Ancient Greek Clothes
Often we have to look to our past to understand our future. Considered one of the first great civilizations, Greek culture is studied in depth. This brings us to the subject of ancient Greek clothes.
Ancient Greek Clothes
Ancient Greek clothes have been easily researched from carvings, tombs, ruins, sculptures and art depicting scenes of their every day life. Greek clothes were very simple and light, even for the Gods and Goddesses. A comprehensible fact to keep in mind is the hot climate of Hellas, the ancient Greek name of Greece.
Greeks wore loose clothes generally white, otherwise dyed in bright color or bleached. Clothing consisted of several pieces with the chiton confectioned in linen for summer and wool during winter. The chiton was a long square garment attached along the arms with pins to make sleeves and a belt round the waist. It is quite similar to the tunics we wear today. Chitons were unisex clothes made by mothers, daughters, and female slaves using long pieces of fabric. Chitons generally were decorated with embroidery on the bottom representing the city-state in which the individual lived.
Historians and archaeologists have found that clothing, like art, was influenced by the different Greek periods. They found particular Doric clothing existed from the beginning of the archaic period, and other versions from the Ionic that was a later adoption of the original. Research found that women wore peplos, a sort of shorter embroidered tunic, placed over chitons.
Depending on the weather, some Greeks wore cloaks or loincloth, sometimes used as a blanket if they needed. Greeks used to walk barefoot, particularly in the house. Outdoors they sometimes wore light leather sandals or boots in rocky terrain. Babies usually wore nothing, except cloth diapers, while children's clothing consisted of cloth wrapped around their middles. Older men wore draped mantles either alone or over their chitons. Another clothing item only worn by travelers was the Chalmys, a smaller rectangle placed over one of their shoulder.
Chitons and peplos were the basic garments worn by Greeks for centuries. As you can see, ancient Greek clothes were definitely designed with simplicity and comfort in mind.
