I love painting my clothing because it allows you to completely transform a garment and make something unique that no one else has! It’s also surprisingly fun and therapeutic to do when you’ve got the time. And right now I have nothing but time.

For me, clothes are like canvases. I love doodling and drawing but instead of transferring these designs on boards or canvases, they usually end up on fabric. That way I get to wear the art.

I know this is not an original idea at all, in fact I follow so many people on Instagram who do this because I love to see everyone else’s ideas and styles.

You may have noticed from previous posts that I absolutely love the 80s! I love the music, the films, the fashion, the colours, everything from that decade! If I could have been born at a different time I would have love to grown up back then. This definitely influences a lot of my work, I have pages and Pinterest boards filled with 80s graphic prints.

Which you can definitely see in this print that I painted onto these dungarees.

They originally were a plain dark blue which you can see in this outfit post HERE, and I actually found them in an attic of one of my family members which makes them quite old (probably like 30 years or more) but the quality of the denim is really good. I’m almost positive that they’re kids ones because the bib on the front is a lot smaller than typical dungarees but they fit so I’m not gonna question that.

When it comes to upcycling clothing there is definitely a limit. What I mean is you have to draw the line between outrageous and classy. So I could have painted the whole thing, the back as well with this print but that would have been too much, in my opinion, so by doing just one leg it’s kinda classy. In my Thrifted Parisian Outfit look I wore my other 80s painted top where I only painted half of it because otherwise it definitely would have been too in your face.

I like to be a little crazy but not too much.

In true me fashion, I had to coordinate my make up as well so I went for a graphic eye liner look using a bright orange and a purple/pink lipgloss. This is definitely a look that I will wearing more often! My sun necklace is from a great Depop shop called Ethical Roots.

I have paired them with a very boring plain grey crop top from New Look just so that the emphasis of the outfit is on the trousers, but I think this could work with a orange patterned top if I had one. I also have some new funky shoes. These are blue high top Converse which I did buy new. Yes I have pledged to stop buying new clothing however its so hard to find good quality secondhand shoes and I can’t get out to any charity shops at the moment. However these are part of their Renew range which means that it’s made of part recycled polyester combined with new polyester. It’s not perfect but it’s better than their other shoes.

I would highly recommend to anyone just throwing some paint on some clothes! All you need is some paint and some clothes. I’d recommend painting secondhand clothes not new ones just because new clothes are expensive and if it goes wrong then you’re gonna be gutted but if it’s secondhand then you’re not wasting as much money. Also fast fashion is bad and we shouldn’t be shopping from there anyway!

I just use acrylic paint not fabric paint because that stuff is expensive and acrylic works just as well. It will obviously fade with time and washing but that can sometimes have a nice affect, you don’t need to wash clothing after every wear anyway.

I have found that denim is the easiest to paint just because of the texture of the material, as it’s stiff. Painting t-shirts is quite a bit harder because the fabric is so slippery and the paint doesn’t glide as well over the fabric is that makes any sense to anyone.

I hope this inspires you to just throw some paint on some clothing and make something totally unique! Pinterest is great for inspiration, if you’re looking for a starting point.

Have or would you ever paint any of your clothing? What is your favourite decade for fashion?

🙂