This project started when my friend Noah came to me with a picture of Hyunjin (a member of the group Stray Kids) in Cosmopolitan, and asked if I would make him a top inspired by it to wear to Coachella. This quickly catapulted into an idea for an entire upcycled denim outfit. The materials were sourced from the thrift store, where we found various denim garments to work with. When thrifting these materials, I kept an eye out for interesting elements, like pockets, seams, and buttons.

The top used the bottom of a children’s denim jacket as the base, which I then sewed denim gussets into for fit. The rest of the top used elements of denim jeans, including pant legs for the bodice front, side seams braided together for straps, and belt loops to secure the straps to the back. Additionally, a denim jacket cuff secures the top back, the top edge of jean pockets lines the neckline, and bias tape fashioned from pant legs lines the outer edges.

For the pants, a base pair of jeans was cut at the side seams, to which I added the side seams of another pair of jeans to create a wide legged form. Noah wanted to add additional volume to the bottom, so I added a gusset to the inner side seam, which created more of a bell bottom effect. To mimic the look of cargo pants, I added pockets from a variety of other garments, and then washed the pants to allow the edges to unravel.

In addition to these two garments, I used the scraps to make a matching bucket hat and fanny pack.