Meet exhibition curator and design historian Amber Butchart, the creative force behind the new exhibition The Fabric of Democracy. This illustrated online talk will discuss the themes, ideas, and development behind the exhibition.
Discover how fabric designers and manufacturers have responded to political upheaval from the French Revolution through to Brexit. Hear how the mechanisation of textile industries from the mid-18th century led to the development of print techniques that could create more detailed imagery on cloth, quicker than ever before. These increasingly affordable processes ‘democratised’ textile decoration, allowing governments, regimes, and corporations to harness the power of print to communicate, from wartime slogans to revolutionary ideals.
Join Amber and Dennis as they discuss how propaganda is usually associated with public art and monumental sculpture. Hear how the exhibition explores how fabrics have been used as a political medium both in the home and on the body, through furnishing and fashion. Find out how textiles were used as a tool of the state across the political spectrum, from communism to fascism. Discover how a fraternal crisis in the monarchy played out on cloth, and how democracies promote national identity through textile design.
About the panel
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, and she is the history consultant and regular on-screen historian for BBC One’s Great British Sewing Bee. Amber is an external adviser for the National Crime Agency as a Forensic Garment Analyst, working on cases that require investigation of clothing and textiles.
Amber 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.
Dennis Nothdruft is Head of Exhibitions at the Fashion and Textile Museum. He has led the exhibitions team at the Museum since it was founded by Zandra Rhodes in 2003 and previously spent many years working as a design assistant in Zandra Rhodes studios in both San Diego and London. He has lectured widely on many aspects of fashion and textiles and has authored several books including Zandra Rhodes: 50 Fabulous Years in Fashion, How to Draw like a Fashion Designer, How to Draw Vintage Fashion and Kaffe Fassett the Artist’s Eye.
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Upon booking, you will receive an automatic booking confirmation email which includes details on how to access this event. This talk will be live-streamed on Microsoft Teams and you will receive a unique access link via email prior to the event. Ticket sales are suspended two hours before the start of the event.
If you are using a smartphone or tablet, you will need to download the Microsoft Teams app from your relevant app store. Please also ensure that you are using the most recent version of your operating system and that you can access Microsoft Teams so that you will have the best experience.
The talk starts at the time specified above and lasts for approximately 1.5 hours, followed by a Q&A session at the end.
Online events take place live at the time and date specified above. A recording of the online event is not included in the purchase of your ticket. If you are unavailable at the time and date above, please keep an eye on our On Demand page, where all recordings that meet our quality specifications will be available to purchase in due course.
If you have any queries about this event, please get in touch.