Dipped Drip: Tie-Dye is Taking Over Streetwear

Dye Hard

The tie-dye resurgence is in full force! From Jonah Hill’s tripped-out Grateful Dead drip, to the psychedelic merch manufactured by Travis Scott’s ASTROWORLD, contemporary streetwear remains transfixed by the kaleidoscope of colours radiating from the ancient technique.

Once emerging from the smokey tents at Woodstock, and later adopted by the acolytes of the Grateful Dead (the so-called ‘Deadheads’), the aesthetic of tie-dying will always be synonymous with fierce individual expression and artisanal attitudes.

What is it about tie-dye that’s intoxicating us all over again?

Flower Power

The method of tie-dye is closely linked to its etymology. A form of ‘resist-dyeing’, the garment is initially tied in knots with string or rubber bands before being submerged in dye, leaving large parts of the material unexposed or partly exposed to the dye. That technique creates a wild vortex of patterns and geometric shapes, giving the fabric a truly unique aesthetic.

In the 1960s, the technique spilled across American society. Inextricably linked to psychedelia, the Summer of Love, Californian Flower Power, anti-war sentiments, and political disillusionment, tie-dying your clothes was popularised by legendary singer-songwriters Janis Joplin and John Sebastian.

No two pieces were ever the same, a notion that manifested the spirituality, freedom and self-expression taking place in America during the 1960s. Any homogenised clothing styles (most accurately embodied by military uniforms) were punctured by artisanal modes of thought and DIY attitudes.

But it was the second surge of tie-dye in the late 1970s, and the sartorial disciples of the Grateful Dead, that really informs today’s iterations, the Deadhead style now lovingly adopted by streetwear prophets like Kanye West, Travis Scott and Virgil Abloh.

The Deadheads Dye Hard

The Grateful Dead and their diehard fans redefined the tie-dye phenomenon in the late 1970s.

Affectionately known as ‘Shakedown Street’ (named after their tenth studio album), the Grateful Dead’s combination of official and fan-driven bootleg merch erupted in stadium car parks and festivals throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

Comfortably among some of the most hardcore fans on planet earth, the Deadheads maintained a steady visual diet of hallucinatory bears and skeletons. Although vestiges of the 1960s remained – i.e. artisanal methods and DIY attitudes – it was as if the Deadheads had added even more LSD to the dye.

Today, the eye-watering Deadhead revival is hitting fever pitch.

Fit God Jonah Hill has been snapped wearing an epic Grateful Dead tee specifically designed for Lithuania’s Olympic team in 1992. Virgil Abloh diagnosed John Mayer’s custom Off-White Air Presto as having a ‘Grateful Dead Glow’. Side note: A loyal Deadhead, John Mayer even linked up with former members of the Grateful Dead to form a spinoff band, Dead & Company, in 2015.

Regardless of whether today’s streetwear is echoing the political attitudes and DIY craftsmanship of the 1960s, or the revivalist band merchandising and nostalgia of the Deadhead’s ‘Shakedown Street’, we’re all staring deep into the tie-dye kaleidoscope yet again.

Yes, the Deadheads still dye.

Do you?

Dyed and gone to heaven