Barbara Hulanicki collection in Vogue

Barbara Hulanicki’s new collection for George is featured in Grazia and Vogue this week as she talks for the first time about why she has teamed up with George.

Both magazines published this picture of one of her pieces – an angel sleeve jersey top in monochrome black and grey which will launch with the rest of the collection in November.

When Barbara founded Biba in the 1960s her clothes were designed to appeal to young people at affordable prices and she believes George at Asda shares the same philosophy. Barbara sold the Biba brand in 1976 and it is now owned by House of Fraser.

Barbara tells Vogue magazine: “The thing I didn’t like about the new Biba relaunch was the prices – it is too expensive. With Asda it’s the total opposite – it’s like the old days in the Sixties. I love seeing people happily shopping without feeling guilty because they’ve spent too much. I want to do what I always have done – make clothes for young people living in bedsits. What was different about designing for Asda was creating pieces that go up to size 20. I had to do things in a different way – it was exciting.”

Our brand director Fiona Lambert was impressed by Barbara after hearing her speak at a Q&A session filmed for a documentary about Barbara’s life called “Beyond Biba”.

Fiona says: “When she spoke about how she had made Biba accessible to everyone – so much of what she was saying is exactly what we do at George.”

Barbara has agreed to do a Q&A session for George Style so if you’d like to ask her anything about her collection, career, fashion or future plans then please leave your question as a comment below and you could get it answered directly by the iconic British fashion designer herself.

Excitement is building among fashion bloggers too. In her popular Sugar and Spice blog Shopgirl writes: “To say I am excited by the prospect of this collection would be an understatement. Ladies, sharpen your elbows, I’ll be the one pushing you out of the way as I scramble to get my hands on a piece of this!”

Speaking to Grazia daily Barbara admits she still loves to hunt for bargains, although she finds vintage clothing a bit spooky. She says: “I do definitely hunt around. I’m not into vintage myself, but I love to go into high street shops or cheap little shops and find something wonderful that then I know no-one else will have. It’s not that I don’t like the look [of vintage]. On other people it looks great – I personally can’t do it because of all the weird energy that comes off them, from their previous owners. Perhaps I’m a bit psychic.”

Q&A with Barbara Hulanicki: If you’ve got a question for Barbara Hulanicki please leave it as a comment below and we’ll do our best to include it in the Q&A session. (Comments will not be published until the Q&A session starts).