This is part of a series of brief guides to the ancient world, a chance for me to revise and show off my expensive education at the same time! I’ll start with some shorter reference pieces, later in the series I’ll move onto wider themes in art, archaeology and all that jazz. These guides will be very informal, so to all you classics and history students out there, don’t even think about plagiarising them, they’ll be no use to you as they won’t be in formal essay-style prose. Enjoy!

Ancient Egypt

Egyptian clothing was largely made from linen, far more suitable for the hot climate than heavy wool. Silk was used occasionally, there have been traces found in some of the tombs. Animal skins, especially leopard skins, were worn sometimes over linen garments by priests and pharaohs, so we assume it had some special symbolism to it. Feathers were also used sometimes to adorn ceremonial headgear, like the atef crown worn by the god Osiris. What’s our evidence for Egyptian clothing? Well most of it comes from art, especially tomb paintings, reliefs and statuary, but some of the garments themselves have survived, thanks to the hot, dry conditions in some tombs.

The Garments

We don’t know for sure what the Egyptians called their clothes, but Herodotus (the famous historian and spinner of tall tales from Halicarnassas) refers to their tunics “kalasiris”. Men generally wore loincloths or kilts, which varied in length and style depending on the period of history (Egypt has a long and complex history, but the art and fashions changed very little over thousands of years) and the age of the wearer. Sometimes, a long thin kilt would be worn over a shorter one, a fashion particularly popular in the New Kingdom. Women tended to wear sheath dresses in the Old and Middle Kingdom periods, but it’s not very likely these were quite as tight as they look in the paintings, else the poor girls wouldn’t be able to move! Artistic representations of people were highly idealised, so an extremely tight dress was a good way to show off a woman’s shapely figure. In the New Kingdom, long, pleated, lightweight garments came into vogue, which seem to be one big piece of material knotted under the bust. Shoes are rarely shown in paintings, but those that survive are either flip-flop style sandals or slippers, usually made of reeds or similarly thick materials.

A drawing of the family of Thutmoses I: Queen Ahmose in a sheath dress and tripartite wig, Thutmoses in a kilt and tripartite wig and one of their daughters with a sidelock

Where the Egyptians really came into their own was in jewellery. Wealthy Egyptians, in art and in burials at least, were practically dripping with semi-precious stones and gold (and lots of amulets, but I’ll talk about those in a later article). Broad, beaded collars with counter weights (called menats) at the back are probably the most famous type of Egyptian jewellery, but bracelets, armlets, anklets, and pendant necklaces are seen just as commonly. Earrings became particularly fashionable after the Eighteenth Dynasty (we tend to talk about Egyptian dates in terms of dynasties not dates because, well, most of the time we don’t know the dates) when the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten introduced the pierced ear to the royal sphere. Egyptian earrings, incidentally, were enormous: some resembled modern flesh plugs; others were huge, heavy discs or rings; others still were elaborate dangly affairs, some up to six inches long and made of solid gold! Ouch. Hip-girdles are often seen on women too, especially serving girls in banquet scenes. These were designed to be as sexy as possible: slung across the hips of a nude girl, often with cowrie shells or cowrie shell shaped beads, which resemble vulvas. Some examples have been found with tiny beads inside the shells so that they’d make tinkling noises when the girl moved, drawing even more attention to her hips.

The Egyptians also loved wigs, not only as decorative pieces but also because they helped protect the wearer from the sun. Sometimes worn over a shaven head, but just as often over natural hair, these were elaborately coiffed affairs arranged into spiral ringlets or plaits. They were designed to look as unnatural as possible since wearing a wig was a sign of wealth. Wigs could have partings but didn’t always, and there were three main styles: a shortish style similar to a modern bob; the tripartite style arranged in three parts, two smaller bits in front of the shoulders and a larger mass down the back; and the enveloping style, a great thick mass that covered the ears and shoulders. Children had their heads shaved but for a plaited sidelock.

Related to costume and jewellery are the large cones of fat which can be seen on the heads of figures in banquet scenes. These cones were scented so that as they melted, the wearer would be covered with perfumed oil. Sounds a bit nasty today, but these were a real luxury: smelling nice was an elite attribute!

Egyptian women wearing collars, cones of fat and knotted garments, with a nude attendant with a hip girdle

Ancient Greece

Wigs were out, jewellery was simpler, hair was the wearer’s own, and clothing was more elaborate. The Greeks, like the Egyptians, used their clothing to signify their wealth and status but made more accommodation for practical uses too. We know a great deal about Greek clothing thanks to the survival of Greek literature, as well as painted pottery, statuary and tomb paintings in the Hellenistic period. Here I’ll be talking mostly about the Classical period, that’s the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Archaic fashions (seventh and sixth centuries BC) were pretty similar, although there’s evidence that highly patterned, skin-tight bodysuits, as worn in the East, were popular for a while. The only other radically different fashion in pre-Classical Greece was during the Bronze Age in Minoan Crete, when wasp-waists and ruffled kilts were in vogue, giving an almost Edwardian silhouette but with exposed breasts, which I don’t think the Edwardians would have allowed!

