How to distress Joker clothes

[Indy Magnoli]

I finally had a full set of my Joker gear made to photograph together and thought I'd show a few things about distressing these clothes. So, here is the full outfit in new condition:

The main pieces I wanted to age were the coat, shirt and tie. The pants could use a little dusting, but the jacket and vest don't really need much done to them (and, in my opinion, are the two pieces of this costume that can easily be worn with "normal" clothes so it'd almost be a waste to distress them).

The first step in distressing the coat is black shoe polish.

Rub this into various points, especially around the edges and seams.

Once you get a good amount of black on all those areas, put some baby powder a flat surface and then rub the coat into the pile of powder to get the dusty look.

For the shirt, the simplest thing is to do a misting of royal blue spray paint do darken it and then wear it while you're doing your Joker make-up to get the collar a bit grungy.

Similarly, I misted the tie with the same royal blue spray paint then rubbed it into the same baby powder pile as the coat. This gives the brown/yellow tie a slight greenish tinge and dulls the shine of the silk to a dustier matte grey finish.

The end result is this:

This photo shows the contrast between the aged tie and the unaged thinner part of the tie behind:

Kind regards,
Magnoli

 

[avbat]

Wow Mag, I loe that set-up, always have and this is a nice little tutorial for those who are putting a set together. thanks for posting!

 

[Doh2]

Seems a shame to distress such fine clothes, but you did a masterful job of it.

 

[siqclothing]

Great distressing technique. Cat litter works well too if you are trying to dirty up something.

 

[Indy Magnoli]

Seems a shame to distress such fine clothes, but you did a masterful job of it.

Yeah, I couldn't bring myself to do the distressing to the blazer... it's just too nice!

 

[thegreatgalling]

YES.

I have been waiting for this thread for two months. Bless you Indy!

 

[Rikimaru]

Good thread. Simple techniques that can go a long way to achieve that look. Thanks for sharing with us Magnoli.

 

[mrfadeaway45]

Indy rules ! I've been emailing back and forth with him the last couple weeks. what a class act. I ordered pants, braces, tie, gloves from him. He always responds to my emails quickly and is VERY patient when it comes to many questions. For those of you in the market to do a Joker costume, I don't care if you think it's "too expensive" WAIT til you have the money to buy his product. Look at the pics here and trust me....the customer service is worth ALOT more than the clothing.

C O O K # 45

 

[benhs1898]

Hey Indy, got my coat and vest and they are great! Only thing is I wanted a color somewhere between the twill and wool, but mine turned out brighter than both of them. I was wondering what I could do to the vest to get a closer match on the color.

 

[CharlesHouse]

Wear them to a convention. They'll get distressed quickly.

 

[IAmJ]

I finally had a full set of my Joker gear made to photograph together and thought I'd show a few things about distressing these clothes. So, here is the full outfit in new condition:

The main pieces I wanted to age were the coat, shirt and tie. The pants could use a little dusting, but the jacket and vest don't really need much done to them (and, in my opinion, are the two pieces of this costume that can easily be worn with "normal" clothes so it'd almost be a waste to distress them).

The first step in distressing the coat is black shoe polish.

Rub this into various points, especially around the edges and seams.

Once you get a good amount of black on all those areas, put some baby powder a flat surface and then rub the coat into the pile of powder to get the dusty look.

For the shirt, the simplest thing is to do a misting of royal blue spray paint do darken it and then wear it while you're doing your Joker make-up to get the collar a bit grungy.

Similarly, I misted the tie with the same royal blue spray paint then rubbed it into the same baby powder pile as the coat. This gives the brown/yellow tie a slight greenish tinge and dulls the shine of the silk to a dustier matte grey finish.

The end result is this:

This photo shows the contrast between the aged tie and the unaged thinner part of the tie behind:

Kind regards,
Magnoli

What if I decided to wash it?

 

[Indy Magnoli]

There are different levels of distressing you can do:

Shoe polish, paint and potassium permanganate distressing won't generally come out in a regular wash.

Coffee and tea staining can wash out, but sometimes does leave some residue.

Baby powder, bentonite and fuller's earth dustings are temporary and have to be reapplied even with wear, but will come out entirely (or almost entirely) in washes.

 

[IAmJ]

There are different levels of distressing you can do:

Shoe polish, paint and potassium permanganate distressing won't generally come out in a regular wash.

Coffee and tea staining can wash out, but sometimes does leave some residue.

Baby powder, bentonite and fuller's earth dustings are temporary and have to be reapplied even with wear, but will come out entirely (or almost entirely) in washes.

Alright thanks, good to know. Can't wait to buy this suit