Fashioning London

Join Dr Christopher Breward to explore the importance of London as a fashion capital through three centuries of iconoclastic style.Biba launched as a mail-order business in 1963, and soon took on premises in Kensington, London.

The city proved the perfect setting for the emergence of the dolly bird - a fashionable young woman who embodied both Biba and "Swinging Sixties" style.

Discover how and why London helped foster not only the Biba-girl but so many other exciting explosions of subcultural taste, and the ingredients of space, architecture and performance that influence what is fashionable.The talk will be followed by a book signing to mark the launch of the new 2026 edition of Fashioning London: Clothing and the Modern Metropolis by Christopher Breward (Bloomsbury).