The Garments

The main all-purpose garment of the Greek world was the chiton (pronounced “kee-tohn”) a sort of tunic made from a piece of woollen or linen material and secured at the shoulders and waist. It could have sleeves or no sleeves, it could be girdled under the bust or around the hips, it could have open sides or sewn sides, it was basically very versatile. There are Doric and Ionic variations, but I can never remember the difference except that the Doric one has an extra fold in it. The length varied, but women’s chitons always reached the ankle. Men’s chitons could be knee length, ankle length or even longer, depending on the level of movement the wearer required. Slaves are often shown with shorter chitons, charioteers often wear long ones girdled under the armpits. Women’s chitons were considered very feminine, Aphrodite usually wore one, and sometimes effeminate men are shown in long chitons for the same reason, Dionysus often wears one. Chitons were often worn with a long cloak called a himation (pronounced “him-ah-tee-on”) which could be worn as a veil, a shawl or wrapped around as a cloak. Think of the himation as a mini-toga. In fact, the “togas” worn by many a drunken student at “toga parties” more resemble the himation than an actual toga!

A woman in a chiton

Another common form of female dress was the peplos (this one’s easy, “pep-loss”) a tube of heavy cloth folded over at the top and then pinned to the shoulders. It was fashionable in the late sixth century and the fifth century, but appears less in later art, when thin, clingy fabric was the in-thing to have flouncing around your temple. Athena always wears a peplos, but the fold in hers is tucked into her girdle.

Other common garments were the chlamys (“clam-iss”), a short cloak worn by travellers usually shown pinned by a single brooch, and the exomis (“ecks-oh-mis”) a short tunic. The Greeks were also very keen on hats, with lots of variants, most common were the petasos (another easy one, “pet-ah-sos”) a hat with a brim often worn by travellers (and the god Hermes), and the pilos (“pee-loss”) a hat like the petasos but without the brim (and also the name of a similarly shaped helmet).

Men wearing petasoi

Jewellery was less in-your-face than Egyptian styles, the Greeks liked simple earrings, pendants, ring-shaped or torc-shaped bracelets and the occasional hair spiral or ring. Fibulae, safety-pin like brooches, were very common in the Bronze and Iron Ages but became less common when the peplos went out of style. Like the Egyptians, however, the Greeks put a lot of effort into hairstyles. In the Archaic period, long hair was desired, since it showed that the wearer didn’t need to be active and could live a life of luxury. In the Classical period wealthy women still had longer hair than their slaves, but men often went for short “athletic” hairstyles, practical for a day at the gymnasion or for battle. Longer men’s hair might be rolled up or plaited around the back of the head. Since the men of Athens (Athens is usually used as the “typical” Greek lifestyle, although it was anything but, simply because most of the literature comes from there) spent a lot of time exercising nude, styled pubic hair is often seen on statues and paintings (and pity the poor scholar who has to learn those different styles!) often to give the illusion that the man is slightly younger than he really is. Beards wear often worn by older men. Women’s hairstyles were often elaborate, showing they had plenty of time to sit around and be styled. It could be styled into a sort of updo with hair-bands and ties, or left loose with a band around the top of the head. Some women tried to bleach their hair with vinegar or urine since blonde hair was a rare ideal, whether or not they were successful is a different matter.

Ancient Rome and the Roman Empire

Roman fashions were in many ways similar to Greeks, not that they’d like you to think that! The Romans were very wary of what they thought of as “Greek” behaviour, especially nude exercise, but would grudgingly admit they owed a certain debt to them. As with Greece, we have plenty of literary sources, statues and reliefs as evidence for the styles in the Republican and Imperial periods. (Incidentally, I’m less interested in the Romans so they get less space than the others, sorry Romans!)

The Garments

As in Greece, peploi and chitons were the most common female garments. Married women also wore a stola, best described as a loose strappy dress over their chiton. For warmth a woman might wear a palla, a long cloak similar to the Greek himation, which may vary in length or have a fringe. Men wore a simple white tunic with red bands along each side if the wearer was of equestrian or senatorial rank, but most importantly, once a man reached maturity, he wore a toga, a long piece of material wrapped at the waist, draped over the arm then tucked into itself at the waist. The toga was a sign of Roman citizenship, but could also indicate that the wearer was an electoral candidate if pure white, that the wearer was in mourning if dark coloured, that the wearer was a magistrate if with a purple boarder, or that the wearer was a triumphal general if purple and gold (also worn by the emperors occasionally). The only women who wore togas were prostitutes, in a curious reversal of status between the genders. Young, upper class lads might wear a toga in formal occasions, but normally children just wore tunics and the bulla bag around their necks, an oval-shaped leather bag containing protective amulets (you might’ve seen replicas of these on sale at Roman sites, I have one from Fishbourne villa somewhere).

A man in a magistrate’s toga

Jewellery in Rome was quite similar to Greek jewellery: simple dangly earrings, beaded necklaces, fibulae, bracelets and rings were often worn by women. Men of office often wore signet rings, and similar cameos made of semi-precious stones might be worn by either sex.