Red Cord Striped Braided Bracelet

Tying five-coloured silk on the arm is a very old custom. Old texts record that on the fifth day of the fifth month coloured silk was bound to the arm, called the long-life thread, sometimes the five-colour thread or the vermilion cord. The five colours answer to the five elements and the five directions: blue-green east, red south, yellow centre, white west, black north. Getting all five directions onto one thin cord is an interesting idea in itself, nothing to do with decoration: a whole year’s sense of orientation compressed onto a wrist. People did not wear them year-round — on at the Dragon Boat Festival, off after the hottest stretch of summer.

The stripes are braided in. Flat knots pushed around the core one after another, the core hidden inside, the outer layer forming horizontal bands; change colour by laying another cord in and the stripe breaks in two and the colour changes with it. Braided well, every turn has the same tension and the bands are evenly spaced; braided in a hurry, it goes wide and narrow and skews within two days. The finish usually leaves two tails and a slip knot, easy on and off.

Red cord carries a separate set of meanings. Folk belief holds that red blocks things, which is the logic behind the red sash and the red cord bracelet in a zodiac year. Red also holds its own at a wedding or at New Year. A red cord on the wrist tells anyone who knows that something is being observed, without a word of explanation. Younger wearers now treat it as an ordinary accessory — it goes with a denim jacket or a plain T-shirt, which is a change of the last few years.

A braided cord is a consumable; do not expect it to last for years. Sweat, water and friction all make it fuzz and slacken, particularly at the end you take on and off. When a tail starts to fray, pass a lighter flame over the tip quickly to seal it, not long enough to burn. Take it off for showers and swimming; soaked long enough, cord starts to smell. When it is genuinely worn out, a new one in the same colour costs very little and feels entirely different.

Five colours: blue, yellow, red, black, green, each sold on its own. Red is the loudest, black the heaviest, yellow is choosy about skin tone, and blue and green run cool and feel clean in summer. Several stacked look good if the thicknesses differ and the colours stay under three; more than that and it turns messy. Black or deep blue alone holds up well on a man; two or three stacked on a woman do not fight a watch.