“The tie-dye shirts are coming! The tie-dye shirts are coming!” Summers coming and the tie-dye's coming out of the drawer. It may not have been a call to revolution, but it was a symbol of a cultural revolution. The classic tie-dye, and many of its modern variations are popular in many parts of our great nation.
The classic tie-dye was a symbol of a new culture. It was made when a white shirt was died a numerous amount of different colors to symbolize freedom and nonconformity. The random colors and patterns work made "naturally" without the man's influence. The classic tie-dye was always made by hand, and designed to be bright and lacking in design.
Please keep in mind this was back in the ‘60s.
What else happened so long ago, the rock 'n roll revolution. Janis Joplin and John Sebastian popularized tie-dye shirts by warning them to their concerts. They did all their own tie-dye and it symbolized exactly what we described earlier. As the decade went by and by the tie-dye shirts were a staple of the counter-cultural movement.
Over the years major corporations and other causes adopted tie-dye shirts to serve their own purpose. Many companies used tie-dye as a base design for summer wear. This sometimes was viewed as “selling out” because tie-dyes are meant to be made yourself.
No matter what the tie-dye's symbolize, or don't symbolize they are part of our culture and history. No matter how far back to the origin of our country we always had a form of clothing that rebelled against the established. For example our first Army refused to wear red. That was a revolution against the British Army. The tie-dye revolution was against the conformist mindset.
There is no clear cut revolution with the current tie-dye shirts. Nonetheless we all have a history with them, we all have a memory of them, and we all have something to say about them. In the comments post some of your memories of tie-dye shirts.
