Issue #6: The History Of Friendship Bracelets

☛ Why I Love Making Friendship Bracelets (And Why You Might Too)

I’ve always liked making bracelets, ever since I was a kid. It’s always been a normal hobby, but there’s history to it. Do you wanna hear about it?

☛ The History

Friendship bracelets might seem like a modern trend, but they're actually pretty old. These colorful, handmade accessories go way back to Central and South American cultures, like Guatemala, Perú and Costa Rica; where Indigenous tribes like the Maya and Inca wove vibrant bands as tokens of friendship, loyalty, and even used knotted cords (like the Inca quipu) to record stories and events.

Across the world, you can find similar traditions:

Asian cultures used prayer knots as spiritual charms.
African communities crafted amulets and beadwork for protection.
Native American tribes incorporated weaving and knotting into ceremonial and artistic practices.

So friendship bracelets weren’t just cute crafts, they often carried deep cultural and symbolic weight.

For example, among Central American tribes like the Ngäbe-Buglé and Boruca, knotting and weaving bracelets were part of religious ceremonies and rites of passage, reflecting unity, identity, and cultural significance.

☛ The 1970s/90s of friendship bracelets

The hippie movement embraced ideals of peace, love, and unity. Friendship bracelets became symbols of these values. They were exchanged among friends and strangers. Their fascination with non-Western cultures, like Africa, India, and Native America, influenced the adoption of similar beadwork and knotting techniques.

Friendship bracelets became a staple of 90s and early 2000s childhood because of summer camp traditions, schoolyard trends, and the explosion of DIY craft culture. For example, I remember being a kid and sitting in circles with other children to make bracelets.

☛ Kandi Culture & Rave Communities

Kandi refers to brightly colored, plastic bead bracelets that are worn and exchanged at raves and music festivals. When you hear kandi, you probably think about kandi cuffs. Usually made from pony beads, they’re woven into bracelets using a technique called peyote stitching. These bracelets are often handmade and can include words, phrases, or even pictures, as you can make some sort of pixel art on them, depending on the pattern.

The philosophy behind kandi trading is PLUR (acronym for ‘peace, love, unity and respect’). When exchanging kandi, ravers typically perform a symbolic handshake known as the PLUR handshake, and basically shares the same root concept as friendship bracelets: personal, handmade accessories that seem to have an emotional and peaceful connection, and you could consider kandi as a subcultural evolution of the friendship bracelet.

☛ The Swiftie Phenomenon: Friendship Bracelets Go Mainstream Again

In 2022, when Taylor Swift released her album “Midnights”, one of the songs stood out, and one of the lyric in that song stood out specifically: “So, make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it” from You’re On Your Own, Kid. When her Eras Tour began, Swifties had the idea of exchanging friendship bracelets and exchanging them in reference to that lyric.

It got out of control, though. But that’s fun! Taylor’s fans began to make a lot of bracelets with lyrics, memes, acronyms and inside jokes.

This was a cute phenomenon. Fans—many of them strangers—connected instantly through a shared love of Taylor Swift's music. These handmade bracelets became symbols of recognition, kindness, and belonging.

Like in the hippie movement, Taylor Swift friendship bracelets were exchanged among friends and strangers. And like kandi, they were exchanged at music festivals (well, concerts).

☛ Why This Still Matters Today

In a world full of digital interactions, handmade tokens still have power: they reflect unity and connection. People crave that nowadays. That’s why such simple crafts, like friendship bracelets, are a popular choice for gifts. And if you were one of the “weird kids”, someone giving you a friendship bracelet would mean the world to you.

My first time exchanging bracelets was at Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in Argentina, I had a little bag full of bracelets and the girls would pick the one they liked. I would do the same with theirs. It was super cute!

Whether it’s a child at camp, a raver in a neon haze, or a fan belting lyrics with glitter on their cheeks… friendship bracelets remind us that small things can say something big. Let’s keep up with this tradition forever!

Published by The Duality Zine