For part one of the “What’s Missing” assignment, I chose to examine the relationship between two separate (but inherently connected) systems: the fashion industry and the music industry. More specifically, I wanted to examine this relationship through the lens of the Grateful Dead and the band’s seemingly sudden influence on the world of fashion. As of recently, I have been paying close attention to the fashion industry’s sudden appropriation of Grateful Dead iconography. Fashion and the music of the Grateful Dead are undoubtedly the two biggest parts of my life; growing up, I hoped to one day bridge the gap between my two worlds. I often dreamt of becoming a fashion designer, creating garments that employed Grateful Dead imagery — a subtle nod to a band that’s had a resounding impact on my life. Within the past year, however, I’ve observed somewhat of an explosion of Grateful Dead-inspired garments, everywhere from the runways at men’s fashion week, to the streets of New York. I couldn’t help but wonder, what spawned this sudden relationship these seemingly antithetically cultural facets?
I began conducting research on this subject about a month ago, first by going through Grateful Dead image archives and examining the sartorial decisions of “Deadheads” (the name given to fans or followers of the band). I subsequently examined the iconography of the band; throughout their thirty years as a band, Grateful Dead had a handful of prominent symbols, such as the “stealie” (from their 1976 Steal Your Face live album), the thirteen-point bolt (a design element extracted from the “stealie”), the “Bertha skeleton” (from the cover of their eponymous 1971 live album), and the well-known Dancing Bears (a design element extracted from the back-cover of the 1973 live album History of the Grateful Dead or Bear’s Choice). The aforementioned elements and icons came to symbolize the band and its respective culture, often appearing on tour merchandise and promotional posters. I then drafted out a basic history of the band, noting that the original “Grateful Dead” formed in 1965 and continued to tour until 1995, when front man Jerry Garcia tragically died of a heart attack at age 53. So then, if the band broke up over 20 years ago, what engendered this sudden cultural resurgence of the Grateful Dead?
Even though “Grateful Dead” ceased to exist after the death of Garcia, the remaining band members continued to play together and form various new bands under new names, such as Furthur, The Dead, Ratdog, and so on. The music and spirit of Grateful Dead remained intact as countless cover bands continued to pay homage to the extensive discography of the Grateful Dead. Furthermore, in 2015, the remaining members of the band announced a five-show reunion to celebrate 50 years since the inception of the Dead. This reunion tour, dubbed Fare Thee Well, was originally marketed as a formal end to the Grateful Dead, but it marked the beginning of a new age. Shortly thereafter, members Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart announced that they would continue to tour, with the help of musicians John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge, and Jeff Chimenti. This newly formed group would be known as “Dead & Company”.
The Fare Thee Well shows and the birth of Dead & Company in 2015 are what I would consider the catalyst for this resurgence of the Dead. I point to the crucial role of John Mayer, specifically, in the cultural resurgence as well as the sudden tie to the fashion industry. Mayer’s role in Dead & Company brought exposure to a whole new demographic of particularly young people who presumably would not have otherwise heard of the Grateful Dead. Mayer is also well known for his interest in fashion. He’s participated in collaborations with luxury brands like Chanel and Louis Vuitton. I consider John Mayer the true catalyst for the sudden integration of these two systems. As Dead & Company continued to embark on global tours every other season, the fashion industry made a concerted effort to insert itself into this very niche culture of Deadheads. Young designers like Jeremy Dean, Josh Balick, Elijah Funk and Alix Ross worked alongside Mayer and independently to reinterpret the decades-old iconography of the Grateful Dead and create a new, modernized aesthetic for the band. High fashion, too, has borrowed from the rich cultural archives of the Dead, with designers like Virgil Abloh off Off-White, Stacey Bendet of Alice & Olivia, and Jonathan Anderson all effectively integrating the iconography into their own unique designs. Soon enough, high fashion caught wind of this phenomenon too and followed suit. More recently, Vogue and GQ published articles featuring sartorial inspiration for and from the Dead & Company shows.
I wanted to catalog all of this extensive research in my book by breaking up my visual research into four phases:
Phase One: Playing in the Band — looking at the Grateful Dead’s image archives and analyzing the sartorial decisions of “First Generation Deadheads”. How are contemporary designers drawing (or not drawing) inspiration from the originals? I looked specifically at the photography of Bob Minkin, an esteemed photographer in the Deadhead community.
Phase Two: The Music Never Stopped — examining the post-Grateful Dead era and how the subsequent musical endeavors of the remaining members (and listeners) allowed the music and the culture to maintain relevancy.
Phase Three: Image Analysis — examining the Grateful Dead’s iconography and imagery and analyzing how these symbols inform the design decisions of contemporary creators who have sought to create their own reinterpretations
Phase Four: Fashion Is Dead — finally, looking at examples of designs that employ Grateful Dead imagery