International Women's Day / Red Dress Project

To celebrate International Women’s Day, Bradley Stoke Town Council (councillors and staff) are working with Southern Brooks to organise an innovative textile project (working with local schools and community groups across the area) to produce pieces of embroidery which can be sewn onto a red dress.

The local Red Dress Project is based on the model used for the worldwide community development approach to produce ‘The Red Dress’ (see website). The founder of the worldwide Red Dress project, Kirstie Macleod will be a guest speaker at our launch event.

The photos below were taken by Councillor Natalie Field when the Red Dress was at Tyntesfield:

The year-long project was launched at our International Women's Day event which took place on Friday 8th March 2024 from 6.30 – 8.30pm in Bradley Stoke Community School. This first main event is the start of the red dress project in the area and it is anticipated that work will be carried out on the dress throughout 2024 culminating with a finale event in March 2025. The format for the launch event has had the themes of past, present and future and involved a local choir, singers and inspirational speakers.

In order to be sustainable we initially tried repurposing/recycling a pre-loved dress and dyeing it red (see photos taken by Councillor Natalie Field below). However, this was unfortunately unsuccessful and so we would like to thank Chris from Bradley Stoke Sew N Sos who stepped in at the very last moment and made us an amazing red dress of our own.

This project has received funding from South Gloucestershire Council through their Member Awarded Funding scheme. Councillor Ben Randles (Bradley Stoke South Ward) awarded £700, and Councillor Sam Scott (Charlton & Cribbs Ward) awarded £250.

Event Programme (may be subject to change)

Website: Southern Brooks