Band

The word was used in the early sixteenth century to refer to the shirt neck-band. During the decades of the wearing of the ruff in the remainder of the sixteenth century, and also the elegant collars of the seventeenth century, the word band referred to all the variations if these types of neckwear, both masculine and feminine.

The word band, in the seventeenth century, referred equally to an upturned or horizontal collar – when it was called a standing-band – or to the soft, unstiffened collar which was carefully draped over the shoulders of the doublet or gown and was termed the falling-band. Such collars were white, of lace or lace-edged cambric or silk, and were tied at the throat, as the ruffs had been, by band strings. These terminated in tiny tassels or crochet-covered balls. The seventeenth-century falling-band, known also as a rabat, continued for ecclesiastical use in its smaller, linen strip or tab form. Such strips were known as short-bands and were worn well into the nineteenth century by ministers of religion, academics and members of the legal profession. Nonconformist ministers continued wearing short-bands until comparatively recently. (Encyclopedia Of World Costume, Band)