Lekazia Turner, embroiderer from Jamaica, 2022
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A 14-year, award-winning global, collaborative embroidery project

The Red Dress project, conceived by British artist Kirstie Macleod, provides an artistic platform for individuals, particularly women, and communities around the world, many of whom are vulnerable and/or live in poverty, to tell their stories through embroidery.

From 2009 to 2023, pieces of The Red Dress and later the completed garment travelled the globe being embroidered onto. Constructed out of 87 panels of burgundy silk dupion, the dress has been worked on by 367 women/girls, 11 men/boys and two non-binary artists from 51 countries, earning it a place in the Guinness World Records 2026 for the largest collaborative embroidery project. All 141 commissioned embroiderers were paid for their work and receive a portion of all ongoing exhibition fees and merchandise sales. Further embroidery was added by willing audiences at various exhibitions and events.
 
The dress’ embroiderers include female refugees from Palestine, Syria and Ukraine, women seeking asylum in the UK from Iran, Iraq, China, Nigeria and Namibia, survivors of war and genocide in Rwanda, DR Congo, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Kosovo, impoverished and disadvantaged women in South Africa, Mexico and Egypt, individuals in Kenya, Japan, Turkey, Jamaica, Sweden, Peru, Czech Republic, Dubai, Afghanistan, Australia, Argentina, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Tobago, Vietnam, Estonia, USA, Russia, Pakistan, Wales, Colombia and England, students from Montenegro, Brazil, Malta, Singapore, Eritrea, Norway, Poland, Finland, Ireland, Romania and Hong Kong as well as artisans from embroidery studios in India and Saudi Arabia.

The dress also features pieces of Lambani embroidery gathered by Kirstie during her travels in southern India in 2002, honouring the hours she spent stitching alongside Lambani women. Without a common language these interactions unfolded through a shared love and understanding of stitch and embroidery. They had a profound effect on Kirstie and seven years later provided huge inspiration for creating The Red Dress. 



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'From Victim to Victory' created by 15 female survivors of conflict related sexual violence, supported by the War Childhood Musuem in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina, 2022 Refugees from Ukraine embroidering onto the Red Dress during the 'Traces of Sisterhood' exhibtion at Galeriia Salon Akademii in Warsaw, Poland, 2022 Kirstie Macleod and the Red Dress, UK, 2021 Kiki Jerome, Artisan from Somerset, UK, 2021 Red Dress worn by Sharmin Faeq Sadiq, Kurdistan, Iraq supported by the 'Swansea Women's Asylum and Refugee Support Group', Wales, 2022 MP Saranda Bogujevci, Deputy Head of Parliament, Kosovo, 2021 Embroidery detail from Allthreads community, Brisbane, Australia, 2019 Exhibiting the Red Dress in Zig Zag, Glastonbury, UK 2020 Hilaria Lopez Patishtán, supported by Kitzen, Chiapas, Mexico, 2018 Hilaria Lopez Patishtán, supported by Kitzen, Chiapas, Mexico, 2020 Embroidery by Zenaida Aguilar, supported by Kitzen, Chiapas, Mexico, 2018 ‘From Darkness to Light’ by 6 Artisans from Aproade, Rwanda, 2018 Anastasia Yurievna Katyshevtseva, Chitta, Russia, 2018 Annonciata Mukarewego, supported by Kisany, Rwanda, 2018 Amanda Wright, Wales, UK, 2010 Ayo Amon Demi supported by Missibaba, South Africa, 2010 Selema Gabaly, founder of FanSina, Sinai, Egypt, 2015


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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www.kirstiemacleod.co.uk