Where does Tie-Dye come from?

Tie-Dye comes from the United States, where it dates to Antiquity.

Plate No. 154pattern

Rings blooming outward from each bound point, a stylized resist burst.

First documented: Antiquity
Origin: worldwide, United States
Fiber: cotton
Weave: resist pattern: cloth bound, then dyed
Family: prints

Plate No. 154 · pattern

Tie-Dye

Tie-dye is a resist pattern made by binding, folding, knotting, or stitching cloth so that dye cannot reach the bound areas, leaving them pale against the dyed ground. The technique is ancient and grew up independently around the world, in the bandhani of India, the shibori of Japan, the adire of West Africa, and the textiles of pre-Columbian Peru. The swirling, multicolored spiral that the word now calls to mind in the West is a much more recent thing, the badge of 1960s American counterculture, where rediscovered resist dyeing became a homemade emblem of psychedelia.

Illustration: a sunlit craft yard in late-1960s California, lengths of spiral-dyed cloth pegged on a line to dry in bright colors, enamel dye buckets and rubber bands on a trestle table, a figure seen from behind rinsing a bound bundle — A sunlit craft yard in late-1960s California, lengths of spiral-dyed cloth pegged on a line to dry in bright colors, enamel dye buckets and rubber bands on a trestle table, a figure seen from behind rinsing a bound bundle.

Named for

Descriptive: the cloth is tied, then dyed, so the bound parts resist the color.

Common questions

What is Tie-Dye made of?: Tie-dye is a resist pattern made by binding, folding, knotting, or stitching cloth so that dye cannot reach the bound areas, leaving them pale against the dyed ground. It is traditionally made of cotton.
Where does Tie-Dye come from?: Tie-Dye comes from the United States, where it dates to Antiquity.
What is Tie-Dye named after?: Descriptive: the cloth is tied, then dyed, so the bound parts resist the color.