How to Design a Bandana

In this episode Sandra's giving us a master class in designing a beautiful pattern for a bandana.

Humble yet super fashionable, the bandana has been used for decades as a statement. Everyone from Appalachian miners to Hollywood stars such as Tommy Chong and Dennis Hopper in the ‘70s, and rockstars like Hendrix at Woodstock. But a bandana design has had the same ubiquitous red paisley aesthetic for a reason. "It was brought to Scotland by a French entrepreneur in 1785 and quickly adopted by a number of manufacturers with factories on the banks of the River Clyde and in the Vale of Leven in Dunbartonshire. The Scottish countryside proved an ideal place for production owing to abundantly flowing rivers, ample sheep herds, plenty of open-air drying space, and all the necessary gear."- National Museum Scotland

Paisley followed a similar trajectory. This intricate tadpole/teardrop pattern is thought to have originated some thousands of years ago, perhaps taking its shape from that of the cypress tree. It made its way from the Orient to Europe thanks to the various East India Companies in the mid-18th century, eventually finding a fertile home in the Scottish countryside. So much so, in fact, that the design (originally called ‘boteh’) became synonymous with the small town of Paisley, just east of Glasgow.It wasn’t until the mid-to-late 1960s that the iconic pattern raised its head again, thanks to a paisley resurgence among trendy British fashion designers. This led to it being picked up by prominent musicians of the time and the counterculture at large.