So, this starts with the local currency of Laroth (Laroth is not a single country, and does not have a unified currency, but that’s for another post- I’ll just treat it as such here) which originally consisted of Chinese-style silver coins with holes in the middle. These holes meant that you could string them up on a piece of cord and carry large amounts of them easily that way. (This also served as a standardised unit, but again that’s for a future post about currency.)

People start wearing these strings on their belts, since pockets aren’t really a thing yet. Rich people, to show off, start wearing large amounts of them, all around their waists. Not only does this show off that they have that much money, it also shows that they can walk around in public with that much money without worrying about thieves and robbers, whether that is because they can afford to hire bodyguards or for some other reason. This still isn’t enough flaunting for some though, so they start using fancier materials, replacing the plain cord with gold/silver chains, or intricately patterned ribbons.

This currency stays around for a fairly long amount of time (how long exactly I haven’t decided yet) and this trend becomes pretty well-established in Larothan culture as a way for the rich to show off. It starts seeping into the fashion of the lower classes as well, as a set of plain ribbons or tassels attached to the belt.

Eventually, Laroth switches to coins without holes in them (again, Laroth has multiple currencies and not all of them did) and people started carrying their money in pockets (the medieval kind not the modern kind), purses, wallets, etc. The ribbons now end up entirely useless for carrying money, but by this point they’ve been a part of Larothan fashion for a long time and so they stick around, except since they can’t carry money it becomes entirely about the ribbons themselves.

Since they no longer have to serve a practical purpose, these evolve into many styles. Some are plain, just dyed with more expensive dyes (reds, blues, greens, purples). These are mostly worn by peasants and such. Then they get fancier with patterns and tassels and so on. Some incorporate bits of gold, silver, lumin, and other precious materials. Some have beads or glass or other decoration. Some have elements evoking the coins they once held, while others completely ignore the history of the garment and are made in ways that could never hold a coin.

They differ massively based on class, and there are many regional variants- especially since some areas did not move away from the old style of coins with holes, so they still serve their original coin-holding purpose there.