remove the loop—or have it torn off by a romantic partner—as a public sign that they were no longer available.
It’s a wonderfully strange piece of fashion folklore.
But there’s an important caveat: the tradition was never universal or consistently documented.
Its meaning appears to have varied between campuses and social groups,
romantic status.
The story goes something like this:
An intact loop meant you were single.
A loop that had been deliberately torn off supposedly signaled that the wearer was already in
