DIY: Distressed Apparel

Distressed clothing has taken on a life of its own by officially crossing the line from fashion fad to fashion statement. Distressed clothing first made it’s appearance in the ‘grunge’ era, where the amount of rips and bagginess in your clothes equaled your level of aloof coolness. In other words, the more unkept you looked, the better.

In today’s use of the trend, distressing gives us a break from the same look as everyone else and adds the perfect amount of dismay to otherwise polished looks. It has become such a hot look that people of all ages and genders crave it, but not everyone can afford the steep prices, especially penny pinching college students.

With your pockets in mind, Grand Central has tips on how to rock your own modern day grunge look.

Materials:

• Fabric scissors (or sharp scissors not used on paper)
• Tweezers
• Safety pins or sewing pins

Procedure:

1. Straighten (right side out) and fold your pants the long way, lining the side seams on top of each other in the middle of the pants.
2. Pin the pants in place in three spots to reduce movement of the fabric – at the top right below the pocket , in the middle near the knee area and at the bottom right above the hem.
3. Make a series of horizontal cuts roughly an 1/2 – 1 inch thick in the areas you want the distressing aesthetics to be seen.
4. Using your tweezers, pull out the vertical strands from the horizontal strips. This step is a little time consuming, but once you start, you’ll find a groove and soon get into it (it helps to play music). Allow yourself at least an hour or two for this step, depending on the amount of distressing being done.
5. When you’re done removing the vertical fibers, throw your item in the wash to remove stragglers. Fray the edges of the cut  pieces surrounding your distressing. After the dryer cycle and maybe some ironing, your item is now finished.

Whether it’s for warm weather or you’re braving it out until the bitter end, you now have the tools to rock out grunge style like it’s 1990. Enjoy, fashionista’s and fashionito’s!