Police officers aren’t known for their sense of style, but now a former vintage clothing buyer is using her forensic knowledge of garments to help solve crimes. It’s time to call the fashion police…
In a taxi on the way to Surrey police headquarters, snow started to fall and the driver was complaining about the night ahead. As we pulled into the driveway of the 19th-century house, with its memorial garden for fallen police officers and a dog training school opened by Bruce Forsyth, I said I hoped his evening improved. “Eva,” he said, gruffly, “We live and then we die.” It was the first jolt of the afternoon, the first time I was left with nothing to say. A crime scene investigator (CSI) showed me inside.
I was visiting the fashion historian Amber Butchart, who had spent the day talking about dead bodies and the clothes they’re found in. We first met in 2002 when she worked as a buyer for vintage clothes shop Beyond Retro. Sorting through old dresses she became interested in what they told us about the past, and went back to university to study history. She hosted a BBC programme exploring the lives of historical figures through the clothes they wore and published books investigating fashion on film and nautical style. Last year Butchart was talking about fisherman’s jumpers on the radio when Dr Karl Harrison, one of the UK’s most experienced forensic archaeologists, was driving home, and he was struck by her explanation of what we communicate through clothing.
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