The Nettle Dress

Textile artist Allan Brown spends seven years making a dress by hand from foraged stinging nettles, all picked on the South Downs near Brighton. This is ‘hedgerow couture’, the greenest of slow fashion. It’s also his medicine, the way he survives the death of his wife that left him and his four children bereft. Beautifully filmed by award-winning documentary maker Dylan Howitt, The Nettle Dress follows Allan along the whole seven-year journey. The challenge of making near zero carbon clothing sourced within a few miles of his home means re-learning ancient crafts and recalls Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale ‘Wild Swans’. From early experiments making nettle thread, through foraging, processing, spinning, weaving and cutting the cloth. Finally, a vision of the dress back in the woods where the nettles were picked, worn by one of his daughters.