Jean reincarnation: karma for clothing

Your old skinnies are looking tired and those Phillip Lim 3.1’s are pretty pricey; we’ve all had this dilemma. You could just resort back to scrounging for a 10% student discount at Topshop, or just live with your jeans pulling off the “loved” look while hankering after other girls’ fresh new jeans; life like this wouldn’t be too bad?

Well stop rationalising girls, and get creative! Patches, distressing, embellishment, they’re all painstakingly simple looks and all you need is a little time (really, you only need a little) and you can completely re-create your whole look for a matter of pence. Now that sounds like music to our ears.

Phillip no-so-dim

Taking inspiration from the master himself, above is a recreated look of the classic badge jean. Just go down to your local haberdashery, or look online at places like eBay, even your old Brownies sash, and apply them to your jeans. All you need is a needle and thread, if you have a sewing machine, even better, or adhesive iron-on strips – just anything that will stick, then you’re ready to rock ‘n’ roll.

California girls

The distressed short was the key piece last summer, with no doubt of that taking a strong title again this summer; but are you tired of buying yet another ripped denim handkerchief-sized piece of material? If you have some tired jeans that badges just won’t salvage, just get rid (of the legs) and make them into cute shorts. All you need to do is put them on, mark with chalk where you want them to be, take them off, cut below this line, then pull at the threads to create the straggly look. 

Patchwork perfect

Not prepared to take the plunge and chop, chop, chop away the jeans? There is still hope for them yet; take the listing off eBay and pull them out of the charity bag – the studs are here. Again, something that is so effective and so cheap is embellishment. From a haberdashery or eBay you’ll be able to find these for about £1 to £2 for 60 plus, this is the sort of money we like to spend. All you need to do is find where you want to glitz, modify the area to accommodate the embellishment, then apply away (the madder you go the better). If you’re not a stud kinda gal, then get an American flag or any material and whack that on the jeans.

All of these methods are so simple and effective, they can completely re-create your tired old jeans, making them into something money can’t (or only a lot of it) buy, so don’t give up on the trusty skinnies, they have life in them yet.

Tamara Massey