A Stitch in Time

Started watching this because I had nothing better to do and was absolutely hooked. Amber is an amazing host who looks like she moonlights as a detective in Prohibition-era Chicago, but she's absolutely compelling in her day job of teaching us about fashion history. Each episode goes into detail about the minutiae of creating garments accurate to the era, but the best part is what we learn about the cultural background of each outfit and how they relate to period in which they were worn and the people who wore them. This taught me just as much about history as it did about fashion, and I never thought britches covered in bows could look so fly.

This was a fascinating episode and an incredible look at the culture of abolitionism, racism, and social class at the time.

The premise of the show is that the presenter, Amber Butchart combs the history of English Fashion through paintings of the time in order to recreate them. A rather brilliant idea actually. What bothered me with this episode featuring the dress of Dido Elizabeth Belle, a former slave was that the dress that was recreated was not worn by an actual African Britain but by Amber herself.

I find that within the realms of the show, yet it lacks the sensitivity that Amber speaks about in this particular episode. Though I find Amber to be a decent presenter, I found this to skewed. Mainly because the color of the dress was created to be a contrast to her darker skin. Amber is...well, she is typical of an English skin type that avoids the sun at all costs. Though, she does have the most beautiful eyes and alabaster skin. To me, it was improper for her to wear this and I would have had more respect for her to find someone who truly would have worn it better.

If I could rate this higher I would. The most interesting series I've ever seen on clothes in the old, Old, OLD days. She takes you through five different outfits. First she shows an old popular painting of someone famous then she takes you step by step to remake their clothes! First you have to figure out the fabrics. If it's wool you're taken through the wool making from sheep to finish. Uf it's leather, you go thru that process. Then you get to watch seamstresses work on cutting a pattern out of the fabric; everything done EXACTLY how it would've been done back in the day when the painting was done. Buttons, trimming, embroidery, leather, bone stays, hoops, even a suit of iron! No short cuts or modern tools. No sewing machines, all hand stitched. No electric irons, no electricity! They even dye the clothes the old fashioned way. For example to get a lovely shade of green a blue was boiled into the fabric with old urine to get green. Just unbelievably fascinating stuff & great lengths were taken to be authentic. In the final scene of each outfit, she puts the clothes on & tells you if the outfit feels heavy, light, soft, stiff, etc as she walks & turns modeling it for you. She even wears a suit of iron. If this kind of historic stuff interests you, then I highly recommend this. I couldn't take my eyes off & didn't want it to end. She needs to do more of these!

Please more of these! So well done. Loved the host and the costumers. Loved the connection to the paintings and the history provided in each episode as well as the creation of the clothes.

Just by looking at his clothes, one can tell a lot about a person, the society he lives in and his place within that society. Fashion also reflects the passage of time and the replacement of one generation by another. Taking these observations as a starting point, a specialized team try to recreate the costumes seen in old paintings and such. As part of this exercise in experimental history, authentic instruments, dyes, fabrics,... are used, as well as authentic sewing techniques. (Happily, artificial fur is used as a replacement for the real thing.) Meanwhile various experts and historians discuss the wider cultural context.

For instance, the recreation of the sumptuous green gown worn by the wife (bride ?) in the fifteenth-century "Arnolfini Portrait" introduces a reflection on the international wool trade and its influence on the emergence of a wealthy merchant class. (The reconstruction of the richly adorned sleeves constitutes a technical challenge of its own.) The fact that the resulting gown turns out to be quite warm, confirms the scientific hypothesis that contemporary climate was cooler than it is now.

The portrait of a mischievous looking young woman called Dido Belle leads the team in an entirely different direction, since the sitter occupied a highly precarious position which straddled both slavery and aristocracy. The discussion of Dido Belle's clothes, which may have been some kind of fancy dress rather than a regular outfit, touches upon themes such as Britain's role in the slave trade, the use of slaves for the production of crops and textiles and the othering of persons with a different skin tone.

Other episodes too touch upon topics of abject cruelty or heart-rending sadness, such as the story of the foundling institutes. Many desperate mothers - almost all of them illiterate - left some kind of fabric with their babies, in hopes of a later reunion. However, in most cases the little strips of fabric just faded away in an official file, while mother and child were forever separated.

Like I've already mentioned, much of the series consists of the recreation of items of clothing such as dresses or coats. The specialists doing the actual sewing impress by their patience and know-how. Their finished products look splendid, both in terms of beauty and of verisimilitude.

I warmly recommend "A stitch in time" to all viewers interested in history, the evolution of Western clothing styles and the recreation of historical costumes. The series will also appeal to all those who like beating leather into submission with a hammer - and who doesn't ?