Amber Butchart

Welcome to Season 2 of PATTERN PORTRAITS! In this first episode of the new season, Lauren Godfrey chats with curator, writer and broadcaster, Amber Butchart about the power of souvenirs, the compulsory nature of leopard print and the joys of London Transport seating fabric!

You’ll probably know Amber from her very special TV series A Stitch In Time in which Amber explores the lives of historical figures through the clothes they wore, or perhaps for her regular appearances as the fashion historian on The Great British Sewing Bee! She is unmissable with impeccable dress sense and an iconic red bob, usually topped off with a colourful turban.

Amber has chosen patterns from many different sources, from 1960’s Anaglypta wallpaper, an Uzbek Ikat tunic bought in Istanbul, a leopard print carpet, a bespoke leopard print featuring her own silhouette by her partner Rob Flowers, a bedsheet from the Chinese Cultural revolution and a London Transport moquette from the London Country Buses.

Amber hosts her own podcast ‘Cloth Cultures’ for The British Textile Biennial which is a beautiful exploration of movement, migration and making through cloth. Her stunning exhibition ‘The Fabric of Democracy’ was at The Fashion and Textiles Museum in London earlier in 2024, exploring printed propaganda textiles over more than two centuries. It was a truly remarkable show really driving home the idea of pattern and fabric as codes and communicators - if ever we were in doubt about the power of pattern, this show dispelled it!

You can see all of Amber’s patterns and more on instagram @patternportraitspodcast

The PATTERN PORTRAIT print artwork to accompany Amber’s interview and featuring the patterns we discuss is available to buy now at www.laurengodfrey.co.uk

References / Links:

Bar américain at Zedel, London

Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood director of the Textile Research Centre in Leiden

Enid Marx- mentioned in relation to the London Transport Moquettes

Lauren Elkin article about textiles

Josef frank - Italian dinner

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