Metropolis

Dress at The Turn of the 20th Century

2007-03-18T13:58:00.000-07:00

La Belle Époque 1890-1914

Women's dress in the 1890's continued to be built in a sturdy, heavy, upholstered style, but the silhouette changed to that of an hour glass. Female bodies were corseted to a small waist, and then padded in the buttocks, hips, bosom and sleeves to exaggerate the apparent wasp-waisted effect.

Hats began to grow larger in the 1890's, a trend that continued steadily until 1911.

Men's Dress in the 1890's took a turn towards greater formality and dandyism in Europe, and went in the opposite direction in the U.S. where the popular mode was brightly colored sportswear.

American men of around 1900 tried to emulate the image of the "Arrow Shirt Man" drawn by J.C.Leyendecker, with brightly colored shirts and hard white tubular collars worn under the sporty Sack Suit jackets, that had recently moved up from sport clothes to business wear. During this period in the US, the European fashion for Frock coats like the Prince Albert Coat and the Cutaway is gradually displaced by the sack, so much so that even rich American men sport an evening version of the sack, the Tuxedo, to male only parties and semi formal events.

Most women's dress in this era was highly influenced by the advancing feminist cause, which after 1903 escalated to widespread civil disobedience by "Suffragettes" (radical suffragists). Women modeled their behavior and appearance upon the Gibson Girl the popular image of the "New Woman". Men's clothing styles such as the suit, shirt, hard collar and tie were worn by women forcing themselves into professions formerly occupied by men. Health fads of the 1890's and 1900's also encouraged women's sporting activities, particularly bicycling, which, in turn promoted sport clothing as a fashion.

Dress reform, continued to be a hot topic in this period, even gaining such notable adherents as Mark Twain.

Artists such as Mariano Fortuny in Italy and the Wiener Werkstaette group in Austria continued to design Aesthetic reform costumes such as Fortuny's Delphos Dress, and dress became progressively more comfortable, practical and aesthetically pleasing in this whole era. The beauty of the designs worn in this era are so apparent that the period 1890-1914 is commonly called la Belle Époque ("The Beautiful Epoch")

Mario Fortuny

Women's clothing after 1900 became lighter and lighter in construction and materials. A popular style in this period was the "Lingerie Dress" a feather-light white cotton dress inset with strips of open work lace and net.

After 1908, women's dress became more vertical in line, and less "S" curved. The vertical line became so pronounced after 1910 that highly fashionable dresses tended to hobble the wearer. Corsets began to be replaced by brasseries and other light foundation garments

Victorian Clothing:The Dress in The First and Second Bustle Periods

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Fashionable women's dress in the era of the 1870's and 1880's, while looking quite modest to modern eyes, was viewed as unashamedly erotic in it's own day. The bustle, the cornerstone on which women's dress depended, focused the majority of the decoration and clothing focus on a woman's backside, and emphasized the movement of that body part to heroic proportions.

The dress of the first bustle period (1870's) is noted for the lightness of it's material and decoration, swathing the lower reaches of a woman's body in numerous ruffles and pleats, often in light colors using the new and vibrant aniline dyes.

Late in this decade (1878-79) was the "Fishtail" style, where the lower part of the skirt was tight, and ended in a train.

The second bustle period (the 1880's) is heavier, with decoration more resembling upholstery style. Colors get more Jewel-toned and velvets, heavy satins and brocades replace the taffetas and cottons of the 1870's. Surface decoration is often of passementarie or jet beads, giving the whole ensemble a more mature flavor.

Men's Dress

Men's dress in this era continues in it's general dullness but begins to be enlivened with sportswear, an area that continues to provide the most intriguing variants of men's dress.

Dress during the 1870's and 1880's came more and more under the influence of the Rational Dress Movement and the Aesthetic Movement . Dress reform from artists, feminists and socialists provided a continuous counterpoint to the more frivolous dress of fashionable women, and the more tedious dress of fashionable men.

DRESS REFORM MOVEMENT 1850-1914

Dress reformers o f the Aesthetic movement such as Oscar Wilde promoted jewel-toned velvet suits with breeches for men, but only found a lasting audience among mothers who dressed small boys in "Little Lord Fauntleroy" suits in this style. Caricaturists such as George du Maurier simultaneously lampooned the Aesthetic dress even as they spread it's influence. The Gilbert and Sullivan opera Patience spread the Aesthetic style to America, with costumes from Liberty Co. where it was transformed in the following decades into the Arts and Crafts Movement. Women's aesthetic dress, with it's semi medieval lines and uncorseted waists were transformed by popular taste into the Teagown, a fashionable lady's at home garment.
Rational dress advocates like George Bernard Shaw tried to popularize Jaeger combination suits (which resembled woolen long johns), but were laughed off the streets. Dr Jaeger's more conservative ensembles of wool knickers and a Norfolk jacket however were accepted as men's sportswear even among the fashionable.

Victorian Clothing:The "Romantic" Period

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The Rise of the Industrial Revolution

Clothing from 1825-1850
The trend towards sexual dimorphism in dress reaches an absurd apex in this period. Men's fashion becomes a series of undecorated black tubes, like the smoke stacks of the The Industrial Revolution (an analogy they were even conscious of at the time), while women's dress continues to balloon out with ruffles, decorations and petticoats until women look like ambulatory wedding cakes.

Both men's and women's dress becomes more complex during this era due to the invention of the Sewing Machine, and the popular dissemination of pattern books and systems for garment cutting. Men's clothing construction, while outwardly simple, begins to acquire the internal padding, interfacings and complex structure that makes modern men's suits fall so smoothly even over an object as lumpy and mobile as the human form.
Elias Howe, the inventor of the first mass produced, practical sewing machine, originally demonstrated it's utility to a group of prospective investors by holding a sewing race between himself and his machine, and ten professional hand stitchers. He easily won, and the economic situation of stitchers (mostly female) declined as a consequence of the adoption of the invention. With a sewing machine, a stitcher could produce ten times the output as before, with greater quality, but the stitcher rarely could afford the machine, and with so many stitchers out of work, stitchers were easily replaceable. Industrialists would invest in the machines, hire the stitchers cheaply, and then swallow the profits that their increased output produced. With profits so high, soon competition between manufacturers of clothes got fierce, and so producers tried to "improve" their product by adding more sewing decoration, such as ruffles, pleats, and top stitching, to lure customers. The end result was that fashionable Women's dress became incredibly over decorated in the 19th Century.

