK's first big lifestyle stores. It had a food hall, a furniture department, a book store and homeware and menswear departments. The label was closed down in 1975 but has been bought numerous times since, including at the end of the 1970s.

The products for sale in the latest incarnation of Biba have been designed by an in-house House of Fraser team. The collection features faux-fur coats and marabou jackets plus limited-edition evening dresses. Stephanie Chen, the director for womenswear and accessories, told Drapers magazine earlier in the summer that Biba had been positioned as "aspirational but accessible ... driven by attitude, not by age. We wanted the first collection to be distinctive, decadent, flamboyant and unique," she said.

"Although it's not a retro collection, we drew on the heritage of Biba and its archives to ensure that we remained true to the brand's ethos. New Biba embraces the mood of the original brand and is made relevant for today's market." She said that shoppers want "great details, fabrics and styling" and the retailer was targeting "style-conscious mothers and daughters shopping simultaneously".