NOT JUST FOR HIPPIES . . .

Tie-dye: it's come a long way since your junior high school best friend convinced you to wrap rubber bands around your favorite t-shirts and soak them in Kool-Aid to look just like her older sister, who had dropped out of high school to sell grilled cheese sandwiches in Arena parking lots of Grateful Dead shows.

Actually, tie-dying is a process that predates the psychadelic 60s by hundreds of years. The earliest survivng tie-dyed textiles are from Peru and date from approximately 500-800 AD. The japanese dying process of Shibori elevates the form to high-art and has been practiced since the 8th century. Shibori includes an elaborate process of stitching elaborate patterns and then gathering the stitching or binding the fabric around a core of rope or wood in order to create patterns of undyed fabirc against intricate dyeing design schemes.

All this to say that tye-dye has a long history of equisite craftsmanship and design well beyond the contemporary notion of the traditional garb of a Burning Man attending back-to-the-lander. Take for example, this tie-dyed Fendi large baguette tote from the Spring 2008 collection. Large lacing detailing draws on the bohemian ideal often associated with tye-die but the soft and supple leather and sophisticated take on a sorbet color palette make this handbag more bling than Beatnik.

***Fendi Spring 2008 Large Tie-dyed Baguette Bag. In next-to-new condition! Priced at $1250. Typically, the large baguettes with the lacing retail from $2100-$2500.

for further information or to purchase, please contact: thegang@decadestwo