Friendship bracelets are everywhere, but the best memories of them are from the kids of the 90s

A perennial favorite at sleepaway camps, these days friendship bracelets aren’t just for kids, they’re for adults too. And some have a terribly adult price tag.

In a Vogue overview of luxury friendship bracelets, including one that can be personalized with designer Jemma Wynne’s initials, fetching a whopping $3,360.

Then of course there are the homemade, candy-colored beaded versions that Taylor Swift fans have been talking to each other during the Era tours, in an ode to one of her lyrics(Before they got together, Swift’s own boyfriend, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelcecheeky made one for her (with his number on it.)

Swifties weren’t the first to wear friendship bracelets. Ravers also swap beaded bracelets, called “Kandi”, and hippies in the 60s and 70s loved macrame bracelets. As the Guardian notesAccording to some sources, friendship bracelets can be traced back to the indigenous communities of Central and South America.

For many, the appeal of the friendship bracelet is rooted in 90s nostalgia. When I was growing up, a friendship bracelet—usually made of cheap, colorful knitted yarn but sometimes with beads—was the ultimate playground status symbol.

When a friend strapped one to your wrist after making one themselves, it was tangible proof that your friendships were strong and your social calendar was booked solid for the summer.

Raised in Eastern Connecticut, DIY expert and YouTuber Becky SternHer big sister first taught her how to make the knotted style with embroidery floss, before the duo moved on to making hemp bracelets. Like many ’90s kids, Stern’s memories of friendship bracelets are intertwined with sleepaway camp.

“I remember racing to get a bracelet done before camp week was over so you could send your new camp BFF home with it,” the 39-year-old told HuffPost. “Going back to school in the fall with full wrists was a sign of a summer well spent.”

In general, being handy does not earn you social capital in school, as it does on a basketball or cheerleading team. One exception was showing finesse while making friendship bracelets.

“If you were known for complex designs, you could become popular by ‘being the one who could show you how to make the chevron’ or whatever it was,” Stern said. “I was generally unpopular in school, but sometimes felt that way at summer camp.”

According to tradition, you are not allowed to take off friendship bracelets until they fall off your wrist or your friendship is broken (whichever happens first). At some point, the bracelets get a little worn out.

“I remember how gross it felt to have wet wrists after swimming or showering while wearing all those cotton bracelets,” Stern told HuffPost. “As an adult with sensory issues, I could never repeat that trend!”

Virginia Dickensa 32-year-old comedy writer in New York City, associates friendship bracelets specifically with family summer vacations to Lake Erie, Ohio. Her family has spent the Fourth of July week there for generations, and the kids always had a beach project to keep them busy. Things like gluing sea glass onto picture frames or making friendship bracelets.

Like many friendship bracelet enthusiasts, Dickens is quick to point to the “Klutz: Friendship Bracelets” when asked how she learned how to make them. (After all, this was back in the days when everything was simpler, before YouTube tutorials.)

“You can make them anywhere — just tape the string to a book or clipboard and tie it off,” she said. “I remember making them for my parents. Sometimes they would wear them or use them as bookmarks for their beach reading.”

Although girls often wear friendship bracelets, Dickens recalls that they are generally neutral.

“That Klutz book was very much about girls, but ― at least at the lake in the ’90s and early ’00s ― boys and girls were making these bracelets and trading them,” she said. “We used ‘boy colors’ for the boy bracelets.”

Dickens has undergone a few surgeries in recent years. During her recovery, she needed something to ease her mind, so she rekindled her knowledge of the Klutz book and made friendship bracelets for her girlfriends. (Her other recommendation for cute patterns? Friendship-bracelets.net.)

“I can do the patterns in the book pretty quickly now and finish one in a couple of hours ― knotting is like muscle memory,” she said. “I’ve made bracelets with ducks, ice cream, watermelon, and bracelets with super intricate patterns. It’s really fun and relaxing, and it keeps me off my phone.”

Maria Makarova, a 26-year-old crafter who calls herself Masha Knots onlinenever expanded into making friendship bracelets either. She is part of an online bracelet making community that has a fun tradition of sending each other half-finished bracelets and finishing each other’s work.

Makarova, who lives in London, wrote an instruction book She is interested in the craft and runs a YouTube channel where she posts weekly bracelet tutorials, challenges and discussion videos.

“Interestingly, I find that my online audience ranges from young children to people in their 60s and 70s,” Makarova told HuffPost. “I always find the responses from people from older generations heartwarming. They love sharing stories about making bracelets in their youth, and I love hearing them.”

Sarah Stearnsa professional crafter with 35 years of experience who is known for her crochet projects, said friendship bracelets were a big part of her growing up in the Midwest in the 1990s.

“My friends and I started a club in elementary school that made bracelets. It was a lot of fun. We got together during recess and after school for the Girl Scouts,” she says.

Today, Stearns is the mother of a daughter who loves friendship bracelets.

“She was so proud when she finished her first bracelet, and now she’s making them for her friends, her older brother, and even her grandma,” Stearns said. “She went to summer camp this year and came back so excited to make them. It’s cool to see her get interested in something that I loved at her age.”

While friendship bracelets are still most popular at summer camps and Taylor Swift concerts, the first friendship bracelet was found in space in November 2023.

That fall—at the height of the Eras Tour craze—astronaut and self-proclaimed Swiftie Kellie Gerardi took her friendship bracelets with her on the Galactic 05 research mission.

“I was only the 90th woman in history to fly to space,” Gerardi told People magazine in July“It became really important to me not to water down my personality or femininity in an attempt to fit society’s expectations of what a space professional should look like – instead, I wanted to expand that image to include myself,” she added.

“Ultimately, doing science in space with a wrist full of friendship bracelets was the perfect way for me to embrace that complexity,” said Gerardi, who is also a mother of 6-year-old daughter, Delta V.

Like a good ’90s kid, Gerardi traded in her expensive friendship bracelets once she was back on solid ground.

“It was also the perfect way for me to do something special for all of my girlfriends who have always supported my dreams and traveled to my launch to cheer me on,” she said. “I was able to trade a spaceflight ‘Astronaut Era’ bracelet with each of them!”