Lekazia Turner, embroiderer from Jamaica, 2022
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THE RED DRESS BOOK


The Red Dress: Conversations in Stitch is the much-anticipated book documenting and celebrating The Red Dress global collaborative embroidery project. Published in May 2025 to coincide with World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development, the book further explores and amplifies the narratives stitched into the dress and brings together new voices from the wider project.

Powerful and poignant embroiderer stories sit alongside reflections from key moments in the dress’ incredible journey from its creation 2009-2023 to ongoing exhibition tour. Featuring insights from the dress’ creator Kirstie and further organisations involved, the book also presents specially commissioned essays on themes such as empowerment, healing trauma and building community which The Red Dress opens up for audiences.


How to order


The Red Dress: Conversations in Stitch is published by independent publisher Quickthorn Books UK on 21 May 2025 and available to preorder from Quickthorn.com and good bookshops and online retailers.

  • Softback book £25.99 (ISBN 978-1-7393160-8-2)
  • Limited-edition hardback book £45.00 (ISBN 978-1-0683215-0-4)
  • E-book £8.99 ISBN 978-1-0683215-1-1)


BOOK REVIEWS


"Abundant congratulatory wishes on the completion of The Red Dress, Conversations in Stitch. It is a lovely, poignant, and rich book that beautifully captures the history, the magic, and most importantly, the PEOPLE of the Red Dress project".
Beth McLaughlin, Artistic Director / Chief Curator of Fuller Craft Museum, Massachusetts, USA

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“The Red Dress: Conversations in Stitch is a moving embroidery-led chronicle of a 14-year global collaboration—a singular silk dupion dress that became a vessel for voice, memory, and cross-cultural storytelling. Beginning in 2009, this dress was embroidered by 380 contributors across 51 countries, generating over a billion stitches that carry the weight of identity, resilience, and creative communion. The book brings these stories to life with embroidered panels, intimate narratives from embroiderers, and commissioned essays exploring themes of empowerment, healing trauma, and community building.

More than documentation, this book is both celebration and critical exploration. Alongside compelling personal accounts, the volume includes reflections by Kirstie Macleod, insightful essays, and behind-the-scenes perspectives on the dress’s exhibitions and impact—from solidarity events to appearances in political arenas and festivals. The publication also honours the future by channeling royalties into the Red Dress Artisan Fund, sustaining the artists who contributed to this collective statement of stitched humanity.“

Selvedge Magasine, UK

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"A most touching, heart-warming and uplifting account of what a humble stitch at a time can achieve when entrusted into the caring hands of an extraordinary person such as Kirstie Macleod.
A beautiful presentation, letting the individual artisans' voices be heard and each person involved in the numerous  projects be acknowledged for their valuable contributions.An exquisite book indeed"

Nana Wagner, Writer and curator of iThemba CraftArt Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa

Support for the book


The book was made possible thanks to a successful Crowdfunder campaign which raised £12,915 with the help of 295 donors supported by social media amplification by fashion historian Cassidy Zachary (@the_art_of_dress).

A generous donation was also made by Mrs Sangita Jindal, chairperson of the JSW Foundation, following the exhibition of The Red Dress at Hampi Art Labs in India in November 2024.

A percentage of all royalties from the sales of The Red Dress: Conversations in Stitch will go to the Red Dress Artisan Fund which provides an annual payment from the dress' income for all 141 commissioned embroiderers who stitched panels of embroidery for The Red Dress between 2009-2023.
                                  
 


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