Textile Artist Allan Brown spent seven years making a dress by hand, using only the
fibre of locally foraged stinging nettles. This is ‘hedgerow couture’, the greenest of slow fashion and also his medicine.
It’s how he survives the death of his wife, which leaves him and their four children bereft, and how he finds a beautiful
way to honour her.
A modern-day fairy tale and hymn to the healing power of
nature, slow craft and textiles. His journey and process of creating the dress is being featured in THE NETTLE DRESS, a documentary
by Dylan Howitt (68 minutes/English with German subtitles) and discussed in the following Artist Talk with Allan Brown, hosted
by Karin Altmann (Department Textiles - Free, Applied and Experimental Artistic Design).
This event is
part of the INTRA project SPINNING STORIES - LIVING ARCHIVES at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.SPINNING
STORIES - LIVING ARCHIVES