Our short film Corpse is based in a world of scavenging and depleting resources, and our character's clothing needed to match. Here are a few simple methods to make clothing look worn and dirty.
I've got this simple white t-shirt. To make it look like it's been unwashed for weeks, I grabbed a few simple household items:
- Teabags
- A cup of warm water
- Sandpaper
- Shoe Polish
- Newspaper
- and a Sponge
Firstly, for a base weathering, give the clothing a complete sand down.
Once this is done, you can pay close attention to areas like the collar and give them little details.
After you have weathered it down, take a brewed teabag and dab the clothing, giving it stains. I add more tea stain to the collar and underarms to make it look like stale dried sweat.
Grab the sponge and add a bit of shoe polish. Then dab the sponge onto your newspaper until most of the polish is off of the sponge. This method is very similar to dry-brushing with a paint brush. It only applies to the top-most part of surfaces, like the collar here.
We used these methods for all of the costumes in our film Corpse. For some costumes, we cut a hole at the stitching point and ripped it open to damage the clothing.
DISCLAIMERS:
Some of these links are affiliate links, if you purchase gear via these links The Film Look will receive a small commission, but there will be no additional cost to you. Thank you!