Textiles Design team developing nettle fabrics for catwalks
Dr Matthew Horne, Research Fellow within the Faculty of Art and Design, is leading a team from the Textiles Design department to develop commercially viable fabrics produced from stinging nettles. Working with a nettle farm near Desford, agricultural scientist Dr Horne and the Sting project team have been blending nettle with other fabrics on a "top secret" project to develop new textiles for clothes.
Dr Horne said: "[Nettles] have a key technical feature that enables them to be blended with other fibres and gives the fabrics that are produced from that a very special property. We are one of only a few places in the EU...to develop this idea. The crop requires very low inputs. It does not require any pesticides, it does not require the high levels of fertilisers that things like cotton may."
In 2004, student Alex Dear also developed lingerie she had designed, using nettle-based fabrics.
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