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Amber Butchart | Clothes on Film

  • The latest book by fashion historian, and now TV presenter Amber Butchart (A Stitch in Time on BBC 4 – second season please), is a comprehensively researched stroll through the best dressed folk ever to exist on the planet. The Fashion Chronicles: The Style Stories of History’s Best Dressed is laid out to be effortlessly readable, split into sections ranging from Ancient (and we mean ancient; basically like the first clothes ever) to 20th and 21st Century. Each entry gets a couple of pages of engaging historical notes and background justifying their inclusion along with a photo / picture or two. It works; it doesn’t feel like study or revision,…

  • A fortnight ago to the day, Clothes on Film creator and editor Christopher Laverty joined fashion historian Amber Jane Butchart to give one of two talks and a Q&A chat at The British Library in London. The subjects under discussion were, respectively, the unexpectedly colourful clothing of Prohibition era gangsters as portrayed in the HBO television series Boardwalk Empire, and the influence of movies and movie star style on fashion during The Jazz Age. After Christopher and Amber finished their talks to a delighted audience (they clapped), everyone reconvened to the elegant backdrop of the main library grounds to swig cocktails and dance the night away to Alex Mendham &…

  • An American Werewolf in London A screening at the Billy Wilder theater in Los Angeles on the 26th, with Deborah Nadoolman Landis in attendance to sign copies of her book ‘Hollywood Costume’ (we’re in that!). Shawna Trpcic It’s question time with Shawna Trpcic. What a fun idea! Halloween FrockTalk’s guide to looking suitably fab and/or disgusting. Thor: The Dark World Costume designer Wendy Partridge (another new set of hands for Thor) chats briefly about her work on the upcoming film. Rush Inspired by her friend Ellen Crawshaw working as a costume assistant on Rush, fashion historian and all round sartorial resource Amber Butchart analyses cars and Formula 1 style in…

  • Anna May Wong fused East and West against an ill-equipped backdrop of Hollywood cinema.