My name is Janelle- Vice President of the Queensland Women's Historical Association. Kerryn Lightfoot is the Owner of All Threads Embroidery and together we are launching a fundraiser to bring The Red Dress and Kirstie MacLeod for the first time to Australia in 2026.

It will be displayed exclusively in Queensland. This is 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.

Twenty two women from the All Threads Community in Brisbane were involved in the making of a panel of the dress and they have never seen the completed dress!

With your help we will raise enough to fly Kirstie and the Red Dress from London to Brisbane return, her accommodation, as well as hosting a a number of public programs and events to showcase the embroidery of our multicultural community and foster intercultural conversations around the issues that affect women from all countries.

More about The Red Dress.

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 380 people from over 51 countries throughout the world including Palestine, Syria and Ukraine, Iran, Iraq, China, Nigeria and Namibia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda and DR Congo, South Africa, Mexico and Egypt, individuals in Kenya, Japan, Türkiye, Jamaica, Sweden, Peru, Czech Republic, Dubai, Afghanistan, Australia, Argentina, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Tobago, Vietnam, Estonia, USA, Russia, Pakistan, Wales, Colombia and England, 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.

More information https://reddressembroidery.com/