Trashion - Recent Vintage 90s grunge

New/old grunge combines with beautifully contrived designs creating exciting mixes of texture, colour, shape and destruction.   All with more than just a nod to our enduring need for high Brands, sport brands and their fashion identity.

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Why not write stories and proclaim messages on our everyday clothing?  Wear thoughts on our sleeves and ripped up designer legs?   Tear and fray holes mended with recognisable brand fabric or imagery.

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Classic garments fall victim to the grunge trend - 90's bomber jackets are reinvented in coloured denims complete with ripped authenticity. The belted trench in fake flocked fur.  One of the highest fashion exponent of this trend is the super Junya Watanabe, being the original creator behind the use of tartan and denim in new and exciting ways.

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Sport meets street with Branding a feature.  Mix brands and fuse their identity and messages. Even combine brands to create a new identity and use for both.  Combine fabrics, shapes and sizes creating a revival of flea market fashion.

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The written messages and icons carved into pigment add many dollars as well as fresh excitement to a classic denim garment.  Fleece, hoodies and mixed fabrics  characterise the street fashion revival that is regarded as recent vintage.

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Gothic revival, meets classic Tartan = super exciting.  Combine also the dynamic of clean sport brands and what we get now is a new wave of high and recycled anti fashion the results have  "must have" quality.

Trashion - Rough and Tumble

So, lets look at finishing of denim and garment outside the realms of tearing them apart.   This means adding colour and worn in attitude stopping short of destruction.

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What we try to achieve is a garment finish that begs the question - am I an original or a beautiful replica?  We employ myriad techniques before dry or wet tumbling of 3D creasing, crushing, tagging, finishing garment edges with grinding and finally zinc oxide tinting and bleaching at strategic points of the garment.   Sometimes even experts are fooled!

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Unusual textured denim forms a perfect base to create a real worn in vintage garment.  Although the 3x1 twill is the original denim fabric followed by the 2x1 lighter variant, piques and dobbies can be made to achieve the appearance of old miners' worn out clothing having become much coveted gender neutral garments in today's world of vintage denim hounds.

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Iron oxide finish techniques achieve the original appearance of dirty denim - we take this to a higher creative level of actually burring holes in the garment as well as emulating the effects of scorch marks with black dye or holes to reveal orange weft looking like scorched holes.

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Super creative garmenting design with old or new jeans creates new styles, helped by the use of all the rough and tumble, colouring and bleaching effects available to our experimental drive.

 Lets use the jean in another context - it's fun, it's denim, it's Trashion!

Trashion - Wear it, Tear it, Rip and Repair it

Tearing and shredding is incorporated into fashion jeans as part of a new original design not just to emulate vintage but to create fresh originality using denim as the vehicle.   No other fabric looks as good frayed and destroyed as denim.  Shapes are wide to allow the shredded threads rooms to breathe.

Composite Image ©TheDenimEye L: Demi Denims

Head to toe denim has never had it so good.  Each piece having a life of its own due to post make creative finishing.  

Strategically placed laddered holes combine with pigment printed messages and laser finish effects. Mix and layer the effects of destruction and message.

Centre: ©Christopher Shannon Right ©Xander Zhou

Bleach plays a big part in this new ripping and repairing trend which helps to take Trashion into top end fashion with a price tag to match.  The cost of destruction finish is as much if not more than the cost of the original garment itself..

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Luxe repairing with lacing, zippers and bleach patched holes combine with old crinkle effect denims. New and old effectively mix as well as 80's black with indigo combo.

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Worn out faded vintage ticking stripes plus brilliant indigo patched real vintage jacket are worn with pride alongside massive engineered holes with grinding at edges to prevent haphazard fraying. Stripes both old and new are enjoying another day in the sun.

L-R: ©Brain & Beast, ©James Long, ©Christian Dada

By contrast geometric patching and piecing and Mondrian image pigment printing plus crazy messages have become a part of Trashion shifting the trend into a more strictly contrived and less down at heel style.

Trend Alert: Trashion

Anti Fashion=fashion=Trashion

Take the jean and trash it.  Ripping and shredding continues to fascinate.   Accompanied by bleach and paint splashes we use our jeans as a canvas to create our own image.

Composite Image ©TheDenimEye, Front Left ©Fear of God

The denim underneath is masked by surface activity but it is the old style vintage crackle open end denim looks that are most appropriate for our blank canvas.    Rigid non stretch denims are the best canvas for destruction - simple cotton with no lycra threads shred more naturally. 

Trash fashion is old vintage with attitude.   We have fallen in love with old denim and jeans, they are pre-loved, they have history which manifests itself through the rips, tears , fades and tints.   Replicating the originals is where today's Trashion began but now we have taken it to new levels of destruction.  Massive holes barely held together by loose threads creative bleaching has given new life to dark jeans.  Tints will change the original colour of the jean or make it look dirty and well used.

