A Stitch In Time

Fashion historian Amber Butchart goes in search of Charles II through the clothes he wore and discovers a sartorial innovation he introduced which survives to this day. He is credited with creating the vest and our modern day three-piece-suit. Her quest takes her from an English stately home to the Palace of Versailles where the English king's cousin, Louis XIV, openly mocked his attire.

Amber Butchart, fashion historian, decodes Van Eyck's mysterious Arnolfini portrait, which speaks volumes about the affluence of this merchant family at the time. She uncovers the secrets to making and dying the cloth while Ninya Mikhaila and her team painstakingly recreate the very complex, iconic green gown using only 15th century tailoring techniques.

Portraits tend to depict the very rich so a full-length 18th century portrait of an estate hedge cutter wearing a leather jacket is a fascinating find for fashion historian Amber Butchart. It provides many clues as to how ordinary people clothed themselves with second-hand garments and Ninya and her team set about recreating the coat as it would have originally looked before the thorns got to it.

This is a story that begins on the slave ships of the Mediterranean and ends in the drawing rooms of the ruling class through the 18th century portrait of Dido Belle (the daughter of a slave) and her cousin Lady Elizabeth Murray. Amber Butchart uncovers the tragedy behind the introduction of cotton into Georgian England and the impact of slavery on the fashion of the day.

Fashions historian, Amber Butchart discovers that the effigy of the son of Edward III, the so-called 'Black Prince', provides many pointers as to the personality and attitude of this warrior prince both in terms of its heraldic symbolism and its flamboyance. Ninya and her team recreate the Prince's heraldic surcoat (jupon) made from eye-catching, red and blue padded velvet and gold embroidery.

Amber Butchart goes in search of the doomed queen through a scandalous portrait, La Reine en Gaulle which reveals not only Marie-Antoinette's lack of political judgment but also her desire to be released from the formality of court life. Ninya Mikhaila and her team labour to recreate the scandalous gown.