La bandana: un portavoce storico e culturale

Bandana, a seemingly simple square cloth, carries a rich history and diverse cultural connotations, and has undergone many evolutions in different eras, regions and groups.

Development: The word Bandana comes from the Sanskrit word “badhnati”, which means “bind” or “tie”. It entered the English dictionary in the mid-18th century. Its story began in the Indian subcontinent in the 5th century AD. Craftsmen in Gujarat used the “Bandhani” tie-dyeing technique, which is to tie cotton threads one by one and dip them into indigo dye vats. When they were untied, star-like dot patterns emerged. These square scarves, which were given the meaning of blessing, were originally sacred tokens at Hindu weddings. The groom would wrap the bride’s hair with red Bandhani to symbolize eternal bondage.

In the 17th century, the merchant ships of the East India Company brought this cloth to London, but at that time, the British did not know this tie-dyeing technology, and they could not pronounce badhnati, nor did they know how to define it. It was not until the 18th century that these square scarves became unexpectedly popular because they could cover snuff stains as snuff became popular among European aristocrats. They were roughly transliterated as “Bandana”. Since the beginning of the cultural journey of bandanas

In 1776, Bandana As the colonists set foot on the American continent, Philadelphia textile workers printed the equestrian image of George Washington and the slogan “Liberty or Death” on the Bandana, making this piece of cloth a carrier of political mobilization for the first time.

In the 1940s, when “Rosie the Riveter” wore a red Bandana to tie up her long hair and hammered fighter parts on the assembly line, this piece of cloth was no longer a decoration, but a medal for women to walk out of the kitchen. The government deliberately tied the Bandana to “patriotic labor” to transform it from a colonial symbol to an identity of the working class. In the automobile factories of Detroit and the steel city of Pittsburgh, blue-collar workers use bandanas of different colors to distinguish their jobs. The sweat-soaked fabrics symbolize the liberation of various craft cultures.

In 1967, hippies in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco found old bandanas with paisley patterns from second-hand stores, tied them on their foreheads to block the dizziness caused by LSD, or tied them on the neck of the guitar as an anti-war declaration. At this time, the bandana was no longer a practical item, but a symbol of breaking through the mainstream social culture at the time. When middle-class mothers saw their children wrapping their long hair with bandanas, it was like seeing the traditional cultural order collapse in the folds of the square scarf.

In the streets of Southern California in the 1980s, the Bloods gang wrapped their wrists with red bandanas, while the Crips gang tied blue scarves around their waists. The two colors became life and death symbols in street fights. Later, rapper Eazy-E covered his face with a bandana in the MV “Boyz-n-the-Hood”, blurring the boundaries between street gangs and hip-hop culture. This piece of cloth has since had dual attributes: it represents gangs in the slums and is a medal of fashion life in the recording studio.

After a period of evolution, it was not until 2018 that bandanas ushered in its essential evolution. Models walked through the Gucci show wearing bandana-style veils printed with double G logos, which elevated the bandana from a street cultural symbol to a representative of fashion culture. Ironically, when LV printed the Monogram on the bandana, the handicrafts that were once colonized have now become cultural trophies of the luxury empire.

But the vitality of Bandana will never stop at the high-end fashion stage. In the Middle East, Palestinians use the black and white checkered “Keffiyeh” (essentially the Arabic version of Bandana) to protest the Israeli occupation, making this piece of cloth a flag of national liberation. In Japan, Harajuku youths tie Bandana around their necks, creating a “City Boy” style between retro and future. During the epidemic, when masks became a global necessity, countless people folded Bandana into temporary protective equipment – it returned to the starting point again, responding to the crisis of the times with the most primitive practicality.

Every historical evolution of bandanas is the product of the historical collision at that time, and to a certain extent represents the historical status quo at that time. It was once given religious significance, political significance, and street culture symbol, and was re-bleached by the fashion industry and stepped onto the fashion stage. When we tie this square scarf around our wrists or necks today, we touch not only the softness of cotton, but also the warmth and marks left on the fabric by countless hands over the past five centuries.