Lekazia Turner, embroiderer from Jamaica, 2022
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noayini nogemane supported by MISSIBABA
SOUTH AFRICA | 2010

SECTION OF DRESS: Rural Life

 A vibrant depiction of her childhood in the countryside
Noayini was born in 1954 near Willowvale on the Eastern Cape of South Africa. She spent her formative years there, learning the Xhosa language. She never had the opportunity to go to school but became a skilled artist and mother to a daughter and two sons. Sadly, Noayini passed away in 2013 in Kayamandi aged just 59, blessed to have met 3 of her (now) 5 grandchildren.

Noayini created a vibrant and engaging panel for The Red Dress, of memories from her early years growing up in the countryside. The imagery includes a farmer with an ox ploughing a field, a woman pounding mealies, a guitar, broom and a mother gently tending to her children. The embroidery was one of the earliest created for the dress, and it has been much admired over the years.

Noayini was a softly spoken, gentle woman who lived and worked within Kayamandi and was supported by textile label Missibaba. Missibaba was founded by Chloe Townsend in 2005 and is dedicated to empowering women through the creation of bags, accessories and art that honour South African culture and heritage. Kirstie Macleod (creator of The Red Dress project) was introduced to Chloe by a mutual friend in 2010, just a year after the project began, and an embroidery commission for the garment was soon confirmed.

‘When I presented the story of The Red Dress and Kirstie’s wish to collaborate on a panel, Noayini was the one who felt she wanted to tell a part of her story and felt confident and willing to embroider a panel’, explains Chloe. ‘She always had a quiet strength and graceful presence. I feel she was the quiet backbone of the group. The matriarch. In addition to the embroidery, she was also a great beader and had a wonderful flair for colour.’

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To see examples of Missibaba products, see the website: https://missibaba.com/
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OUR SUPPORTERS

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

In addition to the institutions below, funding has been gratefully received from a number of private donations and 441 individuals around the world via 2 Crowdfunding campaigns in 2020 and 2022.
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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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