Create & Decorate Denim Fashionistas

Celebs love denim, whether in their down time or on stage.  It is a fabric and culture that enables anonymity and is a great leveller.  Once comfortable in the skin of denim it is natural that when in the spotlight it is this fabric to which celebrities turn.  Guys like to demonstrate attitude with rips and shreds and grunge effects gals love to embellish.  They love to add fun, colour, badges and messages.   Such flamboyance demonstrated by the "stars" spins off into young fashion quicker than from the catwalk through instagram, pinterest and other instant vehicles of communication.

Kylie is such a bundle of positive energy, a role model for all both young and not so young it is no wonder that when she decorates her denim others follow in droves.

The unconventionality of denim fits the controversial attitude of Miley Cyrus.  She is outspoken and unafraid of doing crazy things, likewise with her clothes, boldly decorating and embellishing herself with fun items.  Given she is such a pop icon she has huge influence on her adoring fans and has spawned many streetwise look a likes guaranteeing the continuity of this trend for decorating the blue stuff.

Cher has always been a fashionista changing her look at every turn and at every performance.  She has always based her look on a certain sexy bohemian jeans spirit with embellishment being very much a part of her look from when she first set foot on stage to even now. Never afraid to wear a lot of bling on her denim she is a great ambassador for the product and always has been a huge fashion influence.

Create & Decorate: Creative Repair

Creative repairing has risen above the mere mending of rips and shreds.  Enter flamboyant contrast and decorative fabrics to place on the outside of the garment or visibly from the inside. Either way it must be seen. Such additions to denim adds a new attitude and makes denims more appealing to a larger audience.  Taking the simple jean to an audience who may not hitherto have been in love with just denim.

©TheDenimEye

Repairing by MiH jeans; Egome Denim; Junya Watanabe.  Contrast repairing techniques can add to the love of the jeans or in the case of Watanabe they make a new attitude taking jeans to a whole new and different level.

©TheDenimEye

Creative repair can also be all about stitchery.  Stitching for its own sake.  Stitches looking for a place to work.  Stitches competing with each other in a myriad of patterns and scales.  Such stitches can take over the garment making it something totally different from whence it started its life.

©TheDenimEye

Egome denim excels in creative repair for both women's and men's jeans. Using hand printed indigo cloth from Japan they embellish and "repair" adding authentic attitude to their easy fitting jeans.

Create & Decorate : Denim Tattooing

Why is tattooing largely the domaine of denim heads?  Both women and men who love tattoos also love denim.  Both denim and tattooing represent an anti establishment attitude, against the rules, being creative, doing your thing.  Denim provides the blank canvas for personal creativity be it ripping and shredding, ripping repairing, heavy destruction or pure art denim.  Just as the body is the blank canvas for artistic, political or personal expression.

Forearms for mens tattoos enable them to visibly combine their denim with their tattoos.  Tattoos  are mostly indigo thereby being a perfect combo with their special denims.

Tattoos are depictions of symbols, creatures, mythology and political or emotional statements. Likewise are decorations on denim. Denim messages and stories are as effective as body tattoos.

From mythical creatures to delicate ethnic patterns in indigo both on fabric and on skin, such  decoration has become a hugely important part of our fashion scene.  Even if those that sport it do not regard them selves as being "in fashion".  Such decoration and embellishment renders our clothing so much more exciting and personal.  

Brand Spotlight: Caine London // Rialto Jean Project

Caine London

Matt Allchin and  Hayley Caine are the brains behind Caine London a cult denim brand born in Peckham London.  Their brand is "irreverent and fun" , they create "wearable works of art to be worn until they die".  Their ready to wear collections strive to be witty and effortless, with styles appealing to both genders. Each collection sees them source vintage denim jackets that they emblazon with unique hand-painted works of art. Influences for the designs deriving from sources such as canals of south London, 90s grunge, and everyone's favourite place, the traditional English Pub. 

Their AW16 collection, aptly taking its name from the London Cockney slang for pub, "Rub-A-Dub", celebrates the traditional signs you would see hanging above your favourite local boozer. 

Here at The Denim Eye we can't wait to see what's coming from for the next season from this brand.

For more check out cainelondon.com

©www.cainelondon.com

Rialto Jeans Project - Denim doing good.

RJP is an ethical philanthropic denim brand which specialises in hand painted one off vintage items.

Everything is handcrafted in the studio of ERIN FENIGER in South Street Seaport NYC with the brand counting A -list actors , musicians and super models among its growing customer base. Erin Feniger sources rare American made vintage and personally hand paints every piece herself thereby creating unique pieces with a current fashion awareness.

Rialto Jeans Project  benefits children through art with proceeds of the brand going to support innovative therapy programmes in the Children's Hospital LA and New York Presbyterian Hospital from the RJP charitable platform of "DENIM DOING GOOD".

Follow the brand progress at rialtojeanproject.com

All images ©rialtojeanproject.com

Create & Decorate: Jeans as a Canvas

Personalisation and creativity in jeanswear has been around since mid last century.  Then it was a craft based exercise to make the garment " something more" decorated in either embroidery or appliqué. With decoration being the key aim. Now it is much more about flamboyance and statement, hand painting, pure artistry, messages, motifs, branding - all of which are much more hard hitting than as pure decoration.

Hand painted canvas applique onto the back of a 1950's denim jacket. Make your denims more unique and personal - express yourself through your clothes.

Energie hand painted jeans. Mid Western hand painted ecru jeans - real statement denim as art.

Caine Jeanswear plus hand painted items from Denim by PV 2016. Ecru hand painted jeans the authors own.

Create & Decorate : Vintage Decoration

Decoration has always been a part of the clothing or fashion scene and no less than in the arena of denim over a century ago.   Embroidered and appliqué motifs have a naive simplistic charm randomly positioned across a jacket.  For it was jackets that were then mainly used as vehicles for decoration. We also see examples of vintage embellishment where the stitchery has proliferated for its own sake, the jean or jacket becoming a blank canvas for colour and pattern in overworked threads. 

Embroidered motifs and applique were and still are used to decorate and make a statement - jeanswear was the clothing sector in which such personalisation proliferated.

Decorations were mostly naive imagery - almost childlike in their simplicity but jeans were also used as a canvas for political statement.

Vintage kimonos lent inspiration to western decoration.

Mexican motifs, creative leatherwork and embroidery proliferated in the 60's and 70's. Such creative stitchery looks fresh again today in 2016.

Trend Alert: Create & Decorate

Push the boundaries. Get creative. Use your imagination.

Conceptual and innovative. New ways with denim. Designer collaborations bring unusual results. Experiment and create - inside out, quilted, decorated, lasered, printed, foil printed, embroidered, personalised, customised .... anything goes.  Let indigo rule in designer driven mixed pieces. New shapes, new fabrications as wild becomes mainstream. De-construct and re-construct. Excite and inspire!

©TheDenimEye2016

Over the next month we will delve into the multitude of ways our denim can be decorated. We will look at functional decoration including creative repairing and pretty patching. Patching meets embroidery with folk art inspiration and naive figurative embroidery. We will show you all the ways you can go about personalising your denim, whether it be embroidered names, appliqué or hand painting. Vintage inspiration is abound, and we will be taking a look at decorative branding, labels, buttons and rivets. It is an exciting month of creative inspiration and influences that we can't wait to share with you. We continue our exploration with our next Denim Muse Monday, where you can soak up some inspiration from some of our favourite denim lovers. 

©TheDenimEye2016

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.