The Right Way To Rip Your Jeans For An Artful Grunge Look

If you've got an old, well-worn pair of jeans, it's likely they are already thinning out and possibly starting to tear in a few places like the knees, the back pockets, and possibly around certain seams. These already-worn spots are the ideal starting places for your project! 

Denim expert Kelly Harrington told ELLE UK that, "Resourcefulness and frugality go hand-in-hand with craft and DIY aesthetics: upcycle deadstock denim, patch up vintage jeans and get creative." In order to learn the best way to do this, Elle spoke to Jill Guenza, VP Women's Design at famous denim company, Levi's. "Wearing ripped jeans is a completely personal style preference. Some of my favourite jeans have distressing and rips simply from wearing them for years and years," Guenza says. "But not all rips have to be original to be cool. Rips and shreds add attitude and tell a story, no matter how they were created."

You'll want to keep a couple things in mind before you get started. The first is that jeans without stretch are easier to work with where it comes to adding strategically-placed tears and rips. Another notable tip is to start small; if you keep the rips and tears fairly small and conservative, you can always expand them after you've tried the jeans on. In other words, you can always add more or bigger rips, but you can't really make them smaller once you've created them.