Tim Lehi and WACKO MARIA Are Back With a Tiger-Themed Drop
Eight years into their collaboration, the Japanese label and the American tattoo artist are still finding new ways to put Lehi’s illustration work on a garment.
Summary
- WACKO MARIA and tattoo artist Tim Lehi are releasing three new pieces on June 6, continuing a collaborative partnership that has been running since 2018
- The lineup includes an all-over pattern Hawaiian shirt featuring a collage of tigers drawn by Tim Lehi, alongside a graphic open collar shirt and a graphic T-shirt
- All pieces are available via PARADISE TOKYO, WACKO MARIA directly operated stores, the brand’s online store, and authorized stockists nationwide
WACKO MARIA and Tim Lehi are releasing three new pieces on June 6, the latest installment in a collaborative partnership that has been running continuously since 2018. The lineup centers on an all-over pattern Hawaiian shirt built from a collage of tigers drawn by Lehi, alongside a graphic open collar shirt and a graphic T-shirt, all available via PARADISE TOKYO, WACKO MARIA’s directly operated stores, online store, and authorized stockists nationwide.
The Hawaiian shirt is the collection’s most ambitious piece. Lehi has drawn tigers specifically for this drop and the illustrations have been arranged into a collage that covers the entire shirt surface, giving the garment a density and visual weight that a single motif placement would not achieve. The all-over format suits Lehi’s work particularly well: his illustration style, rooted in traditional American tattooing, carries enough line weight and detail to hold its character at scale across a full garment rather than compressing into a chest pocket graphic. The open collar shirt and T-shirt extend the collaboration’s graphic language across formats that carry the imagery differently, giving the drop a range that lets Lehi’s work function across varying levels of commitment.
The partnership’s eight-year run gives each new drop a context that single-project collaborations can’t generate. Since 2018, WACKO MARIA and Lehi have built a consistent visual language together, one rooted in the meeting point of Japanese streetwear’s appetite for Americana and Lehi’s San Francisco-forged traditional tattoo practice. The tiger, one of traditional tattooing’s most enduring subjects, is a natural anchor for a collaboration that has always operated at that intersection. On a WACKO MARIA Hawaiian shirt, a format the brand has treated as one of its most considered design vehicles across its history, the all-over tiger collage lands with the full weight of both parties’ cultural references behind it.
The Tim Lehi x WACKO MARIA collab releases June 6 via PARADISE TOKYO, WACKO MARIA directly operated stores, the brand’s online store, and authorized stockists nationwide.
