Amber Butchart

Amber Butchart is a British fashion historian, author, broadcaster, and curator whose work explores the intersections of dress, politics, and culture. Butchart began her career as a buyer for a vintage clothing company, later serving as head buyer and trend analyst for Beyond Retro, an international vintage clothing company. She established the Beyond Retro Design Archive, which provides vintage inspiration pieces to global fashion houses.

Butchart is known to television audiences for her work with BBC. Her six-part series "A Stitch in Time" on BBC Four combined biography, art, and fashion history to examine the lives of historical figures through their clothing, including the Black Prince, Dido Belle, Marie Antoinette, and the Arnolfini portrait. She also contributed to "Civilisations Stories: The First Refugees" for BBC One and BBC Four, focusing on the Huguenot silk weavers of Spitalfields. Butchart serves as the resident historian for BBC One's "Great British Sewing Bee" and created a two-part documentary for BBC Radio 4 on the rise of vintage clothing and the global impact of secondhand fashion.

As an author, Butchart has written five books on the history and culture of clothing and contributed to publications such as Fondazione Prada, World of Interiors, Frieze, ArtReview, The Guardian, Times Literary Supplement, Financial Times, and BBC Culture. Her books include "Nautical Chic," which explores the influence of maritime culture on fashion, and "The Fashion of Film," examining cinema's impact on style. She has also authored works for the British Library, Thames & Hudson, and Octopus Publishing Group.

Butchart's curatorial projects include exhibitions for the Design Museum, Fashion & Textile Museum, and British Textile Biennial, with shows such as "Splash! A Century of Swimming & Style" and "The Fabric of Democracy: Propaganda Textiles from the French Revolution to Brexit." She hosts the Cloth Cultures podcast at the British Textile Biennial. Butchart has held a research fellowship at University of the Arts London and has spoken at institutions including the Institute for Contemporary Arts, British Museum, Royal Academy, British Library, Wellcome Collection, and British Film Institute, as well as at cultural venues such as Tate and the V&A.

In addition to her public work, Butchart is a PhD researcher at the Centre for Curatorial Studies at University of Essex and teaches cultural and historical studies at London College of Fashion. She consults in forensic garment analysis for ApEx Forensics at University of Exeter, working on cases involving clothing and textiles, and is listed on the expert database of the National Crime Agency. Butchart's work demonstrates how clothing serves as a conduit for understanding history across television, radio, academia, and museums.