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 officially 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 upcycled 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 SO many opportunities to see the Grateful Dead, but never did. I lived in Orange County and they were often in Southern California. I remember buying  a cassette single of “Touch of Grey” because I was so artistically inspired by the stealie.  I thought “Gosh, I love the stealie so much – that icon is so cool.  It’s got to be great music!”

At that time, like other kids, I was really into rap, hip hop, and heavy metal.  So when I put on my new cassette, 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 go on to collect numerous 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 find racks and racks of Grateful Dead T-shirts. 

I would hoard them and cut them up. I love repurposing vintage clothing and making them into a new creation. 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 got deeply into the music. Ironically, what launched my career was when I made a Dead-inspired dress that was discovered by Paris Hilton’s stylist.  

 It started with this really amazing stealie t-shirt I found in a thrift store. It was a really hard time in my life, and cutting up and reconstructing it that dress out of that shirt was like therapy for me. I had done a new designer showcase back when LA Fashion Week was a big thing, and Paris’ stylist came through and gushed, “Oh my God, I have the perfect customer for that dress.” She snatched it off the rack and the next day, Paris Hilton wore it at the VH1 That’s Hot Awards. 

Photos via Meghan Fabulous

What year?

2004. 

At her prime! 

That’s when she had her show [The Simple Life], won the That’s Hot Award, and she’s wearing [the dress]. Right after that happened, my phone was ringing off the hook and people were asking, “What is that dress? I need it.”  I was working for another designer, and people kept telling me, “You need to do your own line.” So, I credit that Grateful Dead dress with launching my fashion career. 

 I didn’t really get into the Dead’s music and understand it until I started dating my boyfriend and now business partner in 2018.  He’s a huge deadhead and he took me to a Dead & Company show at Dodger Stadium as one of our first dates. At that show, it all made sense to me. The music.  The art.  The community.  I thought, “I get it now.” 

It wasn’t just about “Touch of Grey,” one of their most commercial songs, but about learning that they never play the same song exactly the same way twice, which is very much like my personal 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, even though I’m not big into drugs I could see where people were seeing flashing lights and trippy graphics from the LSD, and it opened my eyes.  I knew I could achieve that effect with rhinestones!  I wanted to 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 biggest thing I feel the collection has done for the community. It’s so recognizable and the women that wear it feel a sense of identity with each other. They’re all deadheads, but they want something more fabulous than tie-dye. They want to wear it to work and they want something that shows their love for the band and the music and exemplifies being a fabulous deadhead. 

Meghan Fabulous… Not like other girls. 

Yes! I always say to my customers, “You’re not like other deadheads. You want to stand out.” I want to go to a show and feel like I’m part of the scene, feel part of the music, but also that I’m fabulous and want to make a statement with my fashion and style.  

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-esque 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 thinking, OK, I know certain women are going to get it. And then there are going to be people that hate it but secretly love it and want it. I remember my business partner, Steve, said, “Meghan, this is not very marketable.” My view was, 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 not going to know what to make of it because it’s so different, so fresh and so over-the-top.  That’s fashion! 

It worked!   If I had a dollar for every time that I heard, “Jerry’s rolling over in his grave!” But it’s funny because the inspiration came from Nudie Cohn. Nudie used to make these outrageous, rhinestone Nudie Suits, and the Grateful Dead used to wear those at the beginning of their career.  And Jerry and Nudie were 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 absolutely true to Jerry and the band. 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 on.  Once that giant, shiny stealie was in the sky, it hit me:  “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 slapping another stealie 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 in our Shakedown booth at the Forum. So we took a chance, reached out, and told him, “Hey, we want to license that from you.” He said he was going to be in LA the next week, hosting a party with ANALOGr. Steve and I went, and Jay had a huge collection of backstage passes displayed on a table.  As soon as I saw them I thought, “Oh my God, this is a print. This is a fabric print.” I just knew I could make it into something iconic.  

“Jay, we need to talk about these backstage passes.” So, we worked out a deal and he sent me over 1,200 passes, and I combed through all of them to figure out which ones we could legally use.  It took me seven months to work through all the details. 

I stuck with it because I really believed in the idea. I think it’s cool to own a backstage pass, and if you could actually wear this little bit of history – men, women, dress it up, dress it down – that would be special.  For me, it was a beautiful way to honor the Grateful Dead and their history. 

So, Jay Blakesberg’s collection of 1,200 passes got whittled down to 89 that made it into the design. It’s a men’s fitted shirt with these decorative stealie snaps, and then the back neck lining is stealies, too. We have pants, too!  It’s a super elevated design aesthetic. That’s one thing I’ve tried to accomplish with this collection – elevated design and quality. 

You’ve added another tier to Grateful Dead fashion and it’s a pleasure hearing the backstory. 

 I just want to honor and cherish this music, band and community. I think what’s been awesome is the fact that I do have a wildly 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 visual artistry and fashion first, before the music.  And now it has become more about the music, so it’s really come full circle with the labor of love.