The phenomenon of collapse assumes significance in the geotechnical engineering applications such as earth dams and highway and railway embankments as the compacted soils in these applications are susceptible to wetting-induced failures. Therefore, the present study focuses to understand the influence of placement conditions and vertical stress on the wetting-induced collapse behaviour of compacted red soil through series of single oedometer collapse tests. The loading–collapse (LC) curves of compacted red soil for different dry unit weights were established over a large range of matric suctions in order to analyse the experimental results in the context of Barcelona basic model (BBM) elasto-plastic framework and also the experimental results were supported using the concept of LC curves defined in the BBM framework. The experimental results showed a path-dependent relationship of collapse potential with the water content at a given dry unit weight and vertical stress. The position of LC curves of the compacted specimens with respect to the wetting path illustrated a decrease in the soil collapse with the increase in dry unit weight. Thus the present experimental results demonstrate that the BBM framework aids in predicting the nature of volume change and the point of maximum collapse.