Fourteen years, 380 embroiderers and an estimated billion and a half stitches: the Red Dress project allows people around the world to tell their stories through embroidery
Is this the ultimate antithesis of fast fashion?
The silk dress pictured was worked on over 14 years by 380 embroiderers from 51 countries, who collectively added an estimated billion and a half stitches. Now complete, it will be recognised in Guinness World Records 2026 as the largest ever collaborative embroidery project.
The Red Dress project was dreamed up by British artist Kirstie Macleod to allow people around the world to tell their stories through embroidery. From 2009, pieces of the dress– and later the completed garment – travelled the world while it was being worked on. Made from 87 panels of burgundy silk dupion, it has been embellished by 367 women and girls, 11 men and boys and two non-binary artists.
They included female refugees from Palestine, Syria and Ukraine, women seeking asylum in the UK from Iran, Iraq, China, Nigeria and Namibia, survivors of war in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Rwanda and impoverished and disadvantaged women in South Africa, Mexico and Egypt. It’s modelled here by contributor Lekazia Turner, an embroiderer from Jamaica.
All commissioned embroiderers were paid for their work and receive a portion of the ongoing exhibition fees and merchandise sales: The Red Dress has been exhibited in major galleries and museums worldwide.
“Some used embroidery styles practised for hundreds of years within their family, village or town,” explained Macleod, “while others chose simple stitches to convey powerful, at times, traumatic, events from their past. They also captured the potential for healing through the act of voicing and processing their experiences via the dress.”
Some of the artisans are rebuilding their lives with the help of embroidery, she added, using their skills or being trained in embroidery to earn a consistent living to support themselves and their communities.
Main image: Mark Pickthall
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