Fashion Week is back in full force, and there’s a lot to see. Blink (or scroll too fast on Instagram) and you’ll miss the details: tiny bags, tall shoes, feathered hats, leather capes and diamond dog collars. Every day we’ll spotlight one thing we saw on the runways that delighted or mystified us.
Just when you think the tie-dye trend may have faded — following an early-pandemic surge, when throwback D.I.Y. projects provided a welcome distraction from the hellish reality of confinement — it returns in the most unlikely of places.
Batsheva isn’t exactly known for the relaxed, summery, granola vibes associated with tie-dye. The designer Batsheva Hay typically swings toward the other direction of the 1960s and 1950s, with house dresses, dainty floral vintage patterns and structured, full-coverage gowns. At her show on Friday (held at Serendipity 3, that pastel-colored, hot chocolate-slinging, tourist-beloved cafe on the Upper East Side), she gave several models big bouffant wigs and thick cat-eye makeup.
The look wasn’t at all chill — nor did it need to be — which is what made the appearance of tie-dye tights on Ms. Hay’s runway so surprising. Models wore them beneath Batsheva’s signature prairie dresses and cropped pants in several color combinations, like lime green and white, pink and red, and black and blue.
The tie-dye tights weren’t just a styling choice: Though the label has never made tights before, it plans on producing them for spring 2022. The idea came to Ms. Hay when she saw tie-dye stockings while researching 1950s advertisements. The tights on the runway used Rit All-Purpose Dye and were made by a staffer in her bathroom after work. Like many aspects of pandemic life, D.I.Y. hasn’t gone anywhere.
