Red Maxi V-Neck Dress

“11 artists, 2 continents, 3 countries, 8 states all connected by 1 dress.

 The journey of the red dress is a culmination of the creative hearts and minds of 11 talented women. Over the span of 1 year, the dress has quite literally seen history in the making. It is the thread connecting 11 lives around the world in a time when we are otherwise so incredibly isolated.” -Nicole Guido (Group Leader)

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Nicole Guido
Hope Mills, NC, USA
Instagram | Facebook | Website

“To me, this dress symbolizes beginnings and endings. I bought the dress in August of 2019 with the intent of shooting it while vacationing in California. But time got away from me and I ultimately sent it off to the next artist, planning to be the last to shoot. What I didn’t know at the time is that I was newly pregnant with our first child. Over the course of the next nine months and while I waited for the return of the dress and our impending new arrival, I said goodbye to my husband as he left for deployment and nervously watched the world plummet into isolation as a pandemic spread across the globe.

As we all navigated our “new normal”, I followed the dress as it continued on its journey - sometimes pausing for longer periods, where hope and creativity flourished alongside uncertainty.

In September of 2020, the dress arrived back to me. Opening the box, I felt nostalgic thinking about where this dress had been over the last year. How much had happened, how much had changed since that day I stood in the post office to mail it off. This dress has known me without a child, and it has known me with my 5-month-old son - so it seemed only fitting to take a photo of the two of us.”

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Erika Kao
Wyckoff, NJ, USA
Instagram | Website

"Everything I saw in this dress was sensual. The color, the texture. The way it hung to my curves, the way it moved when I moved. I wanted my photos to reflect that: the sensuality of a woman's body (the image of me on the floor), the sensuality in the curiosity about the unknown (the image of me that is out of focus), the sensuality of a really good meal consisting of a burger, fries, and a milkshake."

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Shannon O’Malley
Champlin, MN, USA
Instagram | Facebook | Website

"I got the Dress in the dead of winter. Fortunately, it was a bit of a warmer day (35). I grabbed my tripod and the blanket off my reading chair and thought it might make a Game of Thrones type look and headed out to the woods behind a local High School! Capturing self-portraits can always be a bit tricky, but I’m happy with what I got."

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Lori Pickins
Washington, WV, USA
Instagram | Website

"My main vision for my image was a shot taken on a cliffside with my DJI Mavic Air drone. There is an old abandon road that is no longer used, that has easy access but looks very rustic from the top. I loved the long shadow lines behind me, and the red of the dress added the perfect pop to the grassy cliff. It felt eerily strange to be on the side of a cliff all by yourself but oddly connected at the same time to this amazing group of women through this traveling dress.

I noticed this harsh light coming streaming into my bathroom as I was getting ready for my drone outing, and had to stop and take an image. Self-portraits can be so empowering, and I feel like this image embodies both the bright bold side of us that wants to stand out and be noticed, but also the shadowed side that feels more safe and afraid of the judgment that the light brings.

I still had the dress the next day and loved it so much, I decided to capture a quick and simple self-portrait with my son. I loved the vibrant red with an otherwise neutral gray color palette. The image was captured with my ice light with barn doors as a narrow light source. I always treasure images captured with my children, and I hope they are as special to them when they grow up."

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Tara Miller
West Kelowna, BC, Canada
Instagram | Facebook

"I think like many of us, I waited till the last minute to photograph myself wearing the dress. School had just started (grade 1) for my eldest, and neither of my kids was very keen on taking photos.

I have always prided myself on mostly taking selfies only if they included my kids, so them not being interested was a bit of a challenge for me. My youngest really hated wearing dresses. I would bribe and bribe her. She has a tremendously deep love of toys so it mostly worked out. However, in the past year, she has really decided that girl clothes aren't for her. She is only five years old but has been saying for some time now that she hates her beautiful curls and hates anything pink. Last December, about 2 months after these images were taken we began taking her seriously when she started saying things like "I hate myself", and "I hate my hair" etc...We finally allowed her to cut it short, as we feared for her mental health. I took her shopping for an outfit for her preschool Christmas party and allowed her to pick out the outfit of her choice-a pair of dress pants and a collared shirt, or "handsome shirt" as she likes to call it. Since then we have decided that she drives the bus. We still use feminine pronouns, because she hasn't told us otherwise, but her appearance looks much different than it did one year ago.

She started kindergarten this September, and things are uncertain, but one thing that IS certain is that we love and support her no matter what. This journey will not be made harder by her parents. We are, and always will be her soft place to fall."

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Suzi George
Valentine, NSW, Australia
Instagram

"My pictures were taken on a beautiful warm spring afternoon in the lakeside suburb of Valentine, NSW, Australia. I had the privilege of being the first in our group to wear the dress. I wanted to make sure that I captured some special moments between me and my boys because I knew that once the dress had made its’ way around the world, it would be so much bigger.

Now, over a year later, I cherish these beautiful memories. We no longer live in the home we did when we captured these photos; so the little reserve at the end of the street, where these images were captured, is now a precious memory frozen in time. That is the power of photography, and I’ll always appreciate that I took the time out of my busy schedule, to create these memories with my boys."

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April Vargas
Savannah, GA, USA
Instagram

"Participating in this project was such an incredible experience. It wasn't just about the dress, it's about connection and sisterhood, bringing our tribe together even if we're so far away. We all come from different paths, but we all have a longing to be a part of each other's experiences and journeys. After spending my time with the dress and then sending it on its travels, I imagined where it would go and how it would inspire the next artist/woman just like it did for me. For me, the empowerment of the dress came from knowing that we all envision our creation differently, but we're all still connected to this piece of fabric."

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Shannon Douglas
Spanaway, WA, USA
Instagram

“I chose the PNW beach for my images with the dress because it reminds me so much of who I want to be as a woman. Untamed, unyielding, and unapologetic. Sharing this dress with the other creative woman was such an honor. This project has helped me feel connected to fellow photographers all over the world and I am grateful to have been a part of it.”