CLOTH CULTURES

Silk, linen, wool, cotton - what ties them all together?

Throughout the Cloth Cultures podcasts and the associated exhibition that took place in 2021 at Haworth Art Gallery as part of the British Textile Biennial, fashion historian Amber Butchart explores movement, migration and making through cloth.

Focussing on four fabrics – silk, linen, wool and cotton - Amber investigates the global strands of local stories that link Lancashire, at the heart of the textile industry in Britain, to areas throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

To discover more, listen to the Cloth Cultures podcast, where Amber speaks to artists, historians, makers, and scientists to shed light on our textile history. Listen to the trailer below, and find all the episodes here: 

Amber Butchart is a curator, writer and broadcaster who specialises in the cultural and political history of textiles and dress. She is a former Research Fellow at the University of the Arts London, and is a regular public lecturer across the UK’s leading arts institutions. She researches and presents documentaries for television and radio, including the six-part series A Stitch in Time for BBC Four that fused biography, art and the history of fashion to explore the lives of historical figures through the clothes they wore.

If that wasn't enough Amber is also an external adviser for the National Crime Agency as a Forensic Garment Analyst, working on cases that require investigation of clothing and textiles. She has published five books on the history and culture of clothes, including The Fashion of Film, Nautical Chic, and a history of British fashion illustration for the British Library. She is currently curating an exhibition for the Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey, to open in 2023.

We’re delighted that Amber will be taking part in the first Selvedge online talk of 2022, My Life in Clothes, on Wednesday 9 February.

Our relationship with our own clothes is deeply personal and charged with a sense of self. Curators, designers, writers and makers, our speakers will bring their own experience of their life in clothes, inspired by both their professional and personal life, as well as their context in time and place. From the seaside charity shops of her hometown to the streets of Dakar in Senegal, listen along as Amber tracks her life and career through vintage clothes. 

We are so excited to also be joined by Claire Wilcox, Kristína Šipulová, and Sewstine.

Find out more or book tickets here: