1) In lists which feature items of clothing this can refer to a thin piece of material, often worn around the neck.
It was originally functional, serving to fasten a piece of clothing but then became decorative. References date mostly to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In Malton, a woman was arrested in 1622 for stealing … six coifes value 6d
two bandes value 6d
one ruffe band and one falling band value 12d .
2) A tie to secure bundles of things, or any item by which the parts of a complex object are held together.
1473 les strokis, nalez et Bandys unius paris Rotarum, Kippax
1595 for two pair of Jointed irone bands for the northe ille dowre, Howden
1632 for band strings, Thornhill.