In anticipation of a living history event I will be attending next week in Columbus, New Mexico, I decided to make a new bandana for myself since my last one wore out some years ago. 🙂

I will be portraying an American solider c. 1916 for the 100th anniversary commemoration of Pancho Villa’s raid on Columbus, New Mexico. While bandanas were definitely part of the campaign uniform and they do up the “cool factor.” they also serve a useful purpose in keeping the dust off one’s face and especially in high winds which are commonly found in Southern New Mexico in March. Historically, soldiers wore privately-purchased bandannas and googles and they were quite common:

American Soldiers, c. 1916 Northern Mexico

Here’s my interpretation from 2007 when I was last there in Columbus:

So with one of our trusty Singer 201s, I got to work and a short time later, voila!

I’ll post some more pictures of the event here just to show the bandanna in action, so to speak. Fashion can take you in many different directions… 🙂

Making a fashion statement- Columbus, New Mexico, 2006; Bandanas were definitely a useful item to have with the cold winds experienced in Columbus.