Lekazia Turner, embroiderer from Jamaica, 2022
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projects INSPIRED BY THE Red DRESS





Next one coming soon!





The Red Shoes… Once upon a time


a network of stitchers - from an idea by Liz Davis, 2025


Stories in stitch, a red shoe collection, a mean grandmother making her daughter dance at the maypole in black working boots, a pair of red shoes in a box marked ‘going away shoes’, a pair of beautiful red ballet shoes responding to issues of coercive control embroidered on them… and then a shelf full of red linen backed story books.





our Red dress project


6 friends from the UK come togther to create embroidered panels influenced by The Red Dress to be made into a series of books


To connect with the group please contact Kirstie to be put in touch





The community shawl project


Founded by Emma Bevan-Henderson, wales, 2022-25


A community collaboration featuring 120 squares with an element of ‘RED’. The completed shawl has become a poignant symbol of being held in a safe space by community.

www.instagram.com/threads_weavingstories



red dresses in the cathedral


Composite Photograph created by elsabe du toit, South africa 2024


To connect with Elsabe directly please email her on: elsabedutoit@gmail.com



the red art project 


ABERGAVENNY, WALES, 2024


The Red Art Project is a collaboration between three women; Liz Davis, Carol Kay & Mary Wrenn, which looks at serious issues around women’s empowerment and seeks to creatively explore women’s many stories.
 
For more info: theredartproject@gmail.com



ode to the red dress


Ina meyer & Claire Wallace, south africa, 2024


A stunning creation inspired by The Red Dress, for the South African International Quilt Festival 2024

Ina Meyer: https://www.quiltsouthafrica.co.za/12-ina-meyer-2022-saqg-pro-dedicate-award-winner

Claire Wallace: http://quiltastix.co.za



Two halves make us a whole 


A truly collaborative project between best friends claire wallace & telene Jeffrey, south africa, 2024


An original design inspired by The Red Dress, featuring 5 South African Emblems. Each made their own version of the same design, which was then quilted by the other.

Both quilts were created for the South African International Quilt Festival 2024
 
Telene Jeffrey: http://ladyjanequilting.co.za

Claire Wallace: http://quiltastix.co.za


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.
"
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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© Copyright the red dress 2025
www.kirstiemacleod.co.uk