Trend Direction: FESTIVAL

Close Up - Decoration

Folk appliqué, embroidery and delicate decoration onto dark denim. Burnt out leaf structure could be a tonal bleached print onto mid shade indigo enhancing the wash out abilities of the indigo dye.

©TheDenimEye2016

Mexicana embroidery onto worn out vintage denims.

©TheDenimEye2016

©TheDenimEye2016

Exotic printed florals onto worn out denims. giant flowers plus rough denims create a tension of opposites with added interest of weft shredding.

©TheDenimEye2016

Frieda Kahlo style Mexican florals pigment printed onto denims.  Make your own artistry using acrylic pigment paints on yesterday's denims.

Gold pigment looks more Boho than luxe when combined with scraped and worn-in areas.

Trend Direction: FESTIVAL

Close Up - Patched

Pieced and patched indigo boyfriend jeans from Egome - hand stitched patching with stripes placed inside the jeans and lined with natural lace are enhanced by scrape and spray finish.  All this can be achieved at home using whatever contrast fabrics you have to hand.

©TheDenimEye2016

Crazy creative Wrangler jeans pocket from the 70's. The Jean is a 2x1 real vintage twill and the pocket is a retro mix of hand woven plastic and denim enhanced by heavy stone wash to highlight the seamed weave.  The woven plastic looks like the formica patterns from the 50's.

Hand embroidered MiH jacket designed and made exclusively for Selfridges Denim Studio, London.  Light blue bleached out indigo embellished with graduated blues is refreshingly sunny after all the dark trends from fall winter.

©TheDenimEye2016

Hand embroidered patched MiH boyfriend jeans.  The lightweight denim is vintage ring spun with a slight aged tint which when combined with the Navaho style decoration is spot on for the summer trend.  Comfort with high style.

Trend Direction: FESTIVAL

Close Up - Whitewash

Painted or sprayed with white pigment onto dark denims.  Haphazard brush marks can be abstract or representational.

Apply thickly using quick strokes for the background and more precise for the motifs.

©TheDenimEye2016

Coat the whole of the denim piece with white pigment; rub off excess with a cloth and score into the heaviest coated areas with a sharp edged implement.  Wait to dry before adding another layer or wearing.

©TheDenimEye2016

Easy to do yourself by hand - don't overdo the pigment painted areas otherwise the garment will become too stiff.

Very lightly coated or brushed over the surface to give the appearance of white stains and raindrops.

©TheDenimEye2016

Abstract and haphazard splashing and spraying above evolves to hand stencilled flowers on these Abercrombie short ankle flares below.  Right on trend.

Abercrombie High Rise Ankle Flare £88

Trend Direction: FESTIVAL

Free Spirit Jeanswear. New Age traveller and open air concert goer promoting personal expression of complete freedom.  Vintage denims in 3x1 and 2x1 constructions with real authentic attitude for flares and boyfriend styles, patched and pieced with up-cycled old denims to include hand crafted decoration for the personal touch.

©TheDenimEye2016

©TheDenimEye2016

©TheDenimEye2016

Frayed, faded and decorated with exotic flowers

Trend Direction : RIPPING AND SHREDDING

 Wear It  -  Ripping and Shredding  

Oversized mid weight Paige denim shirt artificially "aged" with holes, rips and shredded areas. Looks very "worn in" but sufficiently aged to be classy fashion.

©TheDenimEye2016

Cool over emphasised ripping and shredding as demonstrated by two of the best brands for on trend denim and jeans. Just click the images to access their sites.

Alexander McQueen £1,285

True Religion Liv Relaxed Skinny $319

Either extreme high end or high street denim fashion, both demonstrate a different side to the trend. The Diesel example is super creative and has "I want it now" written all over it.  Can we persuade Diesel to make these for women? Whilst the Zara girls culottes are none the less desirable given their discrete hem shredding. 

Zara Frayed Denim Culottes £19.99

Diesel Buster 0853D £860

Trend Direction: RIPPING AND SHREDDING

Close Up -  Repairing and Distressing Combine

MiH Phoebe Jeans show original shibori hand dyed indigo cotton through the customised holes, adding special interest to the trend of ripping and repairing.

©TheDenimEye2016

Creative patching gives the ripping and shredding a reason to exist. This can be customised at home making your jeans totally personal.

Below is an intriguing printed jean from AG.  The jean is made from a non denim high stretch undyed fabric. All the effects are digitally printed including the reverse and face sides twill effects.  The ripped and patched areas are also part of the digital print as are the fly, pocket and waistband both front and back.

©TheDenimEye2016

Trend Direction: RIPPING AND SHREDDING

Vintage  -  Ripping and shredding

©TheDenimEye2016

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

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.  

©TheDenimEye2016

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

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.