Dress Poetics:
Detroit Edition
Always Tomorrow, Detroit
2 September to 4 October 2026
Hannah Maria Schmutterer
Artistic practice
The dress as a poetic and sculptural form.
Working across textiles, fashion, installation, performance, poetry, and publication, her practice considers the dress as a poetic and sculptural form through which she explores how femininity is socially constructed through folklore, material culture, and memory.
Explore the projects2026 to 2027
Current & upcoming
Dress Poetics:
Threads of Life
Kunstforum TU Darmstadt
1 November 2026 to 28 February 2027
Woman in Fairy Tale
Kunstforum TU Darmstadt
Performance details and dateTextile works
Working with found and self made garments, Schmutterer layers textile collages on the floor, sews them together by hand and stretches them over frames. Symbolically charged garments, including dirndls, nightgowns and princess dresses, connect cultural memory and childhood fantasy with ideas of femininity and the labour of making. The works move between painting, tapestry and quilt making.
Performance / Installation
Dress Poetics
Founded and curated by Hannah Maria Schmutterer, Dress Poetics connects textile art, fashion, literature and theory through exhibitions, artist led workshops and publications. Garments become forms of storytelling, exploring personal and collective experiences through textiles, sculpture, performance and writing.
Exhibitions & readings
Publications
Fashion
Teaching practice
Workshops & teaching
Hannah Maria Schmutterer’s teaching connects artistic practice with reflection on art, textiles and visual culture. Theory and practical experimentation inform one another, with a global perspective and equal attention to women artists.
Her teaching spans art education, university and community workshops.
Community workshops
Workshops
Hands on workshops with fabrics, sewing and garment making connect participants with artistic practice.
University workshops
Textiles as storytelling
At TU Darmstadt, Schmutterer’s workshops bring theoretical perspectives on the dress as an artistic medium into dialogue with practical textile work.
Participants work with fabrics and garments to develop their own material narratives.
School art education
Art in the classroom
Schmutterer has 3+ years of experience teaching art and continues to teach.
Art history and contemporary artistic positions are connected with students’ own practical work.
About
Art, research
& Dress Poetics
Hannah Maria Schmutterer is a German artist and PhD researcher at the Technical University of Darmstadt, where she investigates the dress (das Kleid) as a medium of artistic expression.
Working across textiles, fashion, installation, performance, poetry, and publication, her practice considers the dress as a poetic and sculptural form through which she explores how femininity is socially constructed through folklore, material culture, and memory.
She studied Fashion Design at the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin and Sculpture at the Royal College of Art in London, and is the founder and curator of the exhibition and publication project Dress Poetics.
Art & Research
Press · Articles & conversations
Shell of the Fairytale · Runner Detroit
Conversation with Hannah Maria Schmutterer and Isabella Nimmo, conducted by Ashley Cook · 13 September 2024.
The conversation explores the Detroit exhibition, the making of hand sewn textile works and the dress as a meeting point for folklore, memory and women’s histories of labour.
Read the conversation · Runner Detroit