Another result of this increased output in clothing manufacture was that poor people's clothing got better, and the rags of earlier eras were replaced by cheaply made mass manufactured work clothes. The middle classes were able to afford more than clean simple clothes, and began to actively indulge in fashion for it's own sake.

"The Last of England" by Ford Maddox Brown, showing the dress of poor English people as they emigrate to Australia.

Fashionable women's dress grew more and more cumbersome and impractical during the 1830's and 1840's. The visual line of 1840's gowns, hats and headdress all point down, and the eyes of women depicted in fashion plates are demurely cast to the floor. The increasing size of the skirts, held out only with voluminous and usually unsanitary crinoline (horsehair canvas) petticoats, made the weight of the skirts oppressive, and movement awkward. Tight laced Corsets of a waist-cinching style, pinched the waist without providing the back supporting properties of corsets of other eras.
This is the time of the tortured and victimized Bronte heroines, not to mention the tortured and victimized Bronte Sisters themselves. The 1840's proved such a low point for women in Western history, that the worm finally turned, and women began to organize and agitate for the vote, dress reform, and the right to enter schools and professions closed to them.

Regency and Empire

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French Revolution and Empire Periods

This time frame from 1789-1825 is actually several different sub-periods. The first, 1789-1799, the period of The French Revolution, is a sharp transition period. The second 1800-1815 is the time of the French Consulate and Empire, and is a stable Neo-classical period. 1815-1825 is the late Neo-classical period that shows a gradual shift towards the Romantic style

Dress in The French Revolution

Dress during this period goes through a massive shift. Late 18th Century women's dress collapses from it's padded and puffed look to a thin, often translucent silhouette. As the French Revolution progressed, different women's styles were adopted that appeared to have reference to the revolutionary politics, social structure and philosophy of the time. In the early 1790's, for example, the "English" or man-tailored style was favored as it hinted towards the leanings of constitutional monarchy. There was a brief fashion for plain dresses in dark colors during the Terror of 1792, but when the Directory took over French fashion again went wild, trying out "Rousseauesque" fashions in "Greek", "Roman", "Sauvage" and "Otaheti" (Tahitian) styles.

The Psudo-"Greek" look proved most popular and was adopted as the standard style in Europe in the late 1790's

Costume for a ball "a la sauvage", 1796. 2. "Greek" style dress, 1797.

A dress of the male style in vogue between 1780-95

Men's
While Men's Costume in the 1790's also becomes thinner in line, it separates it's style from women's dress by beginning to lose nearly all forms of surface decoration, lace and bright color, as "irrational" and feminine effluvia. This change is slow, but it completely alters men's dress by the mid 19th Century into dull dark uniform dress.
Other major changes include the adoption of trousers from the dress of sailors and the urban proletariat of the French Revolution, the passing of the fashions for wigs and hair powder, and the (very temporary) demise of the corset.
The bonnet is invented as a hat that is meant to look like a Greek helmet, but it quickly is altered in style out of all resemblance to the original.

Men's dress also keeps on a fairly steady course towards increasing dullness. Fashion magazines continue to push men's dress towards foppish extremes, but men who actually count in the fashionable world tend to push for plainer styles. Beau Brummell, the leader of male sartorial fashion in England in this period was noted for wearing only black with a white shirt for formal evening wear, a marked departure from the style of the previous century. Tubular and fitted trousers also move from a radical fashion statement to everyday wear for most men of the upper classes.

Men's clothing in this era becomes less and less adventurous in style. The few outlets for male fashion expression (boots, hats, collars and neckties) therefore go to extremes. Neckties in this period were especially important

France 1800 in Max von Boehn's

1822 Vienna from Max von Boehn's

Bonnets from "Wiener Zeitschrift", Vienna, 1820 in Max von Boehn's

Late 18th century

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Wig fashions from 1715-1725 early in the reign of Louis XV

Informal dress with Caraco jacket, 1788.

Fashion of 1779, French court dress, 1780

Rich bourgeoisie in a Caraco jacket, Lady in a formal gown and hairdress "a' la Victoire", elegant woman in a Polonaise, all 1778

Frock coat of green-pink shot taffeta with embroidery, 1780. Coat of green taffeta, (city-gentlemen's dres

1770's hairdos

1775

1770's grand gown from a French fashion plate

Mid 18th century

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Dress of the Winter of 1762.

Two shoes of the 1st half of the 18th Century

Family of upper class bourgeoisie out walking, 1760

Stomachers and dress trim with gold and silver lace, Shoes of rose pink velvet, middle of the 18th Century

Contouche of white linen -work, middle of the 18th Century
1740 French

Back of a Lady's Sack dress, middle of the 18th Century.

Yellow Lady's Dress, middle of the 18th Century

French Hairdress of the 1770's from Stibbert

Early 18th Century Europe

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Hats and wigs of the 1740's from Hogarth, including The Ramillies wig

Wig fashions from 1715-1725 early in the reign of Louis XV.

At the beginning of the 18th Century, the most popular dress wig was the long, full-bottomed wig, left over from the previous century. It dribbled its way out of fashion until the 1720's when it was only worn by professional men such as lawyers and doctors. After 1740, it was only worn by judges and had gone completely out of fashion.

Dress of the Grand Masters of the Hubertus-Ordens, c. 1720

Elegant dress of the Regency period (of Louis XV) in France

Plate by C.Luikon, c.1703

Late 17th Century Europe

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Woman's jacket Justaucorps of rust brown, c. 1690

Leather Justaucorps coat, c. 1700

Gentleman in the fashion of 1689

Gentleman in the fashion of 1693, Young man of the bourgeoisie in 1710

Plates from McClellan's History of American Costume illustrated by Sophy Steele, 1904. The two figures on the left represent an English Quaker Couple of 1685, the figures at right are a French Hugenot couple of 1686

Officer of infantry, 1703. Lieutenant in the guards, 1683,

Mid 17th Century Europe

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Persons of quality in the fashion of 1664, Lady of the court in 1668

Pages of the court in 1662, the Duc d'Orleans, brother to king Louis XIV, 1663.

