Kiki Byrne photographed while concealing her pregnancy. Although Byrne described her clothes as "exclusive clothes – at reasonable prices", Barbara Hulanicki, who went on to launch the original "Biba" boutique, remembered that one of Byrne's black dresses cost 20 guineas, which she thought quite expensive. Hulanicki would later recall how excited she and her friends were to discover Byrne designing the kind of nice, simple, youthful garments that they wanted to wear, but had difficulty finding. Byrne's designs, along with those of Foale & Tuffin, Sonia Rykiel, Quant, and Biba, were worn by the famously trendy Cathy McGowan on her influential music
Biba had been worn by Brigitte Bardot. By the morning after the dress was advertised in the "Daily Mirror", over 4,000 orders had been received. Ultimately, some 17,000 outfits were sold. 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. The first store, in Abingdon Road in Kensington, was opened in September 1964. Hulanicki’s first encounter with her new customers was at 10 o’clock