THE HISTORICAL BANDANA

According to Wikipedia, "a bandana or bandanna was originally called a kerchief (from the French couvre-chef, or "cover the head")" it's also known as a handkerchief which is a small hand held cloth used for hygiene or women's makeup. FYI, Mental Floss (.com), states that the word "bandana" comes from writings in the Sanskrit badhnat, the verb "to tie," referring to the artistic technique of tie-dying cloth.  By the 1700's, the word bandannoes was used to refer to cotton handkerchiefs.

Martha Washington help to popularize the bandana in the U.S. by having an image of George Washington printed on some bandanas even during a British Govt ban on textile printing during that time.  After Martha's clever idea, bandanas became a marketing strategy for other companies and political campaigns hoping to use custom prints to promote political candidates trying to absorb some of Washington's fame.

The bandana became a functional accessory for cowboys and blue-collar workers who used them to protect their faces and mouths from dust and of course the criminals used them to hide their identities as they robbed a bank. Rosie the Riveter wore a red bandana in her hair in the iconic World War II poster with her flexing her bicep to show the strong female American worker fighting the war at home.

Bandanas have long been a classic cultural symbol. Miners in the 1930s came together with necktied red bandanas, helping spread the term "rednecks." In the 1970s, cultural groups used colored handkerchiefs to communicate their preferred culture.  In 1986, a classic red, black, and white paisley bandana entered the Cooper Hewitt museum collection.

The iconic "paisley" flower pattern has Persian origins, representing a spray of flowers or a bent cedar tree. It was imported to Europe via the Dutch East India company; its name comes from the Scottish town of Paisley, where a lot of paisley fabric was produced.  The dots in the bandana's paisley patterns were originally made by a process of bleaching that uses chlorine forced through perforated lead plates.  The color red which was called Turkey red, was the bandana's signature color. The classic red color was the result of a laborious method of fast-dyeing cotton textiles.  The process varied, but manufacturers usually bathed the cotton in fish oil, sheep's dung, maddder root, and "intestinal liquor."

Fortunately, today's manufacturing method is not so nauseating.

Overall, The Paisley Bandana has persisted for centuries as a perfect specimen of form and function. THE BIG BANDANA™ honors that tradition by making a bandana that is BIGGER, BETTER QUALITY with MORE USES.