Reason why you've seen so many celebrities wearing red bracelets on their left wrists
Red string bracelets were a Hollywood trend in the early noughties - but why?
Warning: This article contains references to sexual assault which some readers may find distressing
Last week, Tyla reported on the sudden surge in big-name stars donning red lens sunglasses, with one sleep expert suggesting there's actually a hidden health hack behind the choice.
Looking back recently on other noughties trends, however, we noticed a similar spike in the wearing of red bracelets amongst Hollywood stars - only this time, the reasoning is significantly more mysterious.
As we say, if you look super closely as archived red carpet images from the early 2000s, you'll see that a stream of stars wearing thin, red bracelets on their left arm.
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In fact, you'd struggle to find a photo of the likes of Madonna, Ashton Kutcher or Lindsay Lohan not wearing a delicate band - which actually looked more like a piece of red string - to star-studded soirees.
They weren't the only ones, however.
You'd often see Kutcher's ex-wife Demi Moore with a similar bracelet, as well as Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Naomi Campbell.
Now, I know what you're thinking - either Pandora had a sale on red bracelets that particular year, or it's giving cult.
Well, if the latter seemed most likely to you, you'd be pretty close - because, it turns out that flame-red string bracelets are actually associated with a mystical religion known as Kabbalah.
The movement has long been associated with Judaism - with the word itself being Hebrew, and meaning 'received knowledge' or 'tradition - with beliefs involved dating back to the Torah and having been accepted since the 12th century.
The religion's official website describes Kabbalah as 'an ancient wisdom that provides practical tools for creating joy and lasting fulfilment. It’s an incredible system of technology that will completely change the way you look at your world'.
That said, however, the movement appeared to reach its cultural impact at the very beginning of the 21st century - when the likes of Monica Lewinsky, James Van Der Beek, Mick Jagger, Mary-Kate Olsen and Elizabeth Taylor joined.
And apparently, red bracelets are the most tell-tale sign of someone's involvement in the Kabbalah movement - worn on the left wrist to ward off both 'evil and misfortune' that could be 'caused by the evil eye'.
This Hollywood prominence lasted for several years - until around the time that Rebekah and Adam Neumann joined.
The latter co-founded a (now bankrupt) workspace corporation called WeWork, and began controversially incorporating their Kabbalah beliefs into their financial empire - a story told by Anne Hathaway and Jared Leto in the Apple TV+ drama WeCrashed.
It was around this time that many A-listers - including several of those already mentioned - took a step back from Kabbalah, with many citing money and exploitation as the reason why.
Supermodel Jerry Hall told Index Magazine in 2005 that she'd quit after a year when she was asked to hand over 10 percent of her income to use her local Kabbalah Centre, admitting: "We couldn’t study it any more."
Madonna - who previously spent £3.5 million on a London townhouse that she turned into a Kabbalah Centre - also distanced herself from the movement due to money.
A NewsWeek investigation found that she and Yehuda Berg (the son of rabbi Phillip Berg - who is credited as having brought Kabbalah practices to the US in 1962 following a trip to Israel) raised $18 million through their joint Raising Malawi Foundation to build a girls' school there, but the project folded after it was found that $3 million had been spent at the Los Angeles Kabbalah Centre instead.
Yehuda Berg was also sued by a former Kabbalah student, who accused him of trying to drug and sexually assault her.
Rhianna Benson