Amber Butchart

Amber Jane Butchart is a British fashion historian and writer from Kessingland, Suffolk.

Butchart presented the BBC Four's A Stitch in Time, a six part documentary series which "explored the lives of historical figures through the clothes they wore". She also presented a segment in the BBC Documentary series Civilisations Stories entitled The First Refugees regarding the silk-weaving Huguenot community of Spitalfields. She is an associate lecturer at the London College of Fashion, and was formerly head buyer for vintage clothing company Beyond Retro. She has an MA in History and Culture of Fashion from the London College of Fashion, now part of the University of the Arts London. Butchart also acts as a consultant forensic garment analyst to British police forces and crime scene investigators.

Butchart is a regular guest on BBC Radio 4's Women's Hour. In January 2017 she appeared on Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity where her hypothetical donation to this imaginary museum was "the colour mauve". She has also produced a two-part documentary for Radio 4 about the history of the vintage fashion industry entitled From Rags to Riches. Since 2018, Butchart has presented English Heritage's series of historic make-up tutorials on its YouTube channel. The series was part of the charity's efforts to expand its audience, and the campaign led to English Heritage winning the 'Grand Prix' and 'Best UK Breakthrough Advertiser' prizes at the 2019 YouTube Works Awards.

She regularly hosts fashion events, including Puttin’ on the Glitz: Fashion & Film in the Jazz Age at the British Library in 2014.

She is one half of DJ duo Broken Hearts along with Nisha Stevens.

Selected publications

• The Fashion Chronicles: Style Stories of History’s Best Dressed (2018, Mitchell Beazley ISBN 978-1784723811)
• Fashion Illustration in Britain: Society and the Seasons (2017, British Library Publishing: ISBN 9780712352000)
• The Fashion of Film: Fashion design inspired by cinema (2016, Octopus Books: ISBN 9781784721763)
• Nautical Chic (2015, Harry N. Abrams: ISBN 9781419716195)
• Amber Jane Butchart's Fashion Miscellany: An Elegant Collection of Stories, Quotations, Tips & Trivia from the World of Style (2014, Ilex Press: ISBN 978-1781571385)