Hugh Grant takes front row for Biba rebirth

British actor Hugh Grant took to the front row of London Fashion Week on Tuesday for the hottest ticket in town -- the revival of iconic Sixties label Biba.

More than forty years on from its launch, the brand that helped define the Swinging Sixties came back to life as a more luxurious line for the 21st century hippy.

Designer Bella Freud, Sigmund's great grand-daughter, rubbed shoulders with Grant and a gaggle of fashion editors for a show organisers had hoped would lend some Sixties buzz to the flagging London fashion event.

"It is a really good time to bring Biba back because people's aesthetic and generally what people are interested in correspond so much with what Biba was," Freud told Reuters Television backstage before the show.

Biba, founded in 1964, effectively invented the fast fashion scene that now defines the 10 billion pound ($19 billion) British industry by making fashion accessible and shopping a leisure activity.

Founder Barbara Hulanicki mixed Art Nouveau with old Hollywood, dressing 1960s stars Brigitte Bardot, Raquel Welch, Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithful, Twiggy and Julie Christie having turned a mail order service into the first fashion superstore.

Freud's modern take stayed true to the original color scheme of mulberries, blueberries, rusts and plums but added more modern textiles for her collection of jumpsuits, pinafores and print shirts.

However, London Fashion Week organisers may be overly optimistic in hoping the reborn Biba will help revitalise London's flagging reputation as a fashion capital on a par with New York, Milan and Paris.

One front row guest, who declined to be named, said looking back in time might not be enough to shake up London's present.

"I liked the parts that followed the Biba look most closely, like the white flowing shirts, but I wasn't so impressed with the rest. Overall, I'm not convinced about the longevity of the project."