Lekazia Turner, embroiderer from Jamaica, 2022
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SARAH DEMPSEY

IRELAND / 2022
SECTION OF DRESS: Shamrock

An Honouring of Sarah’s Irish Roots
I was born in Germany into an Army family, for the first six years of my life we were rootless going wherever we were sent until I finally ended up in Epsom living with my grandparents. My grandad was Irish, born in 1898 in Watling Street, Dublin 8, in the slum tenements right by St James Gate and the Guinness brewery. My grandmother’s family had come over to England during the potato famine in the 1850's and settled in Berkshire. My Grandad, who was a jockey, left Ireland in the early 1920's, he went to Ascot and met my grandmother, later settling in Epsom because of the horse racing connection, I have always strongly identified with my Irish family and I'm very proud of those roots. Eventually I met my husband whose cultural background is Irish and Lithuanian. He also identifies strongly with his Irish side and his Dublin roots, and our surname, Dempsey is Irish, in Gaelic 'O Diomasaigh' means proud man. My RSN goldwork frame was the Dempsey coat of arms. I'm very proud of my Irish roots.

I embroidered a shamrock on the red dress. This is a symbol of Ireland used by St Patrick and represents the Holy Trinity in the Catholic faith. It has become synonymous with the celebration of St Patrick's Day. Sláinte!

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Contact: Please connect with Kirstie at reddressembroidery@gmail.com to put you in touch directly.
Upcoming exhibition in Dorset, UK

https://www.hawkersfarm.org/defashion-dorset

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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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