Barbara Hulanicki’s sparkling ideas

Barbara Hulanicki has always had an eye for what makes a unique experience. From Biba to Miami Beach to her latest designs for Topshop, she has an instinct for what makes objects and spaces magical and injects a bit of fun into everything she does. It’s this same joy and spontaneity she brings to her work that Barbara, lucky for us, will be bringing to Port Eliot.

“You sort of do your own thing, in a tent, together, and it gets very matey in there. You have to go, you know, see how the flow goes, and then everybody wants to come in and start making hats and things, it’s really good fun. Such a laugh. It should be really interesting this year. Luella (Bartley) is going to be there, and Stephen Jones. Wow!

People bring in their old Biba things from the attic, it’s quite funny. When they show it to you, it’s really sweet. It’s usually mum’s clothes that the girls have got. And there are a lot of collectors and dealers that come and show you stuff, to see if it’s the real thing, or if they’re copies. I never forget anything! Each garment is imprinted on my mind, because of the production problems, usually. You’ve suffered them! I never stop wondering how on earth anybody ever got into them, they’re so tiny. It does seem strange at the moment, because the silhouette’s changed so much.

We’re going to work on these instant balloon skirts. We’ll set up lots of tables with all the accessories and bits and pieces; Luella’s bringing some of her people from the studio. You have such a good time with all the people coming up wanting to be dressed, and they’ll be very much involved, they’ll have a lot of say in how they like it.

We’re using mylar, which is the metallic stuff they use to go to the moon. It’s metallic silver foil; it’s quite thick, quite heavy, which is great to make clothes out of. The mylar looks amazing in the light of torches and will sparkle in that dark light in and around the woods. It should be really fun.”

The Topshop range has been going really well, it’s thrilling. I had an exhibition of illustrations, fashion illustrations which I used to do before I started designing, and a buyer came and she said why don’t you do a collection and I said, ooh, yay. The theme is Good Girl/Bad Girl. There was one very rebellious dress. It had an illustration of boobs across the chest. Somebody thought it was sunglasses!

I don’t think it matters what you look like at the festival, as long as you’ve got some really great wellies. Port Eliot has something for everybody, you know, it’s fabulous. There’s something going on all the time and you feel a real sense of how much is happening. It’s magical. What’s so lovely is there’s so many nice things for children, they run around the fields dressed in funny hats, and go to readings too. There are wonderful people who are doing strange things like art pieces, and then there are exhibitions. It’s really charming, it’s lovely.”

If you would like to have a piece made by Barbara, Luella and Stephen especially for you, please make an appointment at the Biba-Ba-Luba tent on Saturday.

(Interview by Kelly Stevens)