Brightly Twisted’s tie-dyed garments look different from what most people expect, says co-owner Tammy Bourque. “They say, ‘oh, this doesn’t look like normal tie-dye,’ which for some means bright bold colors swirled on a t-shirt.”

Messing around with tie-dye

Stemas started “messing around” with tie-dye while a Montessori pre-school teacher in Dearborn, Michigan, working from his basement. Tie-dyeing was a way to be creative and make some extra money during summer break.

“Once I got a taste of it, I never wanted to stop,” says Stemas. “Tie-dye was the door to creativity for us, but Tammy envisioned this as a real business. It isn’t fine art, but we treat it that way.”

Thanks to Stemas’ artistic eye for colors and patterns and Bourque’s marketing savvy, Brightly Twisted dragged tie-dye out of the ‘60s/hippie/Grateful Dead era and into the fashionista halls of Nordstrom’s, Neiman Marcus and upscale boutiques. It’s been a trip.

Tie-dye appeals to the inner child in us, Stemas notes, because it can be loud and garish or soft and subtle, and there are no mistakes in making this art.  

Bourque, now his wife and partner, met Stemas when they were both teachers. Brightly Twisted, which Stemas started in 1996, became a popular booth at art fairs. But Bourque, with a background in fashion and merchandising in New York, saw a bigger picture after a 2009 chance encounter at a trade show.

“I was wearing a pashmina scarf that I had dyed for the holidays, and a sales rep said, ‘I can sell that.’” And sell she did, first to a local shop, and about three months later, Brightly Twisted had an order from Nordstrom’s for some 300 scarves to sell in two of the store’s boutiques.

Bourque and Stemas eventually left their school jobs to run the business, which they moved from their home basement to a larger basement in a Dearborn office building.

Rapid growth

It was a heady time, with Nordstrom’s bringing Brightly Twisted items to more than 200 of its stores. Orders poured in from other retailers across the country and around the globe, and in 2018 the couple opened their own Brightly Twisted retail store in Corktown, an historic Detroit neighborhood.

But with euphoria came plenty of bumps, challenges, and mistakes.

They hired sales reps across the country and were buying – and hand dyeing – “a thousand scarves at a time.” But financing a large inventory was challenging.

“We were always borrowing from one hand to another,” says Bourque.

Supportive family and friends helped financially by investing in the company, and all four of their children worked off and on in the business. Chevillet eventually invested and became a partner, bringing “a youthful mindset” to the business, especially with technology and social media, says Bourque.

“We were growing our wholesale sales, but we couldn’t contain our costs because (dyeing) is so labor intensive,” Bourque says. “We were better artists than business people. I said yes to everything before I knew how to do it. I’d say, ‘Yes, we can do a hundred scarves, all one of a kind,’ without even knowing where to get the scarves.”

And they had big orders. “We went to a million dollars in sales very quickly, and we sustained that for nine years,” Bourque says. Which is pretty amazing, considering that tie-dyeing is a slow, time-consuming process involving twisting, dyeing, rinsing and drying.

Working with Nordstrom’s was like getting a master’s degree in business. “I learned how to source, produce, ship, and negotiate. But I didn’t learn how to contain costs, and I made business decisions too quickly,” Bourque says.

 “We were busy growing,” she adds, “and that took a lot of hands. We had sales reps in every territory, and they made money. We had seven employees. Everyone around us was making money except us.”

Introducing workshops

That changed when they started hosting tie-dye workshops around 2017. “We finally started showing a profit,” she says, and in late 2019 they opened The Detroit Dye House, a 2,600-square-foot brick-lined building in Corktown, perfect for workshops, studio rentals, a small retail shop and office space.

But some three months later, the pandemic shut them down. “In January, we had a plan and were super positive, and in March we closed and sort of lost our way,” says Bourque. “We had changed our entire business model to invite people into the store, and then we closed it.”

 They sometimes thought of giving up. “We never made any money, and we were all scared.”

Although they maintained their wholesale business and sold tie-dyed clothing online “the pandemic was crushing,” says Bourque. “People were staying home and taking up hobbies, workers weren’t coming into the city, and we had trouble getting supplies because people were tie-dyeing at home.

“We couldn’t do anything but tread water or give up. Everyone was stressed and not communicating well. We were not at our best.”

Some good advice

Then in December 2024, A Fairy God Mentor, experienced with running small businesses, swooped in with some tough love advice. He told them not to hire help too soon, taught them how to better communicate with each other, and assigned specific tasks. “He gave us clear instructions, asked us questions like ‘Who’s in charge of this business? Who’s making decisions? Who should be making decisions? Who’s returning phone calls?’ He demanded that we break it all down.”

Finally, she says, “we were all on the same page. I’m proud of the work we did. At the end of 2024 we made some hard decisions.” They cut their staff to just the three partners, with two part-time helpers used only when needed.

The plan seems to be working, and the first quarter of 2025, she notes, “was the first quarter that we made money and had money in the bank at the end of every week.”

 Bourque admits that even after 30 years in business, “We still think of ourselves as better artists than business people. We’re trying to change that. Like many creatives, we have to find the balance between creativity and business. You have to have a lot of optimism to be an entrepreneur.”

And they are finally optimistic.

“This is the first year since the pandemic where business is vigorous and growing. More people are coming to the city. We’re building the business back up, specifically trying to grow the Dye House while maintaining our wholesale, online and in-store sales.”

Workshops attract about 200 people a week and seem to be the key to their burgeoning success, along with those wanting to do their own thing and rent studio time.Visitors can bring their own dyeable items, select pre-dyed clothing from the retail section or head to the “Blanks Room” to find white items yearning for color. In workshops, participants select two items to dye for themselves, plus that extra pair of socks to donate.