Lekazia Turner, embroiderer from Jamaica, 2022
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CALICO cloak NO. 1


Somerset, 2024 - ongoing

Launched by Polly Pring in response to The Red Dress exhibition at ACEarts gallery in Somerton, Somerset, the cloak aims to involve at least 60 local people in their 60s or over.

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Calico Cloak No. 1 was conceived in June 2024 after arts facilitator Polly Pring attended a talk by Kirstie during the month-long Red Dress exhibition at ACEarts gallery in Somerton, Somerset. It was Polly’s second visit to see the dress having visited the gallery with an environmental arts therapy group for its previous Red Dress exhibition in January 2022. One of its artisans was also known to her.

Celebrating a friend’s 60th birthday during her second visit and looking ahead to turning 60 herself later that year, Polly became inspired to create a cloak celebrating the natural cycle of life and exploring the role of the elder in society. In collaboration with a core group of supporters in Somerset and inviting participation from at least 60 local people aged 60 or other, the garment will highlight the power of communication through stitch and textiles.

Contributors are so far investigating techniques and practising stitching and embroidery together before approaching the cloak itself which they plan to complete collaboratively by 2029. The process has involved sharing ideas, passions and values within the group and reaching out to their wider networks with the aim of embarking on a joint journey for those in their seventh and eighth decade and beyond.

The cloak will be embellished in a number of ways as the project develops including a planned appliqued tree in winter form on the centre of the back alongside further details of the sky, earth and below ground such as roots and mycelium. The group are also keen to involve those from further afield by stitching additional cloth onto the cloak.

https://fromsourcetoself.co.uk/collaborations/
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OUR SUPPORTERS

A huge thank you to all who have given their time, energy, enthusiasm, advice, experience and support to The Red Dress project over the years.

In addition to the organisations below, funding has been gratefully received from a number of private donations and via three crowdfunding campaigns in 2020, 2022 and 2024.
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Nothing expresses more eloquently the feelings I suspect we share about the importance of embroidery in our lives, and the support we derive from the friendships made through stitch, than Kirstie Macleod’s Red Dress.
Caroline Zoob, Editor of Stitchers Journal 2022
This beautiful object highlights the common ground between individuals, bringing together different identities and uniting people, we are honoured to contribute to it.
Tiny Kox, PACE President at the Council of Europe, Strasbourg 2023
The Red Dress has become an icon of the international textile world.
Suzanne Smith, Textile Society 2022
The Red Dress in its final incarnation, a magnificent, regal robe, symbolises the empowerment of women through the creation of something beautiful, something which began with bowed heads and tired fingers but also with faith and joy, an openness and willingness to be a part of something which they could not see at that time but in which they could believe had meaning and worth connecting with other women around the world.
Lady Alison Myners, Chair of the Royal Academy Trust 2020
The Red Dress is in some respects similar to Mail Art, the populist artistic movement centred on sending small scale works through the postal service. It initially developed out of the Fluxus movement in the 1950s and 60s – but on a larger scale – the journey of the work is part of its identity, process, and in fact function. A signifier of the temporal and physical nature of the process inherent in the creation of the piece. The surface of the dress layered with embroidery slowly transforming into a specific topographical map – completely particular to the work’s journey – and reflective of the burgeoning sculptural landscape of the object.
Paul Black, Artlyst 2015
It’s her (Kirstie’s) red silk Dupion bodice and voluminous skirt created for the Red Dress that fully demonstrates her commitment to embroidery and the immense respect for the international community of makers.
Denna Jones. Embroidery Magazine 2010
...the fact that they could embroider what they wanted and that it is appreciated has given them some strength, some confidence that I didn’t feel so strongly before they created the embroideries.
Nicole Esselan, Founder of Kisany Africa, supporting artisans in DR CONGO and RWANDA who created embroidery on the Red Dress in 2018
This is both an extraordinary work of collective art and profound and eloquent social commentary. It is also an example of how potent the Attire language is capable of becoming.
Attires Mind (Fashion Blogger) 2020
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