Back in the early 1990s, Grateful Dead merchandise began to take on a life of its own. The iconic band imagery was reinterpreted (once again) by a new generation of young artists who were creating oversized, bright designs and printing them on colorful tie-dye t-shirts. This imagery from our formative hippie years really left an impact on some of us here at Gele.
One of our favorite artists from that era is Tony Reonegro. He started designing t-shirts for the Grateful Dead in 1989, and in 1990 he created all of the backstage passes for their Spring Tour. If you were lucky enough to gather several of them, you would notice that they all fit together like a large puzzle, depicting a crazy crew of skeletons going bonkers on tour.
There is one particular t-shirt design from 1992 that resonates the most with our “Secret Garden” theme, so we reached out to see if Tony could reinterpret it for us, and he graciously obliged. The artwork came out so nice that we created a whole capsule collection around it, including t-shirts, a Nalgene water bottle, and lighters.