Standard bearer and officer of the Guards, c. 1635, after Abraham Bosse

Overdress of the Princess Dorothea Sabine Maria, 1639

Doublet of white brocade (?), 1630-1635

Mantle of yellow velvet, c. 1630

ourpoint doublet c.1650

Suit of Karls V of Sweden

velvet shoes, 17th Century

Early 17th Century Europe

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Lady in the fashion of 1605. 2. Lady in the fashion of the end of the reign of Henri IV

Plate by Bosse, 1630

Plate by Rabels

Plate by Palavicini, 1602

Late 16th Century Europe

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Gentleman 1572
Queen Elizabeth I, 1590

French Noblewoman

Frenchwoman

Peasant of Piscane

Plebian Spaniard

Mid 16th century Europe

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Femmes

Femmes

femmes

Portrait of one of the Princesses of the French Royal Family

Henri II

1. c.1520. 2. Gentleman, 1540

Elenore of Castille, second wife of Francois I

Early 16th Century Europe

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Two views of the "French hood" as worn in England.

German Headdress

Two views of the "French hood" as worn in England

Tudor gabled headdress

Early 16th Century French Trumpeteers

German Dress around 1500 from Stibbert

Late Medieval Europe and the Early Italian Renaissance

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Dress in Late Medieval Europe & The Early Italian Renaissance 1350-1500ce

The trend towards greater extravagance in dress, found in the 11th -13th centuries, increases throughout this whole period. Several factors were at work pushing high fashion towards greater and greater consumption: increased exports from the East in the wake of The Crusades, increased production and improved quality of textiles in the West, the wealth of a rising urban tradesman class, and the sudden increased inherited personal wealth of the survivors of the Black Plague (1350-1400).
In Italy these factors operated at a peak because fine fabric production and importation was the cornerstone of the Northern Italian economy. Huge fortunes were made in the Florentine and Venetian city republics by merchants and manufacturers who had no lands or titles with which to claim nobility. These wealthy merchants sought out a way to buy the status that they craved. With fabric as their stock in trade they dressed more lavishly than the landed nobility, and spent fantastic sums on private and public art and architecture to gain social recognition

Young Venetian Gentlemen of the 15th Century from Stibbert

The competition in dress took a new twist in this period. Once one has enough gowns and surcoats in the finest fabrics, and all your peers have the same, how do you compete? Conspicuous consumption will only take you so far, you can only wear one set of clothes at a time. This is when Western dress took it's long trip into fashion and fads. The Italians began to take fabric and cut it and piece it in a complex fashion to fit close to the body, and have a recognizable "cut" that could be adopted and discarded as a "fashion". By combining the intricate cut, piecing and fit usually found in skin-sewn cultures and applying it to fabric, the Italians acquired the means to make clothing with a planned obsolescence. This meant that (as now) clothing could go out of fashion faster than it would wear out. This put anyone, even an aristocrat, without the means to continuously buy new clothing in a place somewhat lower than that of the very rich.
Northern Europe to a lesser degree went through a similar change at this time. Many villages and small towns grew into cities in this period, buoyed up by the wealth that the tradesmen who lived in them generated. Cities did not fit into the feudal social structure of the time, and so had to develop social structures of their own. Not surprisingly they too adopted fashion as a marker of wealth and status, and the fashions of the cities came to be the fashions of the courts and aristocracy.

French women's headdresses of the 15th Century (Stibbert)

As a result this era had a lot of different fashionable garments and accessories in it, a number of which were quite extreme in style. Poulaines were long pointed shoes, worn mainly by men in Northern Europe, these shoes had padded toe points that could extend as far as a full foot length in front of the foot itself, and often present a rather phallic appearance.

15th Century poulaines

Other fashion extremes included the Hennin, a woman's conical headdress popular in Northern Europe of the 15th Century, The Chaperon, a turban like headdress worn in Italy and the North, The Houppelande, a graceful unisex gown which used an amazing quantity of fabric both on the body and trailing on the ground, and parti colored dress, a fashion of piecing many different fabrics together into a single garment, and then there is the Codpiece a padded section of a man's hose intended to contain the sex organs.

Both in the North and in Italy, dress got progressively longer, and more vertical in line as the 15th Century went on. By 1500 upper class dress is heightened by headdress, lengthened with trains and hanging sleeves, and appears to be drawing an obvious parallel with the verticality of the late Gothic religious architecture of the time.

Grand seigneur wearing a houpplande and chaperon, c.1410

Great ladies c. 1450 wearing hennins

12th-15th Century French dress from Racinet.

12th-14th Century men's dress from Racinet.

Byzantium

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Dress in Byzantium (400-1460ce)

Dress in the Eastern Empire, later to be called Byzantium by the West, (although properly called Romania at the time) was directly taken from the later Roman Empire. Strictly speaking Byzantium/Romania was the late Roman Empire, although it's capitol was Constantinople, and it's religion predominantly Christian. The Eastern Empire continued in the Roman tradition until it was shrunk into the space of little more than Constantinople and the southern tip of Greece by successive wars with the Ottoman Turks and Western Christian countries. In 1460 the last vestige of the Eastern Empire was swallowed up into the Ottoman Empire. For more on this topic see What, If Anything, Is A Byzantine? and THE ROMANS Ancient, Medieval and Modern

The Emperor Justinian and his court and clergy, c.510

Late Roman and "Byzantine" dress is more body covering than earlier Roman costume, usually including long sleeves and long hems. This is generally assumed to be a reaction to the growing Christian view that the body was not beautiful, but a pit of vice. When the tunica is shorter (only on men) the lower limbs are encased in trousers, a "barbarian" invention first adopted by the Roman army and lower classes, and eventually (after some aristocratic resistance) by all men. The toga remained for emperors and other high officials in this period, but in vestigial form as a long thin (about 6") strip wrapped round the torso in the traditional manner .

