My name is Julia Barbee, and my clothing line
is Frocky Jack Morgan. On behalf of Expert
Village, this is a tutorial on recycling and
deconstructing old clothes. So you might find
a garment that you like parts of but you need
to take it apart, and that’s what we’re
going to do today. You might find a prom dress
or a suit that you want to take apart. This
happens to be a wedding dress, because that’s
what I typically do. I like the shape of it,
but I don’t like the sleeves, and I like
the style but maybe not the embellishments.
So we’re just going to rip it apart. So
first of all, I think I’m going to take
the sleeves off, and you could use a seam
ripper if you wanted to, but I kind of like
raw edges, so I typically just cut things.
I’m going to cut the sleeves off and I might
even leave some of the lining to kind of shred
later. I just really like a raw look to my
things. You might want something a little
more clean and tailored, and you’re welcome
to use a seam ripper if you prefer. And part
of this process is divorcing yourself from
the garment and not being too precious with
it. I usually find that the braver I get,
the better it is, so I’m pretty willing
to rip whatever I don’t like off. And I
might even just use brute force and rip it
off without any scissors at all. I don’t
like bows very much, so I usually take those
off first. I typically don’t like machine
made lace either, I like antique lace. So
that is often the next thing to go. A
lot of times if you don’t feel like cutting,
ripping is a pretty efficient way to take
things off. And I actually think it looks
pretty cool sometimes. I guess you have to
consider how fragile the garment is as well.
Sometimes I bleach wedding dresses, and that
can really weaken the fabric, so I might end
up ripping something that I wish I hadn’t.
So I’m not always this brutal, but sometimes
it can be a little fun, get out some of your
aggression.