By Morgan
Ever wanted some clothes that are just your style but don’t want to spend some ridiculous sum of money? The answer to your problem is DIY. DIY stands for Do It Yourself, it has been a big part of counter culture since the days of the hippies. Confused on where to start? Well, that’s pretty easy to solve.
There are many projects you can embark upon to being your DIY lifestyle. First and foremost is the customized jacket. All you’ll need is a jacket (duh), and whatever you want to put on it.
When you have your denim jacket, leather jacket, or hoodie that you’re undoubtedly anxious to customize, you can get something of your choice to put on it. Patches are what I’m talking about. Patches are good for advertising your interests, mainly bands. Patches can be purchased from very wide amount of places such as music stores or online sites such as www.crustpunks.com or www.studsandspikes.com the great thing about patches are they’re absurdly cheap. It’s up to you, but you might want to look in to buying a back patch, it’s just as cheap, but it covers the most of the back of your jacket.
First thing’s first, once you find the patches you want to put onto your jacket of choice you’re going to put them on. Back patches can be easily put on by means of safety pins, but if you want something a little more substantial then you can sew it on using sewing thread or (as the crust punks do) by using dental floss. Dental floss is cheap to buy and it has a very high strength. Finish it off with your other patches of choice on the arms or fronts or sides. In my opinion a patch across the front pocket on a pull over hoodie looks really good.
So I got my patches on now what do I do?
Once your patches are on you have a wide variety of choices, you can put studs on your back, around the patch(s) and you can put spikes in the shoulders, both of which can be purchased for low cost from the above sites (crustpunks.com and studsandspikes.com). Another thing you can do is sew on different fabrics of your choice, popular fabrics are leopard and zebra print, and plaid. As well, fabric paints come in all colors imaginable, and you can always stencil on words and designs using spray paints.
Now I’m not telling you to go out and purchase a 60 dollar denim jacket, or a 200 dollar leather one, that would defeat the purpose of this article. A good way to find some good leathers and other jackets is by thrifting. Check out the local thrift stores in your area. Also, when looking for fabrics or other materials try out discount stores in your areas alongside thrift stores.
If you find a shirt that has the right material then purchase it, it doesn’t matter if it’s the most god awful shirt on the planet, if it’s the right material, it’s the right material. Working like this can save you a whole lot of money.
There are a lot of people who seem to have DIY go right over their heads. Asking “but where will I get my studded belts without Hot Topic?”
Hot Topic did something amazing. They commercialized the counter culture. Hot Topic killed DIY. What happened to C-Squat? What happened to self funded record labels? What happened to home made and Xeroxed zines? DIY is something that we should all get in to, thrifting saves money, it teaches you, gives you skills, and lets you get out into your own.
Stores:
www.crustpunks.com
www.studsandspikes.com
www.ikickshins.net
www.interpunk.com
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