The Empress Theodora, wife of Justinian, and her suite, c. 510

Long half circle capes were part of male court dress, worn in place of the old toga over the new long sleeved tunica. The most notable feature of the Eastern Empire's dress is it's surface decoration. Unlike the earlier period which left fabric largely undecorated, the people of the Byzantine/Romanian Empire used all manner of woven, embroidered and beaded surface embellishment, particularly on Church vestments and court dress. This style of decoration, and many of the garment shapes, survive to this day in the priestly vestments of Orthodox churches in Greece, Eastern Europe and Russia.
Dress in Early Medieval Europe (400-1200ce)
Contemporary with the first part of the Eastern Empire's rule in the western Mediterranean, Western Europe was going through the period known as the "Dark Ages". One rather pithy scholar pretty well summed up the era (400-900ce) as "five hundred years of camping out". Warfare was pretty constant, commerce pretty nearly dead, and stable social and educational institutions almost non-existent.
Few records survive of dress in this period, although there is some rather spectacular jewelry in the style commonly called Celtic which has mainly been found in archeological sites in the British Isles and the Nordic countries. Like the Eastern Empire the dress of Western Europe seems to have consisted of the long sleeved tunic, half circle capes, & trousers. Western men are more often depicted in the short tunic and trouser combination than in long tunics. Shoes and boots were also worn in place of sandals.
It has been suggested that the reason that clothing became longer, heavier and more fitted in this era is that the world weather pattern shifted at that time to make Europe the much colder continent it is now. (In Roman times the weather was so warm in Northern Europe that they had successful vineyards in England, far north of where it is possible to grow them now).
Another clothing variation popular in Europe was the wearing of a short tunic over a longer fuller one. This was done by persons of both sexes. The over tunic was often heavily embroidered in a manner similar to the Byzantine style.
Women's dress was often similar to the style mentioned above, or simply consisted of a long tunic with a more tight fitting sleeved one beneath. Married women, with the exception of queens, generally veiled their hair, but this was not a hard and fast rule.
In 800ce Charles the Great (aka Charlemagne) was crowned "Holy Roman Emperor" by the Pope in Rome, thus setting up a smaller, rival empire in the West to Romania/Byzantium. In this period (known now as Carolinian) the shape of the old tunic changed by widening at the bottom. Eventually the lower part of the garment (now more often referred to as a gown) was cut like a full skirt.
By the 1000-1200 ce period known as "Early Gothic" (another name intended as a pejorative provided by people at a much later date) the usual cut of the gown (and shorter over tunics) was pretty usually with the wide or circular bottom. Sleeves on the over gowns and/or tunics get wider (especially on women's dress) and there is an overall fashion for conspicuous consumption of fabric.
There had been a pretty popular belief in Western Europe in the years leading up to the first Millennium, that the Christian Second Coming, End of the World, and Judgment Day would happen in the year 1000. This did not really encourage people to build earthly cities for the future or spend time or cash on worldly matters. So material culture, including dress, was pretty limited in it's ostentation before this date. When the world did not end, people in the centuries that followed became more sanguine that The End was not Near, and began displaying more interest in frivolous worldly matters such as dressing better than one's neighbors. This is partly why conspicuous consumption of fine fabric suddenly became popular.

Byzantine court and ecclesiastical dress from

Etruria

2006-11-05T00:53:00.000-08:00

Cultural development came later to Italy than to the Aegean area. The Greeks colonized southern Italy and Sicily from the later 7th century BC, but it was the Etruscans who introduced a high standard of civilization, in the previous century, to the central region of the peninsula. They called themselves the Rasenna (though in Latin they were known as the Etrusci or Tusci). It is believed that they may have emigrated from Anatolia or possibly from farther east. They quickly developed their culture in their new land and, soon after 700 BC, they were living in an urban society capable of a high standard of building and visual arts. In dress, as in the other applied arts, they drew their inspiration and knowledge from a mixture of sources, chiefly Greek and Oriental.
Etruscan society appears to have had more in common with the Minoan culture than with that of Classical Greece. This was true, for example, of the position of women. Unlike the custom in Greece and Rome, where women were relegated to a submissive, domestic role, in Etruria women shared all the activities of life with men. The wealth of pictorial evidence that exists, chiefly the coloured frescoes and sculpture found in the great burial places such as the necropolis at Tarquinia, depicts women taking full part at banquets, dances, and concerts as well as attending racing, athletic, and other types of contests. These sources also indicate a close affinity of dress with the Minoan, illustrating sewn, fitted garments, bright colouring, rich decoration, and an abundance of beautiful jewelry—a craft at which the Etruscans excelled, especially in gold. Nevertheless, Etruscan dress, for both sexes, demonstrates a marriage between East and West, blending Eastern features from Egypt, Syria, and Crete with a later Ionian-style draped attire probably derived from the contemporary Greek colonists in southern Italy. Thus, Etruscans can be seen wearing both draped, pinned tunics and fitted, sewn ones, or such Greek styles as the chlamys, himation, or chiton in conjunction with footwear with Middle Eastern-style turned-up toes. Some Etruscan garments presaged later styles; for example, the tebenna, a semicircular mantle, was an early version of the Roman toga, and a decorative collar derived from Egypt anticipated a later Byzantine version.

Etruscan musicians wearing tunics, cloaks similar to the Greek chlamys, and sandals. Detail from a … Scala/Art Resource, New York City

The Aegean:Minoan and Mycenaean dress

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The Aegean region and in particular the island of Crete, which was inhabited from about 6000 BC, can be considered the cradle of western European culture. Settlers came to Crete from areas farther east—from Anatolia, North Africa, Syria, and Palestine. By 2500 BC the Cretan civilization was becoming established and, as a maritime people with extensive trade in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, was influenced by many sources. The Cretans created a society and a dress style of their own, one dissimilar from the earlier one of Egypt and the later of Greece. The greatest and most prosperous years were from 1750 to 1400 BC; this was the time of the building of the great palaces, notably Knossos, from where the remains of coloured frescoes, painted vases, and sculpture in marble, terra-cotta, and coloured ceramics have been excavated and are on display in the museums of Iráklion and Athens. Even finer and more complete frescoes have been preserved from the more recent excavations of the Minoan city on the island of Thera (Thíra), an island largely destroyed in the cataclysmic volcanic eruption of about 1500 BC.
Cretan dress is characterized by its vivid colouring, elegance, and sophistication. It is also notable for the gaiety of feminine attire, typical of a society where women—unlike that of classical Greece—are depicted side-by-side with men, taking part in all the activities of life and not relegated to the domestic background.

