Lekazia Turner, embroiderer from Jamaica, 2022
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SONIA LEESINGAPORE / 2022

SECTION OF DRESS: Gold Doodle

Taking a shape from an old doodle!
Over the years I had thought about changing my career path and I always knew I wanted it to be in the creative world, and having relatives on both sides of the family (on the Singaporean and Swiss side) who are dressmakers meant I was surrounded by a world of fabric and stitch from an early age which I absolutely loved.

I had done various classes over the years and learnt to make my own clothes, done pattern cutting and lace making etc., but it wasn’t until after I had taken a couple of day classes at the Royal School of Needlework and I discovered the Future Tutors Programme that it became clear.  And that is when my embroidery journey really started.

I am now in the third and final year of this programme and I have discovered with embroidery that I like to experiment.  I have learnt many traditional techniques and once I have understood how a stitch works – I want to see how I can turn that around and use it in a new way.  I have also been playing with how to design a piece, for example I have experimented with painting fabrics and allowing that to tell me how a piece turns out.  I have also been trying out a process where I take an old doodle and pick a shape from the many lines that are there, and the possibilities are endless, and this becomes my design.

This is why I decided to stitch my golden doodle on the red dress.  I wanted it to be unique and elegant and I thought the gold would show up well.

Thank you for the opportunity to be part of this wonderful collaborative piece.

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Contact: Instagram: @sonias_stitching
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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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