My love affair with bleach continues...

It may have started with lc’s $10 Cheap Mondays, or possibly with photos of the ever-stylish Alison mosshart, but for the past few months I’ve been meaning to create my own version of some patchy bleached jeans.

Reluctant to go out a buy a new pair of black jeans, I finally decided to make the process more complicated by starting with a blue pair and dying them black, simply because they were the only ones I had which I never wore. Once dyed, it really was as simple as chucking the wet jeans in the bath and squirting over the bleach in random places.

Through previous experimentations with acid wash I’ve realised that not all bleach is created equal - ‘household bleach’ is much milder and perfect for acid-washing, whereas ‘thick bleach’ is required if, like in this case, you really want to remove all the colour from your garment.

If you're trying this yourself - it should take less than ten minutes to achieve a really bleached out effect, but it’s important to keep an eye on the jeans as you go to and not to leave it too long or the fabric will disintegrate. When mine looked about right I simply rinsed them and chucked them in the washing machine for a cycle.

I’ve just thrown on the most obvious outfit for the sake of these photos which isn’t really how I will wear the jeans in reality. I plan to play down their stereotypically 'punk' aspect - rather than play it up as I’ve done here - though I’ve not quite figured out how I’m going to do that yet.

mjm waistcoat / £1 shop vest / primark belt / diy jeans / topshop heels