Zen and the Art of Fashion

A virtual community salon about how a UK fashion illustrator who opened a mail order business selling gamine gingham shifts (with matching head scarves) became one of the world’s most influential fashion visionaries. 

Featuring Fashion Legend, Barbara Hulanicki, Founder of BIBA. Hosted by Curator, Bonnie Clearwater, NSU Art Museum.

BARBARA HULANICKI, FASION ICON Born in Poland, but raised in England, Barbara Hulanicki OBE is deservedly recognized now as a British fashion icon, having just been awarded an OBE for Services to Fashion in the 2012 Queen’s New Year Honors. Barbara began her career in Fashion in the early 1960′s working as a freelance fashion illustrator covering all the important fashion collections for the major publications of the day, including Women’s Wear Daily, British Vogue, the Times, the Observer and the Sunday Times. In 1964 she founded, with her late husband, Stephen Fitz-Simon, the boutique BIBA, beginning as a small mail-order business featured in the Fashion columns of newspapers such as the DAILY MIRROR in the UK. The BIBA story is the stuff of Hollywood. After a few false starts and refusing to give up, a last-ditched attempt — a pink gingham dress with a round hole in the back and a matching head scarf — strikes a chord with the public and sells thousands of units, allowing Barbara to open a store which became an icon of hip 60′s and 70′s London. BIBA quickly became a hangout for artists, film stars and rock musicians, including Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, David Bowie and Marianne Faithful among the regulars.

BONNIE CLEARWATER, CURATOR AND MUSEUM DIRECTOR Bonnie Clearwater joined NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale as Director and Chief Curator in September 2013. An influential leader who played a major role in Miami’s emergence and development as an international arts center, she is widely recognized for her curatorial vision, scholarship and record in administration, public education and community outreach. Ms. Clearwater spearheaded an exciting phase of transformation at NSU Art Museum that includes an overall rebranding and expansion of the museum’s reach locally, nationally and internationally. Her initiatives include the development of a world-class exhibition program, expansion of the museum’s education initiatives and public programming, and increased engagement with diverse audiences. Ms. Clearwater has written extensively on Modern and contemporary art and has an M.A. in art history from Columbia University and a B.A. in art history from New York University.