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.

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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.

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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 : 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.

Denim Digest: Personalise Your Denim

A key look for the Create & Decorate trend is personalisation. Whether it's your name, a patch from your travels, or an embroidered embellishment, it's time to get out there and make your denim your own. Get creative, as anything goes when it comes to adorning your denim. To help get you started we've picked out a few of our favourite bespoke customisation services that are available at the moment.

First up and fresh off the presses is the newly launched, The Denim Girls Project from Mih, the likes of which have never been as accessible and available online in the denim market. The collection works in a similar way to NikeId where you select your base item and then choose from a selection of customisation options. This might be adding some patches, or one of my favourites the collar rope stitch and tassle details on the Stockholm jacket. A collection of seven garments are currently available for customisation including the Stockholm jacket, Mimi jeans and loose fit shirt. Customisation options available include adding patches, embroidery, hem and waistband cutting.  If you have specific denim dreams, you can fill out the online submission box and your request will go straight to HQ where they will work to try make your dreams a reality. Cutting is free, and from there prices start at $15 for additional customisations. If you fancy having some more conrtol, you can buy a patch pack to adorn your favourite denim from the comfort of your own home.  Here at The Denim Eye we are very excited to try out this new tool and get customising!

Check out mih-jeans.com for all the details, and get customising!

If you prefer to pop in store and watch as your denim comes to life, then we suggest you head to your nearest Levi Tailor Shop. A selection of Levi's shops offer a tailor shop where you can do a whole host of customising to your denim. Add your name with monogramming and embroidery, some patches, or collectable pins. You could get some rips repaired, or have some help to rip some new ones. Maybe you want to get cutting and turn those old jeans to shorts, jackets to vests - the options are endless! It is definitely worth popping into the store to breathe a new lease of life into those old denims at the back of your wardrobe. 

Another favourite is the monogramming service from Madewell. This American brand offers personalisation in three easy steps - choose your product from their online denim bar and what you want embroidered (up to 9 letters), call them up to order, and then wait for your denim to arrive at your door. It's as easy as that. They have 18 colour options available, which will be chain stitched in cursive font, and free if you are a member of their loyalty scheme. But not to fret if you're not, as this personal touch can be yours for an additional $10. They even offer the service on a selection of their leather goods. Talk about the perfect present for any denim lover out there!

If you are looking to personalise some of your preowned items, then embroidery studio Hand & Lock could be the perfect solution for you. They want you to "take that piece you like and turn it into a piece you love". Offering a whole host of options from machine stitch monograms and embroidered motifs to a range of ready made patches, they have a wealth of expertise in the customisation field. If you have bigger ideas then you can talk these through with their design staff to help find the perfect solution for your visions. Basic patches and machine monograms start from £5/letter, with more elaborate endeavours priced per design. For more details visit their website or you could stop by their pop up customisation station at Topshop's Oxford St flagship store. 

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

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