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| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Fashion |
| Founded | 1976 (first store opens) |
| Founder | Nancy Larsen. |
| Defunct | 1999 |
| Fate | closed |
| Headquarters | , USA |
Key people | Nancy Hunt, Lynn Tyler, Paul Kaufman |
Na Na Trading Company, aka Na Na, was a Los Angeles punk-oriented fashion and shoe store of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Na Na was started and primarily run by St. Louis born Nancy Larsen, who was joined in 1978 by her childhood friend Lynn Tyler and Paul Kaufman.
Early years[edit]
Na Na's early years were rather humble, with many of the outfits being hand made by Nancy.
Stores[edit]
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Hulanicki worked as a fashion illustrator after studying at Brighton Art College in the late 1950s. She married advertising executive Stephen Fitz-Simon and they soon opened a mail order clothing company that she named Biba's Postal Boutique. Biba was the nickname of her younger sister Biruta.[1]
The first store, on Santa Monica Boulevard and 2nd Street in Santa Monica, was opened in 1976.
Describe the inside of the store.[citation needed]
Describe the clothing that was made
Describe its appeal[citation needed]
The second store at 19-21 Kensington Church Street opened in 1965 and a series of mail-order catalogues followed in 1968,[citation needed] which allowed customers to buy Biba style without having to come to London.
The next move, in 1978, was to Broadway in Santa Monica, into a store which previously sold ???. Again, it was unique; a mix of Punk decor and Rock and Roll.[citation needed] In 1980, the adjacent location, In 1981, the next location.
Na Na commissioned the first public work of graffiti in Santa Monica...
The Big Store[edit]
In 1973 with the backing of Dorothy Perkins and British Land, the store moved to the seven-storey Derry & Toms department store, which immediately attracted up to a million customers weekly, making it one of the most visited tourist attractions in London.[1][2] There were different departments, and each floor had its own theme, such as a children's floor, a floor for men, a book store, a food market, and a "home" floor which sold items such as wallpaper, paint, cutlery, soft furnishings and even statues. The overall design was produced by Whitmore-Thomas Partnership, run by artist/designers Steve Thomas (artist) and Tim Whitmore.[3]Each department had its own logo or sign, which was based on the Biba logo and had a picture describing the department. These were commissioned by Thomas and Whitmore and designed by Kasia Charko.[4]
The store's interior was designed by Frank Gehry protege Paul Lubowicki.
San Francisco
New York
Cost Mesa
Look and feel[edit]
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"The Biba Look" or "Dudu Look" was "fresh little foals with long legs, bright faces and round dolly eyes." Hulanicki describes her customers as "postwar babies who had been deprived of nourishing protein in childhood and grew up into beautiful skinny people: a designer's dream. It didn’t take much for them to look outstanding."[5] These women were mostly teenagers or twenty-year-olds, who wanted to have clothes that looked good on them. All the Biba girls remember how women over thirty years old were considered old in the Biba store, and probably felt isolated as these girls felt in other stores. The employees were from the same demographic; among them at one point was a young Anna Wintour, later editor of Vogue.
The Biba look consisted of what Hulanicki called "Auntie Colours" - blackish mulberries, blueberries, rusts and plums. Hulanicki described them as "look[ing] like a funeral".[citation needed]
Regarding her designs, she stated "I didn't want to make clothes for kept women, I wanted to make clothes for people in the street, and Fitz and I always tried to get prices down, down to the bare minimum."[1]
Biba smocks were uncomfortable and itchy, and stopped women’s arms from bending - something that did not stop customers from buying the clothes. They became the uniform of the era,[citation needed] with the added bonus of that whatever you bought, you could always get accessories to match.
Miniskirts were causing a scene of their own, every week they got shorter. Although not the first British designer to show the mini skirt, Biba was responsible for putting it on the high street and as miniskirts were in fashion, everything needed to be associated with them.[citation needed] Biba also brought out some of the first maxi coats.
Biba's second store in London, the Kensington Church Street boutique, looked like an old apothecary on the outside with the wooden window frames beautifully polished. Inside it was dark with a boudoir type of atmosphere and the clothes hung up on old-fashioned coat racks. The clothes in the beginning were extremely affordable, a dress selling for just a few English pounds and reflecting the sentiments of the fashion conscious teenagers of that era, with soft fabrics that were form fitting, very stylish in that they were not gaudy at all and were also actually extremely comfortable. The '60s teenager was not into wearing uncomfortable clothes. Gone were the days of the corset and quite often the bra. Biba did at that time use bright colours also. Bright blues, gold, silver, flouncy chiffons with whirls of muted psychedelic colours and bright boas. Many different kinds of fabric were used including satin, crepe, chiffon, metallic, a fabric that looked like soft felt (which had not been seen before). Biba also had dresses with sleeves that covered most of the hand with thumb holes, or with flouncy chiffon.[citation needed]
Later in 1969 when Biba moved to its first upscale store on the north side of Kensington High Street, across from where they would later open up their department store, there was a radical change in that the clothes became more expensive and the Biba styles then appeared to be designed for more sophisticated and richer young women in their 20s. The Kensington High Street store also lost the cozy boudoir look of its predecessor, which had been so appealing to its teenage customers, and took on the more sophisticated look of the upscale Kensington/Knightsbridge designer stores.[citation needed]
Wholesale Business[edit]
Doc Martens Clothing
Marketing strategy[edit]
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The Biba logo played a crucial part in Biba’s success; the logo was gold and black which reflected the growing taste in youth for art deco.[citation needed] The logo was designed by Antony Little. To create a look for Biba in the first store, Little painted the Biba sign above the shop and blacked out all the windows. The blacked out windows didn’t allow the store’s interior to receive any sunlight, which was vital for the Biba’s art nouveau atmosphere.
Demise[edit]
Corporate stores caught up like Hot Topic, Urban Outfitters. Unwilling to sell out, despite lucrative offers from company's like LA Gear. Doc Marten's formation of Airwear for distribution to the US, selling to the same customers that Na Na had pre-purchased doc marten's for, leaving Na Na with thousands of shoes but no customers to buy them, and short term trade loans that had to be paid off.
Influences[edit]
Y-Que
Customers[edit]
Employees[edit]
Warehouse Boys
Legacy[edit]
- Brat
- L7
- Goldfinger
- Jane's Addiction
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c Marsh, June (2012). History of Fashion. Vivays Publishing. pp. 100, 104, 118. ISBN 978-1-908126-21-4.
- ^ "BIBA: "A Strange Disneyland"". British Style Genius - High Street Style. BBC. Retrieved 2011-05-17.
- ^ http://www.alwynwturner.com/bigbiba/steven.html
- ^ ": Kasia Charko :".
- ^ Levy, Shawn (2003). Ready, steady, go ! swinging London and the invention of cool. London: Fourth Estate. p. 7. ISBN 978-1841152264.
Bibliography[edit]
- Hulanicki, Barbara (1983). From A to Biba. London: Hutchinson & Co.
- Thomas, Steven, & Alwyn W. Turner (2006). Welcome to Big Biba. Woodbridge: Antique Collectors Club.
- Turner, Alwyn W. (2004). The Biba Experience. Woodbridge: Antique Collectors Club.
External links[edit]
- [1] NaNa: L.A. punk to its roots
- BBC Radio 4 - Woman's Hour - Biba 40th Anniversary
- Exploring 20th century London - Biba Items and oral histories from Biba
- BBC British Style Genius Video. Twiggy with Barbara Hulanicki discussing Biba