DIY The Perfect {Longer} Denim Cutoffs

When my mom came to visit me a few weeks back we had a long discussion over coffee one morning about how short cutoffs are these days and how difficult it is to find longer options. At her age she doesn’t want to show off that much leg, and at my age I’d prefer to not be mistaken for a 16 year old. Ironically, a few days after this heart-to-heart I sported these, so as you can see, at 27 (going-on-28), I’m still wearing them despite our chat—however I do feel much more comfortable in boyfriend styles

The hunt for the perfect denim pair has been going on for many years now and I often attempt to DIY my own (pretty much every summer), but this time around I think I’ve finally made my ideal pair.

Wearing: Paige Denim Floral Jeans, Infinity and Serpent Rings from Nordstrom. 

The inspiration for my weekend project was this perfectly distressed and cuffed pair.

The only key is finding the right pair of jeans to cut. I cleaned out my denim shelf and found this distressed style that was slightly too big / an awkward fit (aka ideal for cutting up—old boyfriend jeans are the best too!). I snipped off the legs at a slight diagonal just above the knee and threw them in the laundry for fraying. I plan to live in them the rest of summer (wearing them both cuffed and un-cuffed) so stay tuned.

And here are a few longer / boyfriend styles I love (if you’re not into DIY’ing your own)…

Boyfriend Shorts I Love

1. Current/Elliott 2. Rag & Bone 3. NSF 4. AG Adriano Goldschmied 5. Paige 6. R13

Next on my denim-diy-to-do-list: A distressed skirt à la Acne

Photography by Lydia Hudgens and collage made on Polyvore.


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