25 Years Ago in Time

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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."