Embroidery on jeans adds a unique touch to everyday denim, whether it's lending a tough-luxe finish, retro edge or playful allure. The trend featured heavily in a number of SS16 collections, with labels from Alexander McQueen to Valentino all getting on board with decorative denim. It's also quickly become a celebrity mainstay, with Foxes, Florence Welch and Tyga all expressing their individual style through detailed embroidery.
Gucci’s Resort 2017 show featured eye-catching embroidery on almost all its pieces, but most notably on the stiff, 70s indigo denim jeans peppered throughout. Female models wearing embroidered jeans teamed theirs with equally striking blouses and heavily embellished jackets, while their male counterparts wore understated grunge-inspired T-shirts for a more stripped-back look. And it's not just Gucci that has embraced the embroidered jeans trend, with labels such as Dolce & Gabbana, Marc by Marc Jacobs and House of Holland all getting in on the action.
Given that it looks set to stay, it's worth exploring how to wear embroidered jeans without looking like a modern-day Pocahontas or a costume party hippy.
Embroidery for the streets
Tyga took Gucci’s snake embroidered jeans to the streets of New York in May 2016, wearing his with sneaker, an oversized red hoodie and a coordinating beanie for a fresh streetwear look that effectively combined activewear with the embroidered jeans trend.
Rihanna achieved a similar aesthetic in early 2015, matching graphic patch-embroidered Come Tees jeans with a silk bomber jacket as she flew into London Heathrow. Paired simply with a cropped tee and pointed red flats that picked out the dominant colour in the jeans' embroidery, the oversized jeans and jacket combination perfectly illustrated how to wear embroidered jeans in a wholly contemporary way.
Getting girlie with it
Alternatively, look to Florence Welch for a decidedly more feminine and retro-inspired solution to how to pull off embroidered jeans. The lively Gucci pair that she wore in New York in spring 2016 featured brightly coloured flower motifs, while exaggerated turn-ups gave further impact to the singer's sky-high black studded Gucci clogs. An understated and softly draping cream blouse contrasted effectively against the stiff lines of the jeans, while Florence’s iconic red hair provided the perfect finishing accessory.
For a more delicate finish, the chunky feel of the embroidered denim can be offset by wearing pointy flats instead of platforms. Experiment with swapping the relaxed and understated shirt for a colour-block top in red or orange for a way of wearing embroidered jeans that will effortlessly see you through from day to night.
Valentino’s Resort 2017 collection took on a number of prettily girlish elements in exploring how to wear embroidered jeans. Its jeans were embroidered with delicate denim-toned butterflies, each finished with silver beads designed to catch the occasional sparkle of light. Teamed with a matching bag complete with silver studs, the look had a distinctly 70s-by-way-of-90s feel. The jeans were worn with open-toed sandals and a structured blouse with an architectural cut that was offset by its soft and sheer material. Easily teamed with boots and a jumper during the cooler months, these jeans are a grown-up extension of the playful denim dungarees embroidered with swarms of colourful butterflies that appeared in Valentino’s SS16 show.
All-American dream
Marc by Marc Jacobs went for a characteristically bold take on the trend. Its 2017 Resort menswear show tapped into the current taste for wearing embroidered jeans with the label’s typical verve and enthusiasm. Stars and stripes motifs brought denim back to its all-American roots, making these jeans ideal to team with stand a leather jacket for a rebel-without-a-cause aesthetic. Simply swap the leather jacket for a chunky knit jumper in order to offset the rugged feel of the embroidery and lend your outfit a more relaxed finish.
Another American heritage-inspired slant on the embroidered jeans trend came from Dolce & Gabbanna’s autumn/winter 2016 menswear collection. Dark fitted jeans and denim jackets with long pointed collars were embroidered with kitsch Western references: cowboys, cacti and trusty steeds. Other embroidery featured clusters of flowers with a vintage-look sepia tone, laid over heavily faded denim for a worn-in look that will team well with oversized knitwear and tough lace-up boots during the cooler months.
The joys of double denim
Singer Foxes fully embraced double denim, matching her botanically inspired embroidered jeans with a coordinated denim top at the very label's show they came from – the House of Holland autumn/winter 2016 collection at London Fashion Week. The brand’s 2017 Resort wear collection also featured plenty of embroidered denim, this time with a Mexican twist; sequin pineapples and tropical jellyfish are sewn onto dresses, while jeans and jackets feature patch embroidery with tattoo-like details. These exuberant additions to the embroidered jeans trend make a particularly playful and tongue-in-cheek way to experiment with the look.