The Telegraph has an article on Biba, the ’60s clothing explosion that started with a small London store and an even smaller mini skirt, and steadily took over the world.

The article pegs Biba as the first H&M, describing its disposable clothing and its ability to turn young, normal girls into style icons - something that never happened in London before.

But maybe the most interesting line in the story is this:

“[Biba founder Barbara] Hulanicki found her niche designing clothing for the postwar, protein-deprived young women who were growing girls when rations dictated the size of their suppers.

The clothing she designed was so narrow that when the fashion maven Adie Hunter recently passed on her Biba fake-fur coat to a friend of her daughter, the young woman could barely squeeze into it - and that young woman was Sienna Miller.”

So. Does the body ideal for fashion women come, in part, from food rations?

Something to think about. Though I do agree with ELLE’s Roberta Meyers - obesity among young women should be discussed with the same heat as “skinny fashion” …