The Red Dress
- Dec 21, 2025
- 2 min read
My last couple of offerings have been rather sombre, so as it’s Christmas I thought it would be good to lighten the mood with something more optimistic. For the last few weeks, I have had the privilege of spending time with The Red Dress. Now, this is not a book and so represents a deviation from my usual subject matter, but I would argue that The Red Dress is still a text. Indeed, it represents one of the most extraordinary collections of stories that I have ever encountered.
In case you haven’t heard of it, The Red Dress project began as an artistic venture, conceived by a British artist, Kirstie Macleod, but it has grown into something much bigger. 380 embroiderers from 51 countries have contributed panels to the finished garment. The vast majority are women, (the project includes 11 men/boys and 2 non-binary artists), and many of these are refugees, asylum seekers, women from oppressed or impoverished communities and war zones. This is the largest collaborative endeavour of its kind, and all the commissioned artisans were paid for their work on the project. Each woman, or collective of women, was invited to create a work that represented them personally. The website, listed below, give details of the participant countries, but to give a sense of the range, here are a few: Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Ukraine, Russia, Rwanda, Peru, India, Vietnam, Norway, UK, Mexico, Sweden, anyway, the list goes on. As you can imagine, a great many stories are woven into the silk. The dress is covered by an estimated 1-1.5 billion stitches and weighs nearly 7 kilos. It’s wearable, but it can’t be easy!
These are some of the facts, but the actual spectacle of the dress takes your breath away. I can just about sew on a button, but embroidery is a long way beyond my skill set. I was interested to see the dress, but in a rather detached sort of way. I’d seen pictures, but they didn’t prepare me. As one visitor to the dress put it to me, “I was not expecting to cry today”. But the dress speaks, telling multiple stories, extraordinary dialogues in a global shared language; it exudes emotion, compassion, and sisterhood. I have been lucky enough to spend time reading these stories. From the spider’s web that covers the back of the bodice, to the tiny jewel of a real beetle shell sewn into the folds of the fabric. The Russian Serenity Bird, a symbol of wisdom, knowledge and peace echoes the cries for freedom and harmony stitched into the many other birds and animals that populate the dress. Each time I walk around it I find new stories, some loud, crying out for attention, others gentle and small, but just as powerful.
The Red Dress took 14 years to complete. It continues to travel around the world on its exhibition tour, spreading a message of liberty, hope and communion. This is a creative text with many voices, a celebration of a global community. It is impossible not to listen and to hear.
The Red Dress can be seen at Killerton House (National Trust) in Devon until 4th January.
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