Welcome to Big Biba

Big Biba was the final flowering of the near-mythical Biba retail brand. A shop like no other, all seven storeys stocked own-brand products packaged in the distinctive Biba style. Customers were immersed in a sensory smorgasbord – the complete shopping experience. A committed Bibaphile could buy a satin skirt, a leopard-print suitcase and a new bathroom, then spend the afternoon sipping cocktails among the flamingos in the roof garden, while the legendary Rainbow Room doubled as a live venue for some of the coolest acts in the world.

In the wake of this decadent dreamland’s 50th anniversary, and in honour of the 60th anniversary of the very first Biba shop, Welcome to Big Biba is being republished, complete with over 150 photographs of the store and its products and designs. Written by the author of The Biba Experience and designed by Steven Thomas – the designer of Big Biba itself – these pages offer readers a genuine slice of the greatest pleasure palace in retail history.

‘Welcome to Big Biba is an exceptional production… a perfectionistic coup’ – Phil Baker, The Art Book.