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Creative patching has achieved a life of its own bearing no relation to any holes beneath.  Use different colours of denim or contrast fabric and threads - add rips on top - keep layering - keep adding interest.  Create your own personal craft jeans.   

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Make shredding a feature of a simple denim shape - both indigo warp and white weft threads combine to create a sustainable  "fur" appearance.  Embellishment and creative destruction supports  huge businesses with many success stories from small time creators alongside the great brands such as Levi' customised tailoring.

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90's Grunge reappears mixed with iconic brand identities such as here The Adidas three stripe creates a new sport/street vibe.  Art School attitude of old 70's flares plus paint splattered silk and black leather achieves a casual bohemian attitude. 

Rodeo influences On - THE NOW

Lariat ties and decorated yokes - a fresh new trend from the label But a. The Designer is Arthur Yates.

©toga

Toga brand has amazing examples of fringed yokes, lariat ties, narrowed hem jeans and decorative cowboy boots.  The shirts are a must have item, hard to choose which.

Antonio Marras and Victoria Beckham are right on trend with symmetrically matching yoke decoration in sumptuous fabrics taking the Rodeo look into the couture arena.

©Gucci

... and of course inevitable Gucci does it best of all with over decoration and individual pieces that would enhance any wardrobe.  This Western black trucker jacket decorated with buttons, studs, rivets and sequins, this may be over the top but still a must have piece.

Bohemia

The decorated waistcoat and jeans evolved to include more fringing and braces for girls as well as cowboys. The indian influence becomes apparent with braiding of leather and hair shifting the original Rodeo concept to a Bohemian western look.

©Current Elliot A Denim Story

Rodeo and Rock n Roll evolved from a prescriptive way of dressing to a more Bohemian relaxed spirit. The Poncho once a garment with essentially practical origins became and now is a cover up with decorative opportunities.  Teamed with well worn jeans the original poncho was an essential now of course we customise the ripping and repairing of the denim and create wonders in creative weaving for the once essential cover up  which is now a statement of casual chic.

©Denim From Cowboy to Catwalk

The worn and torn jeans that cowboys originally took for granted as their daily jeans we now re-create for a Bohemian vibe.  Both in shorts and jeans of every fit and shape. 

©Current Elliot A Denim Story

Relaxed styles in denim and work inspired oversized shapes demonstrate just how far indigo denim has evolved since the days of the original Rock n Roll Rodeo.  Then the wearers of the on trend shirts and jackets at the time thought they were supremely casual and daring, particularly the girls, now however the relaxed and casual has taken on a whole new attitude.  Less decoration more destroyed. Less buttoned up, more oversized and free.

L-R ©Current Elliot A Denim Story, ©Mih

Work inspiration for denims from Current Elliot and pretty floaty dresses from MiH jeans for the more feminine look.

©Mih

MiH jeans twists the concept into original 70's inspired denims and shirts.  The Western influence with a dash of fitted Rodeo remains with overtones of youthful simplicity.

Rodeo Romance

Macho and grungy rancher guys in dirty denims contrast with the girly and the feminine- the demure frilled dress.   Inspiration comes from the early cowboy and gunslinger movies.  Whilst the rancher denims do not change the girls attire has a distinct 40's flavour.

©Little, D. (2007). Denim. 1st ed. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Pub. Ltd. ©Current, E., Elliott, M. and Walsh, H. (n.d.). A denim story. 1st ed.

Shorts, bib n brace with nipped waisted shirts accessorised with the ubiquitous cowboy hat and high boots.    The rodeo was a venue where macho man was pursued by sexy cowgirl.   

©Lhote, Gilles, and Christian Audigier. Jeans Des Héros. 1st ed. Paris: Editions Lincoln, 1992. Print. ©Current, E., Elliott, M. and Walsh, H. (n.d.). A denim story. 1st ed.

Girls versions of the Rodeo waistcoat combined with high waisted "Mom" jeans and original cowboy boots look as modern now as they appeared then.  Revivals of both items look enviably fresh. These influences on the "NOW" can be viewed later in the Rock n Roll Rodeo segment.

©StellaMcCartney

Our favourite Stella uses these original inspirations to create a fresh take on the Rodeo Romance.  Emphasis on the yoke and symmetrical decoration completed with the all important studding and rhinestone decoration.

Rock 'n' Roll

Rock n Roll being a flamboyant music style needed garments that were expressionist in equal measure.

Studs and applied decoration originally on Rodeo denims became essential onto rock leathers.

©The Black Leather Jacket

From Denim wearing rock legend Elvis the look morphed into trucker jackets and jeans in black leather.

©Denim from Cowboys to Catwalks

Stars such as Elvis spawned a black leather fashion trend that was in its infancy jeans style.

From rockers in leather evolved the punk black leather rock movement.  Decoration on both garment and body, tattooing and body piercing

©Denim From Cowboys to catwalks, ©Deadwood

Black rocker denims followed their jeans ancestors into anti establishment statements.