25 Years Ago in Time

The latest version of the fad started among the flower children of California, for whom its appeal is easy to understand. For one thing, it is pure psychedelia. And tie-dying is cheap. For little added cost, it can turn a 32 cents T shirt into strawberry fields forever, or an old pair of jeans into a tiptoe through the tulips.The fashion spread rapidly through the rock world; many of its stars now sleep in tie-dyed sheets (Janis Joplin has a set in satin). Pop singer John Sebastian habitually turns himself out in tie-dye from chin to tennis shoes; he does it all himself, and his stove is usually covered with bubbling dye pots. Sebastian learned the craft from one one of its best- known practitioners on the West Coast, "Tie-Dye Annie."