We've used nettles in cooking concoctions and in moisturising creams over the years. It might be time to dig out the weeds for our wardrobes, again. Soon enough, we might be wearing the nuisance that was, nettles, close to our skin.
Do not fear! Nettle fabric is extracted from the phloem - the stalk of the plant, making it a fabric that's softer and more durable than cotton.
Nettles provide a sustainable alternative to cotton as their growth rate and low maintenance qualities require minimal amounts of water and no pesticides, much like its relation of the bast fibre family - hemp. Nettles also thrive in the poorest of soil (with an added benefit of feeding nutrients back into the soil it grows in) while attracting an array of wildlife to the area.
Much like hemp - will the benefits of nettle be squandered?
The use of nettle for textiles isn't a new idea; it dates back 2,000 years, it was most popular in Victorian times. When cotton arrived in the 16th Century, nettle lost its popularity, (cotton was easier to harvest and spin, too) dwindling the amount of other fibrous resource use. Nettles made a brief comeback in the First World War when Germany suffered a cotton shortage.
To this day, existing problems in the agricultural sector seek the need for alternative crops. Although, this time around, the concern about environmental damage caused by cotton is the driving force for alternative fibre manufacture and use.
DID YOU KNOW? The juice of nettle leaves and stem have been used over centuries to make a permanent green dye, while a yellow dye can be made by boiling the roots.
There haven't been many nettle textile products being made and procured in recent years, although there are a fine few in this generation who are causing a revival of this useful weed. This includes Netl - a Dutch fashion label. 'Netl is a quintessentially Dutch, fashion forward label. Not only the designs are avant garde and pure: the intractability of Netl starts with the material. ... The warm, colorful knitwear is a blend of cotton and nettle.' ~ Netl, translated 'About' page
To this day, existing problems in the agricultural sector seek the need for alternative crops. Although, this time around, the concern about environmental damage caused by cotton is the driving force for alternative fibre manufacture and use.
DID YOU KNOW? The juice of nettle leaves and stem have been used over centuries to make a permanent green dye, while a yellow dye can be made by boiling the roots.
There haven't been many nettle textile products being made and procured in recent years, although there are a fine few in this generation who are causing a revival of this useful weed. This includes Netl - a Dutch fashion label. 'Netl is a quintessentially Dutch, fashion forward label. Not only the designs are avant garde and pure: the intractability of Netl starts with the material. ... The warm, colorful knitwear is a blend of cotton and nettle.' ~ Netl, translated 'About' page
Netl knitwear is made from a blend of 75% cotton and 25% nettle yarns - making use of our new advances in spinning technologies and cross-breeding capabilities.
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| Netl is a quintessentially Dutch, fashion forward label |
The research staff at DeMontfort University in Leicester, UK are also pushing nettle fashions forward by eliminating the use of toxic chemicals in processing the fiber and breeding varieties of the plant that render even softer textiles. They have discovered a method of using enzymes for dissolving the lignin, a glue-like substance that makes plant stems sturdy, in order to extract the fibers to use for spinning into yarn. The university researchers have partnered up with furnishing textile producer Camira in a venture called STING: Sustainable Technologies in Nettle Growing. ~ EcoSalon
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Many new technologies are emerging to tackle the environmental issues of the fashion industry, although the current reinvention of the nettle reminds us that we can also learn lessons from the past.