Men's garments were few. Chief of these was a loincloth of wool, leather, or linen, tightly belted at the waist and arranged as a short, elaborately decorated skirt. The belt was drawn tight to contrast the slender waist (presuming that the man had one) with the masculine breadth of chest. By 1750 BC women were wearing a long bell-shaped skirt, often in a series of flounces, over a loincloth; with this, they wore a bolero-like jacket that had elbow-length sleeves but was open in front, leaving the breasts bare. In the later period a boned bodice was worn, constricting the upper torso but accentuating the full, bare breasts above. (This is the first recorded example in Europe of corseting constriction of the figure and remained an isolated instance for centuries.)
The Cretans liked bright colours, and their dress was vividly embroidered and decorated. The hair of both sexes was worn long, looped and braided and dressed with jewels, pearls, and ribbons. The Cretans bathed frequently, oiling their bodies afterward. Men were generally clean-shaven.
Outdoors both sexes wore sandals or shoes. In winter calf-length boots were adopted, and short woolen, fur-lined cloaks were fastened by pins around the shoulders.
With the collapse of the Minoan civilization in Crete about 1400 BC, a new culture arose on the mainland in the Peloponnese, notably in the maritime principalities of Mycenae, Tiryns, and Pylos. As the frescoes from the palace of Tiryns illustrate, the costume was similar but richer still.

Priest-king wearing elaborate loincloth attached to a tight, broad belt. Fresco from the palace at … Andre Held, Switzerland

Mesopotamia

2006-10-30T23:43:00.000-08:00

Ancient Mesopotamia was situated in the area of land that is defined by the two great rivers the Tigris and the Euphrates and that is contained within modern Iraq. Several important cultures arose there, their empires waxing and waning successively as well as overlapping in time. Among the most prominent were the Sumerian, the Akkadian, or Semitic, the Assyrian, and the Babylonian. The Sumerian civilization was established before 4000 BC and reached a high level of culture between 2700 and 2350 BC. In early times both sexes wore sheepskin skirts with the skin turned inside and the wool combed into decorative tufts. These wraparound skirts were pinned in place and extended from the waist to the knees or, for more important persons, to the ankles. The upper part of the torso was bare or clothed by another sheepskin cloaking the shoulders. From about 2500 BC a woven woolen fabric replaced the sheepskin, but the tufted effect was retained, either by sewing tufts onto the garment or by weaving loops into the fabric. Named kaunakes by the Greeks, this tufted fabric is shown in all the sculptures and mosaics of the period, as, for example, in the art from the excavations at Ur exhibited in the British Museum in London. At this time, also, long cloaks were worn, and materials for garments and head coverings included felted wool and leather. Men were generally clean-shaven. Both sexes seem to have often worn large wigs, as in ancient Egypt. Metalworking was of a high standard, as may be seen in the elaborate golden jewelry, which was encrusted with semiprecious stones and worn by both sexes: brooches, earrings, hair ornaments, and neck chains. A different style of dress is evident in Mesopotamian sculptures dating after about 2370 BC. Both men and women were clothed in a large piece of material—most commonly of wool, though later also of linen—draped around the body over a skirt. This garment, similar to a shawl, was characteristically edged with tassels or fringe. The draping varied, but, for men at least, the fabric was arranged so that the fullness was at the rear, leaving the right, or sword, arm free. This newer form of dress had originated from farther north and east and was adopted by the Semitic people of Akkad under Sargon (the dynasty founded by Sargon lasted from c. 2334 to c. 2193 BC) and by the revitalized Sumerian culture in the years 2110–2010 BC.
The dress worn in Mesopotamia by the Babylonians (2105–1240 BC) and the Assyrians (1200–540 BC) evolved into a more sophisticated version of Sumerian and Akkadian styles. Ample evidence of this more elaborate draped costume can be seen in the large relief sculptures of the age. There were two basic garments for both sexes: the tunic and the shawl, each cut from one piece of material. The knee- or ankle-length tunic had short sleeves and a round neckline. Over it were draped one or more shawls of differing proportions and sizes but all generally fringed or tasseled. Broad belts held the shawls in position. Wool was the most frequently used material, in bright or strong colours. Decoration was rich, in allover patterns or in borders, carried out in embroidery or by printing. Motifs were chiefly geometric. Women wore a short skirt as underwear, men a loincloth. Footwear for both sexes was made from fabric or soft leather in the form of sandals or boots.
Care of the coiffure was very important for men and women among both the Assyrians and the Babylonians . The hair was grown long and carefully curled and ringleted, with false hair added if needed. Perfumes, oils, and black dye were used on the hair. Men grew long, equally carefully tended curled beards. A band of metal or fabric encircled the brow, or a woolen, felt, or leather cap shaped like a fez was worn. The royal headdress resembled a pleated crown or a mitre and had dependent lappets at the rear. Jeweled ornamentation to the costume was rich and heavy and of high quality.

Ashurnasirpal II (left), king of Assyria, with an elaborately dressed beard, wearing sandals and a … Reproduced by courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum; photograph, John R. Freeman & Co. Ltd.

Ashurnasirpal II, relief from Nimrūd; in the British Museum By courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum

Ancient Egyptian Dress

2006-10-25T00:20:00.000-07:00

Modern knowledge of ancient Egyptian dress derives from the ample evidence to be seen in the wealth of wall and sarcophagus paintings, in sculpture, and in ceramics; few actual garments have survived. Such illustrative material is depicted clearly and colourfully, but care must be taken in interpreting the designs too literally, partly because the art is frequently stylized but also because the artists were bound by tradition and their representation of dress often lagged far behind the actual changes of fashion.
The chief textile to have been preserved is linen, which has been found in graves dating to Neolithic times. Flax culture dates from very early times, and, in fact, the Egyptians believed that the gods were clothed in linen before they came to earth. Wool was more rarely employed, and sericulture had not yet extended as far west as Egypt. The technique of using mordants in the dyeing processes was slow to come to Egypt, so most garments were white. Colour was provided by jewelry in which semiprecious stones were widely incorporated. Among the most common types, the characteristic deep, decorative collar, worn by both sexes, was introduced early. These brightly hued bands were made of embroidered and beaded materials and set around the neck and shoulders either on bare skin or on top of a white cape or gown.
Skins of various animals were utilized. These were sometimes simply raw hides, which have survived only rarely, but the Egyptians became skilled at curing the skins to become leather by the tawing method—that is, by the use of alum or salt. Tawing yields a white, stiff leather that may be dyed various colours. Later they adopted the tanning method, employing oak galls for the purpose. Leather was used widely in dress for footwear, belts, and straps.During the 3,000 years of the Egyptian culture, costume changed comparatively little and very slowly. It remained a draped style of dress, the garments consisting of pieces of material held in place around the body by knots tied in the fabric and by waist belts, sashes, and collars. Little sewing was needed, being confined generally to side seams and, in later years, to armholes. This draped type of dress conformed to that of other civilizations in the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern region such as Greece, Rome, and Mesopotamia but differed from the more Oriental styles of Persia, India, and China, where people wore more fitted, sewn garments based upon coats, tunics, and trousers. Ancient Egyptian dress for both sexes was confined to loincloths, a type of vest or shirt, capes, and robes.

