Photo Credit: Jay Blakesberg
In the following conversation, fashion designer Meghan Fabulous discusses her origin story as a Grateful Dead fan and what led to her two-tiered official licensed band-inspired clothing collection.
Beginning with her visual interest in the group’s trademark iconography, Meghan retraces the events that took her from thrift store hero to uncycled trendsetter, transforming lot tees into revitalized fashion expressions.
While Meghan has moved on from the racks at Salvation Army, she’s still applying her signature brand of cool to the band-inspired fashion orbit. After igniting a shared love for music with her deadhead boyfriend, the designer received credentials to take her creativity out of this realm, creating vibrant and expressive independent fashions tailored for the boldest of fans.
Meghan Fabulous X Grateful Dead is available on relix.shop.
How did you get into the Grateful Dead?
Shame on me. I graduated high school in 1995 and had many opportunities to see the Grateful Dead. Because I lived in Orange County, Calif., and they were always in Southern California. I remember listening to some music at the time. I had bought a cassette single of “Touch of Grey” just because I was like, “Gosh, I love the steelie so much. That icon is so cool; it’s got to be great music.”
At that time, I was really into rap, hip hop, and heavy metal, so I put it on, and it was not what I thought it would sound like from the graphics. It was not at all my cup of tea, my jam. But I would collect Grateful Dead T-shirts because I loved all the cool tie-dye and graphics. Living in Orange County, you could walk into a thrift store, and it was just racks and racks of Grateful Dead T-shirts.
I would hoard them and cut them up. I love repurposing vintage clothes and making them new. I made all my own clothes–I started sewing at 4—and I always knew I wanted to be a clothing designer. It wasn’t until later in life that I really got into music. What actually launched my career was that I made this dress for Paris Hilton. I made the dress, and her stylist found it.
It was this really amazing T-shirt. I’d cut it up, and it was a really hard time in my life, and I was reconstructing it. I had done a fashion event when LA Fashion Week was a thing, and her stylist came through and was like, “Oh my God, I have the perfect customer for that dress.” And she snatched it off the rack. The next day, Paris Hilton wore it at the VH1 That’s Hot Awards.
Photos via Meghan Fabulous
What year?
2003.
At her prime!
That’s when she had her show [The Simple Life], won that That’s Hot Award, and she’s wearing [the dress]. Right after that happened, my phone was going off the hook. And people were like, “What is that dress? I need it.” I was working for another designer, and people said, “You need to do your own line.” So, I credit that Grateful Dead dress as launching my fashion career.
I didn’t really get into music and understand it until I started dating my current boyfriend in 2018, and he’s a huge deadhead. He’s also my business partner and one of our first dates was to Dead & Co. at Dodgers Stadium. And it all made sense to me. I was like, “I get it now.” It all made sense to me.
It wasn’t just about “Touch of Grey,” one of their most commercial songs, but about learning that they never play the same song twice, which is very much like my style. I never wear the same outfit, and if I wear the same top, I never wear it the same way.
What were some of the elements of Dead & Company’s show that struck you as inspiration for your current Meghan Fabulous X Grateful Dead collection?
There are so many different personalities in the scene. My perspective and the way that I look at a Dead show, I’m not big into drugs, but I could see where people were seeing flashing lights and LSD, and I was like, well, you can achieve that with rhinestones. You can capture the whole essence of the community within some kind of garment.
That reminds me of a conversation I had with Jenny Shuman, who beads these incredible guitar straps. She compared getting dressed for a concert to emoting a “feeling, expression, and spirit.” It strikes a similar chord: enhancing the experience by donning show regalia.
Totally. That’s the one thing I feel the collection has done for the community. It’s so recognizable; all the women with it are the same woman. They’re all deadheads. They can’t wear brown tie dye every day; they have a real job and want something that exemplifies being a fabulous deadhead.
Meghan Fabulous… Not like other girls.
Yes! I always say, “You’re not like other deadheads. You stand out.” I want to go to a show and feel like I’m part of the scene, feel part of the music, but I’m not like other deadheads.
