
Historical costumier Ninya Mikhaila and fashion historian Amber Butchart tackle some of the most iconic historical costumes in history in the BBC documentary series A Stitch in Time, which recently aired in the U.K. Assisted by Harriet Waterhouse and Hanna Marples, Ninya demonstrates the process of recreating the clothing of the past, while Amber visits collections and speaks with experts who discuss both the broad and the nuanced aspects of historical clothing in art.
Rather than simply show someone dressed in period costume, talking about the clothing, Amber and Ninya show what’s really interesting to costume history nerds like myself — the research process that goes along with the making process, and finally, the finished product.


I think this series comes closest to documenting what historical costumers do in a very accurate manner. It starts with a work of art, then the context surrounding the history of that art object is studied and discussed, then the object is analyzed for construction details (often having to fill in obscure bits and pieces with educated guesses and conjecture based on experimentation and comparison with other contemporaneous art objects), then the fabric is chosen, cut, assembled, and at the end of it all, you have a living, breathing garment that tells a specific story about its place and time.



It’s also really gratifying to see Ninya Mikhaila’s work brought to the forefront. In my mind, she’s always been the historical costumer’s costumer. Watching her career take shape over the last 20 years, I’ve even been lucky enough to get to know her as a person as well as a fellow historical costumer. Getting to live vicariously through her work with Kentwell Hall, the Prince’s Trust, Hampton Court Palace, the development and publication of The Tudor Tailor and establishing her own publishing company, and now with a documentary series featuring her directly working out how a historical costumer does what she does fills me with glee.






This series is a must-watch for any historical costumer, or anyone interested in the process of being a historical costumer. At this point in time, only the first episode is available on YouTube, and the full series is only available for streaming in the U.K., but I suggest you invest in a VPN and sign up for the BBC’s streaming service no matter where you are in the world.
Have you seen A Stitch in Time?
Will do. The series looks incredibly awesome.
I’ve seen episode 1 and I want Charles’ outfit in teal. YouTube has episode 2 on the Arnoldfini portrait and possibly others. I’m goingoing to binge on them and my Amazon Prime Ekaterina .
it makes me feel better that they too can see daylight through their seams.
pssst when I clicked the link for the first ep, the sidebar showed several more episodes… :-)
Yes, I just watched all six episodes on YouTube! What a delight…I think the Black Prince episode was my favorite. The beautiful metal armor and all that gold embroidery heart eyes
there are more videos available, though not on the official bbc-chanel but here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-ITmQT3qb-lOWmQRYhWPZg
Series has just finished here in the UK, it was lovely, you just want to hang out with Ninja and her team in that wonderful workshop.
The Arnoldfini dress was my favourite, a ridiculous amount of incredibly expensive material, but so beautiful!
The full episodes keep going up and being taken down. If you see them up, binge binge binge!
I’ve followed these ladies for a few years, and was thrilled to see their work get a series! I can’t wait until I can watch this in the States!
I adored the whole series. A masterpiece of visuals and information
Thanks for the hint. As a sometimes stage manager for stage shows, I love to learn more and more about what works and what is unlikely to–
Thank you! I was beginning to lack material to watch/listen to as I sew.
last time I checked, the bbc site blocks vpns, but there are more up on youtube now! thank you SplendorSolis, now to go watch the rest of them!
Thanks for letting us know about this show! I’ve just watched all the episodes on youtube and loved them all! It was fascinating to see how they constructed the garments and the clever techniques they used. I also wish that they had had Amber wear appropriate wigs and jewellery to finish the looks, as her red style cut is very distracting! But still, it was a really fun watch, thanks! :)
Thanks for sharing this! The repro of Dido’s gown has a very strong 1910’s flavor to it.
Except that the gown didn’t look anything like the one in the portrait.
Binged on it today. Absolutely amazing. Amber Butchart’s outfits alone are worth watching the show for.
What happened to the recreated garments?
I’d love to know that, too! Especially if they can put them in the same area as the original painting or extant garment in the case of the Black Prince…
Fabulous series. The construction of the costumes, the costumes themselves were such a treat. Then, learning the history made the series so compelling. I also would be very interested in knowing what came of the costumes!