Distressed clothing is one of the few topics that can unite streetwear heads, rural mothers on Facebook, and everyone in-between into a collectively bewildered state. We've seen it time after time, from Gucci's grass-stained denim to Maison Margiela's glue-leaking runner sneakers.
Inevitably though, it's Balenciaga that takes it one step further than everyone else. Creative director Demna Gvasalia rarely strays far away from the headlines and his latest attention-grabbing act is a pair of limited-edition sneakers that are completely destroyed. Naturally, the internet was immediately set ablaze with angry comments and the shoes even caused the Salvation Army to clap back.
The comments online must have not reached Justin Bieber though, as his most recent stage outfit featured a pair of jeans from the luxury fashion house that are almost equally as ridiculous as those sneakers.
Giant rips on the front and back of both legs rendered the singer's legwear pretty useless in terms of protecting his legs, you could see everything from the bottom of his boxer shorts down to the top of his socks.
We've affectionately nicknamed the 28-year-old "baggy Bieber" for his Y2K-inspired oversized look, which includes wildly wide-leg jeans, but this pair takes it to new lengths. I don't even think punks in the 80s had rips that big in their pants.
It feeds into a trend that we spotted in the FW22 shows of models walking the runway looking as though they had been beaten up. Whether that be in the form of ragged clothes with raw hems or models with fake bruising across their faces, the novelty of seeing disheveled clothing (and models) in high fashion shows no sign of wearing off.
We've collected some of our favorite distressed clothing to release from the likes of Rick Owens, Needles, and Marni. Scroll down to shop the pieces and decide where you draw the line of something being too distressed.
Scroll down to shop our favorite distressed clothing
Distressed sneakers
Sneakers have been a favorite of designers to distress way before that Balenciaga pair. Gucci, Maison Margiela, Golden Goose... they've all been at it. These are the worn-in pairs we would actually buy.
Distressed jeans
Bieber's pair might take it a bit too far, but ripped jeans are a classic. Made popular by skaters and punk rockers, the style has become a firm favorite in contemporary fashion.
Distressed T-shirts
There's something inherently cool about wearing a moth-bitten vintage tee and designers are more than aware of it. Check out how they are creating a similar effect with distressing below.
Distressed Sweaters
The final piece to creating a full distressed outfit, throw one of these sweaters on top of everything to become a wabi-sabi fashion master.
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