Bands (neckwear)

They take the form of two oblong pieces of cloth, usually though not invariably white, which are tied to the neck.

Ruffs were popular in the sixteenth century, and remained so until the late 1640s, alongside the more fashionable standing and falling bands.

They varied from those worn by priests (very long, of cambric[d] or linen, and reaching over the chest), to the much shorter ecclesiastical bands of black gauze with white hem showing on the outside.

They became identified as specifically applicable to clerical, legal and academic individuals in the early eighteenth century, when they became longer and narrower in form.

For a time from the eighteenth century judges and King's Counsel took to wearing lace jabots at courts and leveés.

[h] Mourning bands, which have a double pleat running down the middle of each wing or tongue, are still used by some barristers, clergy and officials.

[3] Both falling and standing bands were usually white, lace or lace-edged cambric or silk, but both might be plain.

While the straight horizontal edges in front met under the chin and were tied by band-strings, the collar occasionally was worn turned down.

[9] They continued in ecclesiastical use well into the nineteenth century in the smaller, linen strip or tab form- short-bands.

[10][dubious – discuss] Bands were adopted early in the eighteenth century by parish clerks and many dissenting ministers, as well as in Western Europe by junior Catholic clergymen/readers and those of many Protestant churches, soon followed by those in the lands governed/co-governed and settled overseas.

Firstly, a small turned-down collar from a high neck-band, with an inverted v-or pyramidal-shaped spread under the chin and tied by band-strings sometimes visible but usually concealed.

[7] It was a large square or triangle of linen, lawn, silk, or muslin,[k] often starched, with the ends usually bordered with lace, or decorated with tasselled beads, and tied loosely beneath the chin.

The years 1695–1700 saw the Steinkirk style, with the front ends twisted and the terminals either passed through a buttonhole or attached with a brooch to one side of the coat.

[14] The result is that bands are rarely used by graduates, who prefer the contemporary down turn collar and neck tie.