Fashion in Wartime

Lee Miller’s photography of British fashion for Vogue during World War 2 was prolific yet few are aware of the full extent of this body of her work. Many know Lee Miller’s name in connection to her inspirational World War 2 reportage. Few are aware of the volume of her British fashion images that were published on British Vogue’s pages from 1939 to 1944.

The six part series is created in connection with the publication and exhibition 'Lee Miller Fashion in Wartime Britain'. Presented by Ami Bouhassane, Lee Miller's grandaughter and co-director of the Lee Miller Archives it explores British fashion during the war, Lee Miller's contribution to the fashion industry in these years and her significant service to the survival of British Vogue magazine.This episode features fashion historian Amber Butchart.

Amber is a dress historian, author and broadcaster who specialises in the intersections between politics, clothing and culture. 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. 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. She 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. 

Audrey Withers, Lee Miller’s editor at British Vogue, wrote as early as 1941:‘she [Lee Miller] has borne the whole weight of our studio production through the most difficult period in Brogue’s [British Vogue’s] history’.

Guest speakers in other episodes include: Robin Muir, contributing editor to British Vogue, Hilary Roberts, head curator of photography Imperial War Museums London and Julie Summers, biographer of Audrey Withers.

Produced by Tolly Robinson