TIE DYE TO NECKTIES: No, that wasn’t...

TIE DYE TO NECKTIES: No, that wasn’t an acid flashback you had at the Broadway the other day. That really was the music of Jerry Garcia playing in the men’s clothing department, and those really were neckties designed by the Grateful Dead guitarist.

Though Garcia hasn’t been seen in public wearing a tie for probably 25 years (a plain black T-shirt is his trademark attire), he’s the latest pop celebrity to be associated with a line of neckwear. Recently there’s been a line of ties using images drawn from Beatles songs, and word now comes of an authorized set of Elvis cravats.

What sets Garcia’s apart is that they don’t use images from his musical mythos, but instead are taken directly from paintings and drawings he has done. An art student before he was a rocker, Garcia has had his work shown in prestigious galleries nationwide over the last few years, and it was at a New York gallery opening that Irwin Sternberg, president of the Stonehenge Ltd. menswear firm, got the idea for the line of ties.

Perhaps remembering Don Henley’s line about seeing a “Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac” and that a lot of stockbrokers and corporate types are weekend Deadheads, Sternberg set his sights completely upscale. “I wanted to offer this to people who don’t go into a head shop to buy T-shirts,” he says.

So far it’s worked. Sternberg reports that the colorful yet tasteful ties, which sell for about $27, have been a hit with upper-echelon executives since they hit the stores in New York three weeks ago and L.A. last week. (Chicago Bulls coach Phil Jackson, a noted Deadhead, gave the line its first mass showing, wearing several Garcia ties during the National Basketball Assn. championships in June.) And though he won’t name names, Sternberg says that he’s gotten calls from representatives of other pop stars about starting their own lines of ties.

But first he’s concentrating on a second edition of Garcia ties, due in October with a promotional tie-in (no pun intended): Department stores carrying the ties will also sell an exclusive video featuring Garcia performing with mandolinist David Grisman.