 NETTLES may not be everyone's idea of the perfect clothing fabric - especially for underwear. But De Montfort University textile student Alex Dear designed her own lingerie from the plant we all try to avoid. The 23-year-old from Cambridge will model her pink camisole and knickers at the Royal Show in Warwickshire this weekend. Alex, who graduates from the Leicester-based university this summer, wrote a dissertation on the uses of nettle fibre as part of her Textile Design and Production degree. She said: "I investigated and tested the fibres and had the yarn made up. Just for fun I made the lingerie which I called nettle knickers." | 
