Born into a pretty conservative, “bougie” Haitian family, jeans with rips in them even deliberately were always frowned upon. My love of anything destroyed, especially denim runs oh so deep that I wonder if I was adopted. Yes, I love my ripped jeans as much as my mother and grandmother (Rest In Peace) hate them.
Here’s a little ditty about Jacqueline and Vivie (my grandma): My godfather (RIP) came to visit my grandmother in Haiti with a pair of very expensive, designer jeans with tons of distressing. My grandmother took one look at him and immediately was saddened. She asked him: “Are you having money problems? Is this why you cannot afford clothes that aren’t torn?”. He tried to explain to her they were the style and that he had money but her head could not wrap around the fact that he purposely wanted to have holes and tears in his clothes. Being the wonderfully stubborn person she was, Vivie made sure that she took him shopping for “appropriate” clothing lol. Whenever I used to see her and I was wearing jeans with rips or holes, she would always question me and almost always stick her finger in the hole and try to make it bigger. I swear she wanted to further destroy them so they were inappropriate for further wear. Oh man do I miss her but sharing some of these little stories certainly helps!
Back to the post though…….
I have never been one to like anything too neat and perfect. I don’t like hair all in place, I prefer a nice tousled look. I do not like to match shoes and bag. I like to wear colors that typically would not go together and I love holes and distressing on almost anything. I like my clothing to tell a bit of a story even if sometimes a heavily scripted one. Like these grey ones of mine.
I buy almost all of my skinny jeans from H&M. I just love them! They are stretchy enough for my ample thighs and perfectly priced for my skinny wallet.
But for distressed jeans they often charge an extra fee. As in their jeans are usually a good 10-15 dollars more. Um, I have scissors and the internet. Quick perusal of YouTube and I can distress with the best or worst of them.
So I cut holes in these jeans and I snipped off the bottom hem. Why? Cause the day I was wearing them, they looked too darn neat for my liking. Although these are not the best material for this (too stretchy), I think they turned out ok.
Summer is the perfect time to whip out your cut off shorts and heavily distressed denim and these DIY links are the best in showing you the best ways to achieve professional results at home!
How to Distress Your Jeans the MADEWELL Way
Song of Style: Distressed Jeans
Coat: Anne Klein | Sweatshirt: Hanes | Jeans: H&M | Printed Pumps: Nine West | Crossbody as a fanny pack: Ella Rue | Sunglasses: eBay
“They are stretchy enough for my ample thighs and perfectly priced for my skinny wallet.”
LOL! I love it. I want to work on some DIY denim jeans and shorts soon. Just gotta find the time to hit the thrift store. Thanks for the links to tutorials.
heehee!