The Versace-inspired Grateful Dead top and scarf pants exemplify that notion.
I created this scarf first, which was a border print with a very iconic Versace gold ornate border. Then, I took that print and made a shirt. I made the blanket coat and just kind of took that and made this little capsule collection that is just so outrageous for deadheads.
I was like, OK, I know the women are going to get it. And then there are going to be people that will hate it, but secretly love it and want it. I remember my business partner, boyfriend, Steve, was like, “Meghan, this is not very marketable.” I was like, that’s kind of the point. I want it to be something that’s just so over the top outrageous that the deadheads, like the hardcore deadheads, are gonna be like, “Jerry’s rolling in his grave.”
… If I had a dollar for every time that I heard that Jerry’s rolling over in his grave. But it’s funny cause the whole inspiration came from Nudie Cohn. Nudie Cohn used to make these outrageous, rhine-stoned Nudie Suits, and the Grateful Dead used to wear those at the beginning of their career. And Jerry and Nudie were like BFFs.
So before I launched the brand, I really dove into the culture. I wanted to do something that was outrageous, but also if you really did your homework, you would know that it’s really true to Jerry. He did love fashion. At the end of his career, I feel that he was slightly resentful about being famous. That’s why he always wore black, and he didn’t care. But in the early stages, he was really into this outrageous look and was very playful with his fashion.
Totally. It makes me think of the white suits from Go to Heaven. Your initial collection has a similar disco-tinge, and from my observation, the rhinestones became more prominent in your second collection. Where did that concept originate?
I had no idea what the follow-up to that would be. And then, in 2023, we were at the final shows in San Francisco and the drone show came, it made the steelie and I was like, “That’s it! Rhinestones!”
It all happened right in front of my face. It was like, this is how it’s going to be. It’s going to be rhinestones, and I’m going to do the dancing bears in sequins. It just hit me. And that’s how organic the whole Grateful Dead collection has become. Everything was inspired by something within the Grateful Dead community. That’s how it’s always been for me, incorporating things that are part of the scene but that are not like the traditional tie-dye or just putting a steely on a shirt.
All your pieces exemplify a labor of love, particularly the backstage pass collection. I read you spent seven months developing the pattern. What did that process entail?
This is actually a really special story. I met Jay Blakesberg at a show in 2023, and he took the most amazing picture of Steve. We had a Shakedown booth at the Forum. And we reached out, and we were like, “Hey, we want to license that from you.” And he was like, I’m going to be in LA next week. We’re going to have a party with ANALOGr. So Steve and I went, and Jay had all these backstage passes on a table, and I saw them and thought, Oh my god, this is a print. This is a fabric print. I just knew it was going to be something amazing.
So I was like, “Jay, we need to talk about these backstage passes.” So we worked out a deal and he sent me over 1,200 backstage passes, and I combed through all of them. I couldn’t use Rick Griffin and also venues. It could only be a venue that’s not active. I organized them, numbered them, and went back and forth with Warner a handful of times; it was legit seven months.
I created the print, and no, you can’t use that one. But I stayed true to it because I really believed in it. I think it’s cool to own a backstage pass, but if you could actually wear something, and it was a shirt that a man could wear or a woman could wear, you could dress it up and wear it to work. I really believed in it and thought it was a beautiful way to honor the Grateful Dead and their history.
So they’re Jay Blakesberg’s passes. And we widdled down 1,200 to 89 that I was actually able to use. It’s a men’s fitted shirt with these steelie snaps, and then the back neck lining is steelies. It’s really super elevated. That’s one thing I’ve tried to accomplish with this collection.
You’ve added another tier to Grateful Dead fashion and it’s a pleasure hearing the backstory.
I just wanna honor and cherish this community. I think what’s been awesome is awesome is the fact that I do have a different perspective. Grateful Dead, to me, was about fashion. From the time I was a little kid and was cutting up Grateful Dead t-shirts, that’s how I had looked at it. It was the fashion than the music, and now it has become more about the music and then less about the fashion for me.
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