Ancient Costumes - History and Influence

In fact, garments for men and women differed very little - up to the period when the barbarous tribes of the North made their appearance, or rather, until the invasion of the Roman Empire by these wandering nations.

The Greeks made scarcely any change in their mode of dress for centuries.

However, the Romans, on becoming masters of the world, partially adopted the dress and arms of the people they had conquered, where they considered them an improvement on their own, although the original style of dress was but little altered.

Ancient Costumes - The Roman Era

The simple tunic with sleeves, which answered to our shirt, was like the modern blouse in shape, and was called by various names.

The chiridota was a tunic with long and large sleeves, of Asiatic origin; the manuleata was a tunic with long and tight sleeves coming to the wrists; the talaris was a tunic reaching to the feet; the palmata was a state tunic, embroidered with palms, which ornamentation was often found in other parts of dress.

Other ancient costumes included the lacerna, loena, cucullus, chlamys, sagum, and the paludamentum.

These were upper garments, more or less coarse, either full or scant, and usually short, and were analogous to our cloaks, mantles, &c., and were made both with and without hoods.

There were many varieties of the tunic and cloak invented by female ingenuity, as well as of other articles of dress, which formed elegant accessories to the toilet, but there was no essential alteration in the national costume, nor was there any change in the shape of the numerous descriptions of shoes.

The barbarian invasions brought about a revolution in the dress as well as in the social state of the people, and it is from the time of these invasions that we may date, properly speaking, the history of modern dress.

The ancient Roman costume, which was in use at the same time as that of the Franks, the Huns, the Vandals, the Goths, and other Germanic tribes, was subjected to various changes down to the ninth century.

These modifications increased afterwards to such an extent that, towards the fourteenth century, the original type of Roman "costume" had altogether disappeared.

Ancient Costumes - The Gallo-Roman Era

The northern nations, on the contrary, had early learned to protect themselves against the severity of the climate in which they lived.

Thus the garments known to them as braies, and by the Parthians as sarabara, doubtless gave origin to those which have been respectively called by us chausses, haut-de-chausses, trousses, grègues, culottes, and pantalons.

These wandering people had other reasons for preferring the short and close-fitting garments to those which were long and full, and these were their innate pugnacity, which forced them ever to be under arms, their habit of dwelling in forests and thickets, their love of the chase, and their custom of wearing armor.

The ancient Greeks and Romans always went bareheaded in the towns; but in the country, in order to protect themselves from the direct rays of the sun, they wore hats much resembling our round hats, made of felt, plaited rushes, or straw. Other European nations of the same period also went bareheaded, or wore caps made of skins of animals, having no regularity of style, and with the shape of which we are but little acquainted.

Shoes, and head-dresses of a definite style, belong to a much more modern period, as also do the many varieties of female dress, which have been known at all times and in all countries under the general name of robes.

The girdle was only used occasionally, and its adoption depended on circumstances; the women used it in the same way as the men, for in those days it was never attached to the dress. The great difference in modern female costume consists in the fact of the girdle being part of the dress, thus giving a long or short waist, according to the requirements of fashion.

As a result, a complete revolution took place in ancient costumes as loose or tight, and long or short sleeves were introduced.

The Germanic Period

The Frankish Period & Classical Elements

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