Personalizing a garment, such as this cardigan, requires surprisingly low sewing skills.
Get the right DIY style
Three ways to cheaply customize your look
Splash on a bit of paint
Pull a Jackson Pollock and splash a bit of paint on a white tee (painterly graphics are still having a big fashion moment). Or buy a pair of inexpensive shoes and spray paint them the way Najwa Moses, who runs the Web site Styleaholics.com recently did. “I bought a low cost pair of ankle boots and spray painted the tips with a copper color. I like to give my wardrobe an updated look without breaking the bank,” she adds.
Experiment with trimmings
Raid your nearest trimmings shop for beaded appliques, such as the one shown here, and sew it around the neckline of a crew-neck sweater or T-shirt. The M&J one pictured gives a plain black sweater a bit of a vintage feel to it.
Toss the original buttons on high street finds
A simple change like swapping buttons can completely transform a cardigan, coat, blouse or trousers and requires amazingly low sewing skills. I added military-inspired buttons to this Topshop sweater from the New York trimmings shop, M&J, and these bright versions from Britain’s The Button Queen to a Uniqlo sweater.
Just because the credit crunch has reduced your wardrobe budget doesn’t mean you have to look like everyone else. Try punching up mainstream purchases with new buttons, trimmings or spray paint – fashion design degree not required.
The shoddy economy doesn’t allow much room in the personal budget for splurging on rarefied,
designer pieces anymore.
But you don’t want to necessarily limit your wardrobe to affordable items from popular mass-market brands that every girl on the street can identify.
As a result, women are increasingly becoming more inventive about their wardrobes by giving the clothing in their closet a personal touch on their own through the marvels of needle, thread and a few creative ideas.
“This season, I’m definitely not shopping the way I used to. So I’ll look in my closet and rework a few old items. Or I’ll buy vintage items and embellish it by adding a fur piece or changing the sleeves, for example,” says Elsa Mehary, an art director with InStyle magazine in New York.
Perhaps the best aspect of the trend is that you don’t need a degree from a fashion design school to do it. Here are three easy ways to give your own wardrobe an update (and note: none of these uses the word Bedazzler).
Styleaholics.com recently did. “I bought a low cost pair of ankle boots and spray painted the tips with a copper color. I like to give my wardrobe an updated look without breaking the bank,” she adds.