Trend Direction: RIPPING AND SHREDDING

May 23, 2016 Jill Lawrence

Vintage - Ripping and shredding

Replica vintage Mexican boots. Rusted and degraded decoration and old leather thonging. Look great with bare legs and shorts. They are for sale in the Finds section

vintage denim and striped kimono missing sleeves Square.jpg

vintage original denim kimono no sleeves.JPG

A real vintage denim kimono. Sleeves have been removed sometime in the past and it shows some signs of wear but this adds to its charm.

A pure natural indigo striped throw showing some signs of wear which adds to the charm of the piece. Can be worn as a chunky scarf or used as a throw.

Behind the Scenes: COTTON YARN FOR DENIM

May 19, 2016 Jill Lawrence

Originally denim jeans were made from 100% cotton and in spite of jeans now containing other fibres the main component is still cotton.

After the cotton processes, the cotton is then spun on an open end or a ring frame. The latter creating a superior quality yarn.

These little drawings give a birds eye view of the spinning and warping processes which are magnified in the photographs.

The above drawing depicts an open end spinning frame whilst the photograph shows a modern ring spinning frame capable of producing thousand of spindles per day. A small denim plant can manufacture around 20 million yards of denim per annum and a big plant up to 120 million. Therefore such mass cotton spinning is very much required for today's mass manufacturing requirement.

Over the coming weeks we will share some of the old denim making processes which were much more of a craft than those of today.

Workers in Pakistan going home after a day in the factories. A colourful local scene in Lahore.

Cotton and denim is delivered in heavily decorated trucks in Pakistan. Each driver takes great pride in his truck paying artisans to personalise the truck under his watchful eye.

Trend Direction: RIPPING AND SHREDDING

May 16, 2016 Jill Lawrence

Close Up - Distressed and Shredding

Old holed indigo rough cotton sweater. Looks more cool with damage than without.

Super hairy cut loop effect. Controlled fraying in chenille ridges looks like a knit. Strips of denim sewn together, all frayed creates a crazy unusual look.

Even sewn together as a giant herringbone effect serves as inspiration.

Trend Direction: RIPPING AND SHREDDING

May 12, 2016 Jill Lawrence

Wear It - Ripping and shredding

Worn and torn areas on jackets are harder to pass off as heavy duty wear but when carefully placed they can take on the attitude of a design.

Collage ©TheDenimEye2016. Individual images (top-bottom) ©the-wunderkind.tumblr.com, ?, ©le21eme.com

How to fringe denim : Slice up in equal thin strips about ½ cm-1cm wide from the hem of your skirt or waistcoat to approx. 10 cms. Keep it neat and clean. Machine a line of stitching across the top of the fringe line to prevent tearing. Trim the fringes straightacross the bottom.

How to fray denim : Cut across the weft of the fabric. Shred away the weft threads from the warp to the desired length of fraying. To prevent any further fraying machine stitch across the top of the frayed edge and heated with scissors across the bottom of the frayed edge.

Collage ©TheDenimEye2016 . Individual Images (top-bottom) ©tokyofashion.com, ©tommyton.tumblr.com, ©dazeddigital.com/Philip Trengove

Below are some great high street and high end examples of the trend.

American Eagle £29

Naked and Famous

Denim & Supply, Ralph Lauren

Open up bigger holes at the knees and thighs of oversized worn jeans to show your skinny legs beneath. Only use non stretch jeans for such style modifications. Even cut larger chunks of denim instead of shredding the weft away from the warp threads.

Commercially available examples of the trend. All are simple and wearable and more discrete than some previous examples. Just click on the image to access their sites.

Zara £39.99

Abercrombie & Fitch £150

Zara £39.99

Trend Direction: RIPPING AND SHREDDING

May 10, 2016 Jill Lawrence

Close Up - Super Distressing

Cobweb layers. Gossamer muslin ripped and layered over plain and striped denim completed with over stitching for added intrigue. A bit too much in my opinion but in a simple Japanese style such an effect could look interesting.

Heavily ripped throughout the front legs of this jean. May be a bit aggressive but in combination with the heavy stonewash in a mens style it looks pretty good especially for a summer season beach side casual look.

Below is an equally distressed and destroyed front of jean but the difference here is that each destroyed area has been backed with a darker denim shade. If this were to be done at home you need to make sure that the weight of the denim is similar to that of the jean and if it is stretch that the stretch is of a similar extension to that of the jean itself.

A creative interpretation of ripping with resination and heavy tinting around the edges of the rips. In combination with some interesting repair and patching the effect is a more expensive and creative result.

Trend Direction : RIPPING AND SHREDDING

May 5, 2016 Jill Lawrence

Close up - Ripping and shredding

Worn out and worn in. Warp threads are cut to partially reveal the body beneath. Stained and tinted to increase the aspect of age. Although the areas of ripping and shredding may seem random they are in fact carefully selected to work with the shape of the jean and the attitude of the brand or wearer.

Threadbare - frayed use of clean cotton or old tinted weft - hand stitching, age worn burnt edges. Double cloth is torn to reveal the reverse side or to create its own pattern.

HOW TO: Take a razor blade, cut through the warp threads on the surface. Wash to fluff the cotton and cut off unwanted threads. This should leave weft threads visible but no gaping hole. If a gaping hole is required then cut throughout the weft threads as well. You may have to machine stitch around the sedges of a complete hole to prevent further tearing in the weft direction.

TREND: Ripping and Shredding

May 2, 2016 Jill Lawrence

Hand-made, hand-destroyed, torn and shredded. Make every item unique. Show the torn edges, and the body beneath. Layered pigmented textures, nubby yarns and drawn threads create added texture. Deconstructed frayed jeans combined with a frayed artisan scarf edge is a feature - a scarf for the legs. No longer is ripping and shredding regarded as ugly or tatty, it is now an artistic creative take on the worn-in appeal of the jean. The DIY jean makes a personal lasting statement in a world of fast "off the shelf" fashion.