Well, I wanted to give it a go at making my own Bambi and Manson style shorts. I really can't shell out $90 on shorts, plus I'm still sticking to my New Year's Resolution of only buying second hand clothes, so within seconds of looking at their website, this turned into a DIY project.
Step 1: Find some $4 high rise jean shorts from Goodwill. I got a pair of Levi's and a pair of Ralph Laurens.
Step 2: Shred them apart. I ripped the seams, took sandpaper, a cheese grater, a knife and scissors to get the right distressed look. This is messy - I would recommend doing this outside. The fuzz (especially from sandpapering) gets everywhere! There was a lot of vacuuming when I was done.
Step 3: Bleach. I used straight bleach and put it in a squirt bottle, soaked a wash cloth in it, and just dunked it on my shorts with a spoon. Although side note - I've heard metal has a bad reaction with bleach (not sure if this is true or not, but better safe than sorry) so I used plastic measuring spoons. I think a squirt bottle looks the best, but the hard thing about bleach (or dye in general) is that is bleeds a lot once applied, so it's really hard to get small bleach dots like the ones at Bambi and Manson. Then after letting it soak for about 10 minutes (don't leave it on too long - it can eat away the actual fabric) I washed it.
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Step 4: The color! I used an old hair dye bottle to apply the dye. I bought Rit Dye in fushia, purple, and teal from Michaels for really cheap, like $3 a bottle, and it worked like a charm. I let the color sit on the fabric for about a half hour before washing the shorts. It holds the color through the first wash pretty well - I was really nervous about it totally fading, but it turned out really vibrant and exactly the shades I intended it to be!
Pair #1:
I tried for a half and half look, half acid wash fushia, half acid wash purple. It's kind of hard to see in these pics, but it looks so sick. If I had a clothing line, I would entitle these shorts "The Pursuit of Happiness" like the MGMT/Ratatat/Kid Cudi song.
Pair #2:
These took a lot less effort than the above as the dye was straightforward - I literally just poured on the dye where I wanted it and it turned out great! These shorts had an extra step too, as you can see. I bought some studs on eBay and put them on myself - it's SO easy. It took me about 15 minutes to pop them all on.
I call these the "Surfer Girl" shorts (yes, like the Beach Boys song. I'm sensing a trend here.)
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