For the budding fashion students among us, there's never been a better time to get creative.
The most popular trim or finish spotted on our street style favourites isn’t a neat and flawless hem, it’s raw edges and pulverised fabric. This certainly isn't a demure slice at the knee of your jeans. It's properly mangled fabric that seems so effortless it’s almost as if you got caught on the doorframe on your way out.
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Where does distressed fashion come from?
The thought of roughing up your clothes deliberately has a touch of the Emperor’s New Clothes about it, but it’s no new phenomenon. Punk exploded onto the scene in the 1980s bringing with it a stained and ripped aesthetic, as popularised by the late, great Vivienne Westwood. Grunge took up the baton in the early 1990s, with Alexander McQueen sending his SS95 collection down the runway with actual tyre marks running up jackets and down dresses, appealing to an anarchic desire not to look perfect or polished. Ripped and slashed clothing forces us to find beauty in things that aren’t finessed. And in a carefully curated Instagram world, it’s a little rebellious, and a lot of fun.
How do I style ripped jeans?
It’s indisputable that distressed clothing starts with denim, and Marques’ Almeida sent their ripped jeans striding down the SS23 runway accompanied with matching denim corsets.
Stella McCartney followed suit with raw-hemmed jackets perfectly paired with jeans artfully slashed at the ankles. Death by Dolls introduced diamante to give proceedings a Y2K edge, while Gauchere amped up the homespun element with crisp white t-shirts hacked apart and trousers covered in doodles. There’s plenty of pieces you can purchase that lean into the trend, or grab your scissors and simply start chopping.
5 eye-catching distressed pieces to buy now:
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