When I was a kid, I used to drive my mother crazy with cutting into almost every piece of garment that was handed down to me. I was the younger child and we had plenty of neighbors with older kids that would always give my mom a bunch of free clothes for us. Whenever I got a pair of jeans, I would bleach them and rip into them to make them my own. It’s strange how I keep this tradition going even now. I just got a really nice pair of Diesel jeans from a friend of mine and couldn’t resist the old habit. Besides, I think that a nice pair of distressed, ripped jeans is a must have, and it always becomes one of the most worn pieces in your closet. You can wear them with flats, high heels, fancy tops, tank tops, shirts, jackets, sweaters, you name it. I always liked the look of distressed jeans with a very clean top and a black blazer just to give you an example.

Look how clean they are. It’s ok to feel nervous just before you start hacking into them. I’ve done this many times, but it never goes without a little bit of a mental preparation.

Diesel is one of my favorite brands when it comes to jeans. Maybe I have a weird body type, but somehow I always have a hard time to find jeans that would look good from behind. It’s all about the pockets. The way they’re angled, their shape and the width between them. I’ve learned a lot about pattern making in the last couple months to know that every detail about the pockets matters and it’s what makes the difference between a flat and round looking butt.

I’ve seen people use scissors or blades when going for the ripped denim look, but I personally prefer a small kitchen knife with a tiny saw-like teeth.

It does the job fast and the slits are not so cookie cutter as if you were to use scissors. I didn’t even have to use anything to protect the back of the jeans, because I didn’t need to push too hard on the knife.

Use tweezers to pull out the blue threads from the places you’ve sliced with the knife. It get’s rid off the blue fuzz in certain places and it always looks great when you show your tan skin through the white horizontal threads.

Be careful around the front pockets. First check what the fabric of the pockets looks like before you decide to slice the denim where the pocket bag is. I like these, because the black and white fabric of the exposed pocket bag adds another cool factor. Diesel puts a thought into every detail of their garments, so here it’s a nice little touch, but I wouldn’t have done that with cheap looking pocket bags.

I little rip in the back pocket and along the top edge makes them look more cohesive with the front. You can also do a rip on the back of your thigh, but be careful not to go too high up as it may result in a great pair of jeans you can only wear at home.