Riband

Riband (pronounced rib-uh-nd)

(1) A decorative ribbon, especially one awarded for some achievement.

(2) A flat rail attached to posts in a palisade

(3) In heraldry, a narrow diminutive of the bend, thinner than a bendlet.

(4) An archaic form of ribbon with excrescent -d.

1350–1400: From the Middle English ribane, (the spelling ryban does exist in the record but it seems not to have attained much currency and may simply have been a mistake which spread briefly) from the Old French riban (ribbon), a variant of reuban & ruban, probably from a Germanic compound whose second element is related to band, similar to the Middle Dutch ringhband (necklace). The familiar modern spelling first appeared in the mid-sixteenth century, originally to describe as stripe in a fabric or material.  The spelling riband endures as descriptor of awards, often in polo or other equestrian hobbies of the horsey set although the informal phrase “blue riband event” is applied also to what is considered the premier contest in a particular competition.  This includes things like the men’s 100m sprint at the Olympics, the Melbourne Cup during the Spring Racing Carnival or the Monaco Grand Prix in the Formula One calendar.  The origin of this use is in the wide blue ribbon worn by members of the highest order of knighthood, L'Ordre des chevaliers du Saint-Esprit, instituted by Henri III (1551–1589; King of France 1574-1589) in 1578, an order colloquially known as “Le Cordon Bleus” (the Blue Ribbons).  From this the world of cooking adopted Cordon Bleu, the famous French cooking school, founded in 1895, where chefs wear blue cord on their aprons, a color scheme still seen in many chefs’ uniforms.

USS United States.

Although not formalized until 1935, the Trans-Atlantic Blue Riband is the honor awarded to the passenger liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean in regular service with the highest speed.  Thirty-five Atlantic liners have held the record, the accolade first (retrospectively) won by the British SS Sirius in 1838 which crossed at 8.03 knots (14.87 km/h), the last by the USS United States which in 1952 made 35.59 knots (65.91 km/h).  The 1952 mark remains unbroken; those which subsequently have achieved higher speeds being specialized vessels and not liners in the Atlantic passenger service and other awards have been created to acknowledge the absolute speed records in various classes of competition.  The advent of the jet-age ended the era of the fast ocean-liner.  The Boeing 707 and Douglas DC8 both began regular trans-Atlantic services in 1958 and the business of the big ships went into decline, revived periodically during periods of economic buoyancy as cruise liners with an emphasis on packaged tourism for the middle-class and luxury for the rich rather than speed.  The Record of the USS United States seems unlikely to be broken.

Lindsay Lohan in Phillip Lim Runway Tiered Ribbon Shell; shoes are Yves Saint Laurent Tribute Pumps in black.

Tiered ribbon constructions are based on the idea of successive layers of ribbons assembled (usually horizontally) to create a fabric which can be used for any form of design.  The term is used also in the wedding cake business where a thick ribbon is used to encircle each layer of the cake, the idea usually that it ties in thematically some way with the ceremony, the bridesmaid's dresses or the table napkins being wise choices.  With the bride, the table cloths and the cake icing all in white, navy blue is a good choice.     

Ribbon dates from the 1520s and was a variant of the Middle English riband & riban.  The modern spelling was (more or less) standardized in the sixteenth century, describing a “stripe in fabric”, the sense of a "narrow woven band of some find material" for ornamental or other purposes known by the 1520s while the familiar meaning (long, thin, flexible strips) dates from 1763.  The use to describe the "ink-soaked strip wound on a spool for use on a typewriter" was from 1883 and the idea of a “torn strip of anything” was in use by 1820 and as a verb (adorn with ribbons), use dates from 1716.  The custom of wearing colored ribbon loops on the lapel to declare support for a cause (pink for breast cancer, copper for herpes etc) began is 1991 with AIDS red ribbons and there’s now such an array that of the hundreds of causes now ribboned, there are many duplications so the ribbons sometimes include text, the other differentiation being to use multiple colors, teal & purple for example claimed by suicide awareness.