Girls are taking the Pill too early and don't care about love - 60s icon

"They're starting too early. It's not about love anymore. We've been liberated too much," Barbara Hulanicki. Photo / Getty

The sexual revolution has gone too far, according to a founding figure of the Swinging Sixties who says the Pill means sex is no longer about love for young girls.

Barbara Hulanicki, the founder of the Biba fashion label made the comments in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.

She said that women are taking the contraceptive pill earlier than ever before.

"What's scary now is that there are very young girls taking it," said Ms Hulanicki, 78.

"They're starting too early. It's not about love anymore. We've been liberated too much."

More than three million British women take the Pill. The UK teenage pregnancy rate has fallen by more than a quarter since 2004, but Britain still has the highest rate in western Europe, at 19.7 per 1,000 girls and women aged 15 to 19.

Famous for dressing high profile figures such as Twiggy, Ms Hulanicki also lamented the "horrible clothes" that celebrities now wear on the red carpet, saying: "There's no mystery. Talk about cleavages. It's like porn - over the top."

Her comments come in the week she announced plans to rejoin Biba, now owned by House of Fraser, as a consultant, 39 years after leaving the company and 50 years after launching it with her husband, Stephen Fitz-Simon.

The pair and their shop in Kensington were at the forefront of the Swinging Sixties in London. In its heyday, Biba dressed actors, models and rock stars, including Mick and Bianca Jagger, David Bowie and Marlene Dietrich. Customers could relax in the Biba restaurant and watch live bands including Queen and the New York Dolls.

Recalling the launch of the Pill in 1961, Ms Hulanicki said: "Very quickly, women's bodies were different. I remember when all the fuss about the Pill came out, I spotted these girls with hips and thighs. I'd never seen that before.

"Before the pill women lived in hormonal hell. We had two good weeks out of every six. We didn't know whether we were coming or going. I went on it. It gave me a happier life and a happier husband."

She is bemused that women have to pay so much for childcare (currently 41.3 per cent of the average wage).

Biba had an in-store creche, so that female staff could bring their children to work.

"There was a huge room where all the girls could bring their babies. They would get a nanny and go in there at lunchtime," she said.

"Now at these huge corporate firms the women spend all their money on looking after the kids. I don't understand why that sort of thing hasn't caught on. It's so easy. You know they're happy and you're not anxious and rushing back home."

Ms Hulanicki, currently an interior designer in Miami, lost control of the company name in the Seventies, after Biba ran into financial difficulties. The brand has been relaunched numerous times since, most recently by House of Fraser in September 2010.

She has remained a significant figure in the fashion business, working on clothing ranges with Topshop, Asda and Iconclub.