Woman wearing sheathlike gown held up by shoulder straps, typical of Egyptian dress of the Old and … Borromeo/Art Resource, New York City.

Over the years the style of these garments slowly evolved and became more complex; a greater number were worn either in combination with or on top of one another. During the Old Kingdom (its capital at Memphis), which lasted until about 2130 BC, dress was simple. Men wore a short skirt tied at the waist or held there by a belt. As time passed, the skirt became pleated or gathered. Important people wore in addition a decorative coloured pendant hanging in front from the waist belt as well as a shoulder cape or corselet partly covering their bare torso. A sheathlike gown was typical of feminine attire.

This encased the body from the ankles to just below the breasts and was held up by decorative shoulder straps. Woolen cloaks were worn for warmth by men and women.Under the Middle Kingdom, based on Thebes, which prospered until about 1600 BC, the masculine skirt could be hip- or ankle-length. More material was now used, making the garment fuller, such fullness being concentrated in the centre front; and the pendants became more elaborate and ornamental. A cape might be draped around the shoulders and knotted on the chest. Late in the period a double skirt was introduced; alternatively, a triangular loincloth might be worn under a skirt.

Egyptian dress of the New Kingdom, 18th dynasty. King Tutankhamen wearing a double skirt, long and … Hirmer Fotoarchiv, Munchen

The most elaborate dress for both sexes was to be seen under the New Kingdom from about 1539 BC until the Egyptians were conquered successively by the Assyrians (671 BC), the Persians (525 BC), Alexander the Great (332 BC), and finally Rome (30 BC).

During these later years Egyptian dress was strongly influenced by that of the conquerors. New Kingdom dress was more complex than theretofore. The garments were of similar type but were composed of larger pieces of material; draping became more complicated and ornamentation richer. A robe or gown was now worn by important persons of both sexes. It consisted of a piece of fabric measuring 5 by 4 feet (1.5 by 1.2 metres) that was draped and held in place by pins and a waist belt, creating wide, elbow-length sleeves. There were many ways of draping the material, but with most methods all the pleats and folds seemed to be gathered around a single point at the waist. The cape, decorative collar, skirt, and pendant girdle also continued to be worn. Foci of bright colour were provided by the deep collar and pendant apron. Embroidered and carved ornamental motifs included especially the lotus flower, the papyrus bundle, birds in flight, and many geometric forms. Sacred emblems such as the scarab beetle and the asp were worn by priests and royalty.Children were dressed, as in most of the history of costume everywhere, as miniature versions of their parents, although they are often depicted wearing little at all—not surprising considering the climate of Egypt.

Servants also were almost naked, as were labourers in the fields, who are depicted clad only in a loincloth.Heavy wigs or a padding of false hair, worn by both men and women, are known from an early period. They served not only as an adornment but also to protect the wearer's head from the burning rays of the Sun, thus in a way acting as hats. Semicircular kerchiefs, tied by the corners at the nape of the neck under the hair, were sometimes worn to protect the wig on a dusty day. Wigs were dressed in many different ways, each characteristic of a given period; generally speaking, the hair became longer and the arrangement of curls and braids—set with beeswax—more complicated as time went on.The earliest records indicate that the Egyptians grew hair on their chins. They frizzed, dyed, or hennaed this beard and sometimes plaited it with interwoven gold thread. Later, a metal false beard, or postiche, which was a sign of sovereignty, was worn by royalty. This was held in place by a ribbon tied over the head and attached to a gold chin strap, a fashion existing from about 3000 to 1580 BC.Many people went barefoot, especially indoors, but people of rank are depicted outdoors in sandals made from palm leaves, papyrus, or leather.Cosmetics were extensively applied by both sexes, and considerable knowledge of their use is available because of the Egyptian custom of burying comforts and luxuries with the dead. Examples both of the cosmetics and of the means of making, applying, and keeping them may be seen in museums, especially in Cairo and London. The Egyptians applied rouge to their cheeks, red ointment to their lips, and henna to their nails and feet, and ladies traced the veins on their temples and breasts with blue paint, tipping their nipples with gold. The chief focus of makeup was the eye, where a green eye shadow (made from powdered malachite) and a black or gray eyeliner was applied; the latter substance, called kohl, was manufactured from, among other materials, powdered antimony, carbon, and oxide of copper.

Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome

2006-10-22T22:32:00.000-07:00

Ancient Roman Dress

Roman dress at first glance appears to be identical to Greek dress in it's draperies and design. Closer inspection, however, reveals many important changes. First, the basic garments are sewn, not pinned, and close on both sides. Second, elaborate fabric decoration nearly disappears, and bold patterns on garments are nonexistent. Sandals, boots and shoes are common, virtually all men wear them, and many women. Jewelry becomes so simple in design and execution it looks crude, even without the comparison of the fine Greek work standing in contrast to it.

Roman Jewelry

Contrary to the views engendered by sensational fiction such as Bulwer Lytton's "Last Days of Pompeii" or the wondrous silliness of "Gladiator Movies", Romans were, by and large, the kind of practical, upright, uptight folks who believed in civil service, interstate highways, and customs duties. Their clothing included the Tunica (which is, as you have already guessed, a simple t-tunic), the Stola (the female version of the same thing), the Toga (a extra long half-circle wool mantle worn by male citizens) and the Palla, a large, long (8 yard) drape or scarf worn by women outdoors.

Sartorial decadence, such as it was, centered around women's hairstyles which changed fashion regularly and were often elaborately silly

Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome

2006-10-22T22:09:00.000-07:00

Ancient Greek Dress

Ancient Greek dress was more voluminous than that of the Egyptians, and was most often made of fine woolens, although it is thought that the Greeks also had regular access to linen, hemp cloth and silk. The primary garment of Ancient Greek clothing was the Chiton, an all-over body garment made from a large rectangle of cloth wrapped once around the body from right side to right side.

