For most of history, the bandanna has been a humble piece of clothing, sported around the necks of workers across the globe and used to wipe their brows as they toil or to hold their hair back.
Now noted jewelry designer Marie Lichtenberg, a favorite of celebrities, has given this simple piece of cloth a glow-up. She says her high jewelry bandanna is one of her most technically advanced designs to date. With gold, diamonds, and rubies, she has turned the classic cowboy neckwear into a luxury masterpiece that retails for $270,540.
Marie Lichtenberg used suede, gold, rubies, and diamonds to bring the bandanna into the luxury realm.
“The bandanna is so iconic it ignores borders—social, territorial, cultural,” Lichtenberg says. “I’m fascinated by elevating the ordinary, even the already iconic, into the extraordinary. It’s a tribute, it’s a joke, but it’s a high jewelry joke: beautifully crafted, rooted in couture-level craftsmanship. Because in the end, what matters is intention and the excellence with which it’s executed.”
The bejeweled bandanna took 280 hours to create, says Lichtenberg. It started with the cloth itself—Lichtenberg chose to work with suede, to give the bandanna a buttery feel and a visibly soft appearance. Plus, suede is a luxury fabric, offering substance and style in one fell swoop.
Using what Lichtenberg describes as a combination of Italian mastery and French expertise, artisans hand-embroidered the suede bandanna with 386 hand-sculpted 18k gold elements weighing nearly 280 grams. The gold pieces are set with a total of 3.09 cts. diamonds and 17.68 cts. rubies.
The bandanna isn’t the first Western motif in Lichtenberg’s jewelry. For example, she also offers an 18k gold horseshoe ring with diamonds and sapphires that’s surely prettier than anything you’d see on Seabiscuit.
High fashion has seen some bandannas before, too. Think of Gucci’s recent runway with bandanna-inspired headscarves, Hailey Bieber wearing one with her Pucci bikini, and Sofia Richie Grainge highlighting the bandanna as her favorite accessory when she was on vacation in the south of France. Even Beyoncé sported a custom Loewe bandanna-themed dress on her Cowboy Carter tour.
A lovely golden loop secures the equally lovely sage green suede bandanna.
According to a variety of bandanna histories online (who knew?), these colorful squares started in either Rome or ancient South Asia—or perhaps somewhere in between. In India, they were known as bandhnus, meaning “to tie.” Bandannas were practical for the most part, but over the years, famous people would wear them as part of a fashion look. They became a symbol of the West and ranching.
Perhaps they got a bad rap when bank robbers wore them. But they were redeemed thanks to the likes of Rosie the Riveter, in her red bandanna headpiece, and rock stars Bruce Springsteen, Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses, and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, who’ve all worn red bandannas while performing.
Now, through a mix of Western flair and Parisian refinement, Lichtenberg has brought the the bandanna to its pinnacle. She calls her iteration “some kind of hybrid being, LOL. A couture creature born from an everyday icon.
“I truly believe irreverence is my only path to excellence,” the designer adds. “On my own terms. It’s not just my creative approach, it’s my way of living. Not a strategy. A philosophy.”
Top: Marie Lichtenberg revamped almost everything about the humble bandanna with her high jewelry version. (Photos courtesy of Marie Lichtenberg)