Join us for the full open day experience or choice of evening activities...

Meet the makers at a regenerative farm growing textiles

Join us on Friday 18th September at Henbant Farm in North Wales, for an immersive Sustainable Fashion Week farm tour and open day exploring clothing through the lens of permaculture. Clothing Ecology™ means redressing our soils and ourselves by growing textiles. This year we're growing flax and indigo with the aim of producing the first Henbant Permaculture Cloth.

Experience permaculture, harvest indigo to take home, practise natural fibre and dye skills, share a seasonal farm-to-fork meal, and take part in an experiment that collectively imagines how the clothes we wear might regenerate the places we live. The day includes screenings of The Nettle Dress and Woman Grows Jeans, followed by a rare opportunity to meet both creators, Allan Brown and Justine Aldersey-Williams, for an open conversation about the future of agroecological clothing, craft and communities.

Summer Cinema Double Bill at Henbant

Justine and Allan having been teaching collaboratively since 2022, when the first iteration of Justine's Clothing Ecology™ (Growing Slow Textiles) was offered as part of the Homegrown Homespun community project with Patrick Grant and the British Textile Biennial. Although their work began for different reasons, they share a love of slow, pre-industrial textile crafts and a common question: What would clothing look like if it emerged from justice rather than exploitation? Where others talk about sustainable fashion, they practice and share hands-on regenerative clothing skills having produced entirely homegrown, handcrafted garments. After 5 years teaching together online, this will be the first time they've met in person!

Allan Brown is a textile artist whose extraordinary seven-year journey to create a dress entirely by hand from the fibre of locally foraged nettles is the subject of the acclaimed documentary The Nettle Dress. Following the death of his wife, Alex, what began as an ambitious experiment in making low-carbon, hyper-local clothing became an act of devotion, healing and remembrance. Through foraging, processing, spinning, weaving and sewing, Allan relearned ancient textile skills while demonstrating that clothing can emerge directly from the landscapes around us. His work is both deeply personal and quietly radical, revealing slow craft as a pathway to regeneration, resilience and reconnection with the living world.

Justine Aldersey-Williams is a regenerative clothing activist, botanical dye educator and founder of the Northern England Fibreshed. Her documentary Woman Grows Jeans follows a four year journey to grow, spin, dye, weave and make the UK's first fully homegrown pair of jeans. She transformed an ambitious community experiment into a powerful exploration of what it means to reconnect clothing with land, local skills and regional economies. Through her work with The Wild Dyery, Homegrown Colour and the Fibreshed movement, Justine champions regenerative textile systems rooted in local fibres, local dyes and local labour, demonstrating that fashion can become a catalyst for ecological restoration, cultural renewal and community resilience.

The Full Day Experience - Timetable

12pm-1pm: Arrivals and the café will be open for a 'farm to fork' home-cooked lunch with your cohort

4pm-5pm: Envisage a regenerative future with a relaxing Earth Rest

7pm-8:30pm: Screening of The Nettle Dress plus Q&A with Allan

1pm-2pm: Intro to Clothing Ecology and farm tour with Justine and Henbant owner, Matt Swarbrick

5pm-6pm: Woman Grows Jeans film screening plus Q&A with Justine

8:30pm-9pm: Open conversation between Allan, Justine and the audience

2pm-4pm: Fibre and dye skill-sharing taster session with indigo harvesting and linen bracelet twining

6pm-7pm: 'Farm to fork' dinner from Henbant's permaculture produce

9pm-onwards: Option to stay in one of Henbant's hobbit houses or campsite

📸: Raw Photography, Josh Taylor Photography, Tim Barclay, Jonathan Tomlinson ORFC, Henbant Permaculture and Justine Aldersey-Williams

simply choose between

The Full Experience 1pm-9pm

SUPPORTER TICKET

enabling low income access

✅ Intro to Clothing Ecology

 

✅ Permaculture Farm Tour

 

✅ Fibre & Dye Skills Taster

 

✅ Earth Rest Vision Quest

 

✅ Woman Grows Jeans Film + Maker Q&A

 

✅ Farm to Fork Dinner

 

✅ The Nettle Dress Film + Maker Q&A

 

✅ Clothing Ecology Open Conversation

 

✅ Enable Access for someone on low income

 
£95
THANK YOU!

STANDARD TICKET

for those on average income

✅ Intro to Clothing Ecology

 

✅ Permaculture Farm Tour

 

✅ Fibre & Dye Skills Taster

 

✅ Earth Rest Vision Quest

 

✅ Woman Grows Jeans Film + Maker Q&A

 

✅ Farm to Fork Dinner

 

✅ The Nettle Dress Film + Maker Q&A

 

✅ Clothing Ecology Open Conversation

 

❌ Enable Access for someone on low income

 
£85

SUPPORTED TICKET

for those on low income

✅ Intro to Clothing Ecology

 

✅ Permaculture Farm Tour

 

✅ Fibre & Dye Skills Taster

 

✅ Earth Rest Vision Quest

 

✅ Woman Grows Jeans Film + Maker Q&A

 

✅ Farm to Fork Dinner

 

✅ The Nettle Dress Film + Maker Q&A

 

✅ Clothing Ecology Open Conversation

 

❌ Enable Access for someone on low income

 
£75

Film Double Bill + Dinner 5pm-9pm

SUPPORTER TICKET

enabling low income access

✅ Woman Grows Jeans Film + Maker Q&A

 

✅ Farm to Fork Dinner

 

✅ The Nettle Dress Film + Maker Q&A

 

✅ Clothing Ecology Open Conversation

 

✅ Enable Access for someone on low income

 
£45
THANK YOU!

STANDARD TICKET

for those on average income

✅ Woman Grows Jeans Film + Maker Q&A

 

✅ Farm to Fork Dinner

 

✅ The Nettle Dress Film + Maker Q&A

 

✅ Clothing Ecology Open Conversation

 

❌ Enable Access for someone on low income

 
£40

SUPPORTED TICKET

for those on low income

✅ Woman Grows Jeans Film + Maker Q&A

 

✅ Farm to Fork Dinner

 

✅ The Nettle Dress Film + Maker Q&A

 

✅ Clothing Ecology Open Conversation

 

❌ Enable Access for someone on low income

 
£35

The Nettle Dress Film + Q&A 7pm-9pm

SUPPORTER TICKET

enabling low income access

✅ The Nettle Dress Film + Maker Q&A

 

✅ Clothing Ecology Open Conversation

 

✅ Enable Access for someone on low income

 
£10
THANK YOU!

STANDARD TICKET

for those on average income

✅ The Nettle Dress Film + Maker Q&A

 

✅ Clothing Ecology Open Conversation

 

❌ Enable Access for someone on low income

 
£8

SUPPORTED TICKET

for those on low income

✅ The Nettle Dress Film + Maker Q&A

 

✅ Clothing Ecology Open Conversation

 

❌ Enable Access for someone on low income

 
£6

Current Clothing Ecology Students: join us for dinner and our evening activities HERE

Learn more about our Clothing Ecology™ Class of 2026

This year's students began growing their own flax fibre and indigo dye back in March. To see the curriculum they're working through, you can read more about Clothing Ecology™ by clicking an image below ⬇

Will you become a Clothing Ecologist™ next year? Join us to find out more by choosing...

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