This garment was then pinned at the shoulders and tied at the waist or hips, and draped in hanging folds about the body. Young men generally wore short chitons, and older men and women longer

Older men also often are depicted wearing long draped mantles either alone or over a chiton . A smaller rectangle worn over one shoulder by travelers and young men was called a Chalmys .

Women's Chitons were draped in a variety of ways, and were also worn with mantles. Greek fabric was far more elaborate than the Egyptians, and included complex border designs both woven in and embroidered. Greek Jewelry, although less prominent than Egyptian jewelry, was exceedingly complex and finely made.

Like Egyptian dress, Greek clothing was centered in an aesthetic that idealized the human body, rather than attempting to conceal it's natural shape. The Greeks made many clothing decisions based on this aesthetic that were less than practical choices: Pinning garments closed instead of stitching, rarely wearing sandals or shoes despite a rocky landscape, draping garments around the body for warmth during cold instead of making garments with sleeves or trousers as their near neighbors the Phrygians (see at right) did. The Greeks definitely knew how to make sleeves, for their theatrical costumes had them, but for normal wear sleeves were judged less aesthetic than bare arms and so were not worn. Greek jewelry was also an object of much technical concentration, so much so that Western jewelry technique has only caught up to it since the Industrial Revolution.

Ancient Egyptian Dress

2006-10-05T22:55:00.000-07:00

Clothing was not in any way a practical necessity in Ancient Egypt. Egypt (and most of the rest of North Africa) was not the mainly desert country it is today, subject to the temperature extremes that a dry climate engenders. Then it was a lush, food-producing country, subject to annual flooding, and a warm, humid climate. Clothing was therefore a luxury item of no great practical value. Slaves and the poor in surviving Ancient Egyptian art are therefore usually depicted in little more than loincloths. As people went up the social scale more clothing and jewelry was worn, but even then the drapery of the clothing is light and designed more to accentuate the shape of the body than conceal it. The most elaborate Egyptian clothing was worn by the Pharaohs and their queens as symbols of power. It is thought by some that royal Egyptians practiced body modification by wrapping the sculls of infants and altering the head shape to be more egg like than rounded in adulthood, others ascribe this to a natural genetic fluke in the royal family. Aristocratic Egyptians also often shaved their heads (and other body hair) and wore wigs instead of natural hair to formal occasions. Kohl eye makeup was worn by both sexes, as were perfumes and body oils. (see Egyptian Cosmetic Items) During banquets, guests wore small mounds of beeswax impregnated with perfumed oil on top of their wigs; these mounds would melt into the wigs with the heat of the room, releasing scent, during the course of the party. Jewelry was the dominant costume focus, worn by both sexes; numerous examples of Ancient Egyptian jewelry survive in museums (see Jewels of a Princess, Tutankhamun's Treasures , Necklace with Amulets, and Jewelry).

Clothing has been less fortunate in survival, but linen textile scraps remain to indicate that the mostly white pleated materials that are shown in Ancient drawings were probably fine linens. These pleated linen garments are usually depicted as straight pieces of cloth, pleated to give a body-hugging stretch, that are wrapped in a variety of ways and tied or tucked in front.

Clothing Worn by Egyptian

royalty

nobility

priesthood

soldiers

workers

The History of Tattooing

2006-10-01T22:37:00.000-07:00

Tattooing is one of the oldest forms of art. As far back as we have traces of human activity, we have indications that they have been tattooed.
The first tattoos probably were created by accident. Someone had a small wound, and rubbed it with a hand that was dirty with soot and ashes from the fire. Once the wound had healed, they saw that a mark stayed permanent. In time they learned to use it consciously and artistically.
Tattooing did not develop some specific place on Earth and spread from there. All communities and all societies has practiced tattooing in some form.
To want to have a tattoo, is a primeval human instinct. But everybody does not dare, or hasn't realized their needs yet.

The Bronze Age:
Several Danish museums have needles from the Bronze Age (about 2000 - 500 B.C.), that is supposed to have been used for tattooing. There is no proof, but the circumstances surrounding the finds are convincing the scientists that they have been thus used.

This is tattoo needles in the Vesthimmerland's Museum in Aars, Denmark.

A bronze age tattoo needle in Bornholm's Museum in Rønne, Denmark.

Inuit

All the people all around the Arctic has been tattooed.
This is a small figure carved out of a walrus tusk. It is about 2000 years old, and is enhanced with traditional tattoo designs.
It was very normal, especially for the women, to get tattooed lines down their chin. The lines around the eyes are also very normal.

In 1654 4 Eskimos were kidnapped from Nuuk and taken to Bergen in Norway where their portraits were painted. Later they were taken to Copenhagen,
and today this painting is one of the treasures in the National Museum in Copenhagen. This is the oldest surviving portrait of Inuit, and it is very obvious that both women were tattooed.

America

In the mythology around the Cowboys and Indians in the times of "The Wild West", the Indians' war paint plays an important role. There is no doubt that the Indians also used body paint, but I am also pretty sure that some of this war "paint" were actually tattoos.

Africa

In Africa, where people have dark skin, it is difficult to make a colourtattoo, like we know them. But they want to be tattooed anyway, so they have developed another technique - they make scarifications. This is not really tattooing, but it is related to tattooing, so I will treat them here anyway. I call it "tattooing for the blind", because they can be felt like Braille lettering.
Normally scarifications are made by lifting the skin a little, and making a cut with a knife or some other sharp thing. In the wound that occurs, is rubbed special sands or ashes that is known to make beautifully raised scars.

Europe

The tradition that we know best in Europe, is the so called "Sailor Tattoo". Motives like: Faith-hope-and-love, hearts, roses, sailor's grave, etc.

But tattooing in Europe dates much further back. Actually the oldest preserved human, a man who was found on the border between Austria and Italy - the Iceman - was tattooed (you can read a bit more about him under Ancient Times). That is of course no coincidence. People have always been tattooed in Europe.
It was rather normal for the crusaders in the middle ages to get a tattoo as a reminder of the events they participated in.The Picts in England were probably called just that because they were tattooed.
Tattooing in Europe has always been much more than the sailor tattoo. It is very likely that the Vikings were tattooed. At around year 1100 the Arab Ibn Fadlan described a meeting with some Vikings. He thought them very rude, dirty - and covered with pictures.

World’s Oldest Hats Discovered?

