People in Leeds are being asked to sew their stories onto a wedding dress in a project inspired by the world famous Red Dress.
The Red Dress is an international textile project that brought together different aspects of embroidery from across the globe. It’s aim was to unite different cultures and create one big community through a collaborative experience.
Emma Hayton, who is leading the Leeds project said “You don’t need to know how to stitch or sow, it’s the creativity that matters.”
Leeds Central Library are partnering with Woven, a textile and arts organisation, to hold the event taking place this week as the West Yorkshire Calico Dress Project is launched.
The main objective of the project is to bring people together to celebrate diversity, heritage and culture inspired by the world famous Red Dress.
Leeds has its own distinctive dress that launched earlier this years at Threads Festival at Sunnybank Mills, alongside Bradford, Kirklees, Calderdale, and Wakefield.
Individuals will each embroider a patch of fabric that they feels celebrates them, which will then be stitched onto the dress to create a unique story of West Yorkshire. Each dress is able to hold up to 400 embodied patches each!
Emma, a librarian for Arts at Leeds Library, said “the goal is for it to be empowering. It is empowering, bringing people together.”
“It all stemmed from The Red Dress, that’s what inspired this to happen. It was years and years of dedication and imagination in one piece.”
Source: Ruby Lindsay | All Rights ReservedThe piece strays away from a traditional art piece, with it soon to have hundreds of artists involved it’s a commemoration to West Yorkshire and all the communities involved.
A participant at the stitch social, Emma Walsh said “You really get stuck into it, its exciting to think what the bigger picture will look like.”
“The fact it’s free to join and help create is what makes it so inclusive, absolutely anyone can come express themselves.”
The project allows people to learn a new skill and socialize with new groups that will be captured in a collabritve community venture.
The end result will be debuted alongside the other four at the WOVEN Festival 2027, packed with a variety of community contributions honoring the people of Leeds and celebrating what makes them, them!