A chapter in Clare Hunter’s new book Making Matters explores the surprising history of dress up dolls. Very few celebrities or notorieties have escaped having a paper doll avatar and their accompanying wardrobe created in their honour: Russian revolutionaries, famous artists, literary greats and the stars of screen and stage. Now we are inviting you to devise an outfit for our very own Artistic Director, Alan Cumming. With Clare’s help, you can recreate his back catalogue of fabulous and flamboyant costumes and clothes or dream up something new and dazzling. 

Clare Hunter has been a community textile artist, banner maker and textile curator for over twenty years and established the award-winning community sewing enterprise NeedleWorks in Glasgow in the 1980s. Threads of Life: the History of the World through the Eye of a Needle, was her first book. It was warmly received, reaching The Sunday Times Bestseller List, chosen as Waterstone’s Book of the Month in Scotland and BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week and becoming joint winner of the Saltire Award for First Book. Her second book, Embroidering her Truth: Mary, Queen of Scots and the Language of Power, was published in March 2022, reached the Scottish Books Bestseller list and was an inspiration for Dior’s 2024 Cruise Collection in Scotland.  

Make the most of your visit…