2006-10-01T22:29:00.000-07:00

'Venus Wear' Reveals 27,000-Year-Old Fashion
"Venus Wear" may sound like the latest Fifth Avenue fashion trend. In scientific parlance, however, it refers to clothing and hats that were made approximately 27,000 years ago.
Until recently, it was thought that humans wrapped simple animal skins around themselves at least 50,000 years ago, with woven clothes and textiles invented only around 8,000 B.C.
Now, an anthropologist is theorizing that clothes production was in full swing much earlier, and that sophisticated weaving techniques had already been developed by the time the Venus Wear collection made its debut.
Clues For Venus Vogue
Ninety 28,000-year-old clay fragments found in the Czech Republic in the late 1990s provided the first set of clues. Impressions show that interlaced fibers originally were pressed onto the clay surfaces. Patterns formed by these impressions hint that cord and net materials used to rest on the clay.
The woven objects themselves are highly perishable and would have biodegraded thousands of years ago. However, the intriguing clues suggested what ancient clothing and hats looked like, and how they were made.
Olga Soffer, professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a former New York fashion consultant, immediately recognized the possibilities.
Hat, Not Hairdo
Recalling that she’d seen similar patterns before in France and other European countries, Soffer and her colleagues next analyzed Venus figurines, enigmatic female statuettes found throughout Russia and Europe. They date from approximately 27,000 to 22,000 B.C.
Archaeologists have known about the Venus figures for at least a century, but always thought surface impressions on the doll-like objects were just decoration. The clay impressions were said to be elaborate, prehistoric hairdos.
Not so, according to Soffer, who believes the "hairdos" really used to be woven hats, resembling snoods or upside down salad bowls, that have since worn away.
The figures weren’t just wearing hats, either.
"Our recent study of 'Venus Wear' has demonstrated that a significant number of these figurines are depicted dressed in headwear, belts, bandeaux and bracelets," explains Soffer, whose findings will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Current Anthropology.
The impressions further suggest that the bandeaux were quite modern looking, and resembled either a strapless bikini top or a bra.
More Evidence
Soffer and her team then discovered that other objects from the same period bore impressed marks. One such object, a piece of flint from Badegoule, France, even has a burned fragment of textile fabric adhered to it.
In addition, the anthropologists identified possible weaving tools that previously were attributed to other crafts or were called "decorative art objects." Soffer instead thinks certain small needles, net spacers and forks, as well as items similar to spindle whorls and loom weights, were likely weaving and looping equipment.
Pollen at sites from Portugal to Russia, where many of the tools were excavated, also indicate weavers would have had plenty of good raw material to work with. Soffer says, "They [the pollen] include milkweed and nettle, as well as alder and yew, all of which are ethnographically used to make baskets and cordage."
Early Complex Weaving
Marijke Kerkhoven, a curator at The Museum For Textiles in Toronto, Ontario, was not surprised by the findings. Kerkhoven herself recently studied prehistoric weaving for an exhibit entitled "Mothers Of Invention: 25 Millennia Of Innovation," that will open May 31 at the textile museum.
"Twenty-seven thousand years ago, weaving appeared to have been quite complex," says Kerkhoven. "We see evidence of sophisticated weaving stripes, checks, gauze and brocade."
Weaving even may have evolved thousands of years earlier, based upon the complexity of the Venus hat and clothing impressions and the fact that these techniques already had become widespread during the Venus period.
Kerkhoven says, "The technique probably originated in the Caucasus, and gradually spread throughout Europe and other regions."
It is theorized that people from the Caucasus, a mountain range located between the Black and Caspian Seas, traveled East and West, bringing sheep and wool-crafting skills, like weaving, with them.
Early Catalogs
"Venus Wear" is still somewhat of a mystery, as researchers aren’t sure whom the Venuses depicted and what the statuettes were used for. A number of theories have been proposed.
One is that the figures may have been involved in rituals. "Facial features usually are not present on the figures, only a line sometimes exists, or impressions where a veil must have once hung," says Kerkhoven. The lack of personalization and the exaggerated sexual parts on many of the statuettes suggest they might have been deities, or held some function in fertility rituals.
Jeff Illingworth, senior analyst and conservator at the Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute in Erie, Pa., worked with Soffer on the Venus project. He says the figurines might have been "the prehistoric equivalent of the Sears and Roebuck catalogue."
He explains that craftswomen may have distributed the figurines to advertise available hats and clothing. While this idea may seem farfetched, Illingworth points out that an enormous amount of effort was spent on making textiles for the figures, but little time appears to have been devoted to making the figurines themselves. In addition to the lack of facial features, the statuettes generally have no identifiable arms or legs.
Illingworth says, "Whoever made the Venus figures wanted us to notice the intricate details on the clothing."

This Paleolithic figurine, the Venus of Brassempouy, bears evidence not of an elaborate hairstyle, but of intricate textiles in the form of a cap, say some anthropologists. The figurine is about 26,000 years old. (Steve Holland/University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The famous Venus of Willendorf was found in Austria. (Steve Holland/University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

The world's wardrobe

2006-09-28T23:41:00.000-07:00

Starting point

The first clothing was symbolic, rather than utilitarian.
A Venus figure carved of bone in 20000 B.C. wears a fringe of twisted fiber strings suspended from a hip band. An array of later clay figures found in the Ukraine, Serbia and Macedonia are likewise clad. Bronze Age women were buried in similar string skirts.
Because they offer neither warmth nor modesty, researchers believe the garments announced a woman's reproductive readiness.
String skirts still exist. Women in northern Albania wear them. In Greece, they are not worn, but passed down from mother to daughter as a talisman of good childbearing fortune.

National Museum of Denmark Wool string skirt from 1300 B.C. was worn wrapped around twice and slung low on the hips. From the peat
Our best knowledge about early Celt textiles comes from the bog people who were preserved in Great Britain and northern European peat.
Peat preserves not only the skeleton, but also the skin, hair, internal organs and – sometimes – the clothing. The Netherlands grave of Emmer-Erfscheidenveen Man, dated to 1310 B.C., included woolen underwear decorated with embroidery, sheepskin cap, calfskin

cape and deerskin shoes.
Huldremose Woman was accompanied by two skin capes, a woolen skirt, scarf and hair band. A large woolen garment, or peplos, was later discovered near the grave. Leg wrappings from another bog body were made of wool, originally dyed blue with woad – a scarce and valuable commodity.

Tollund Man, buried in a pieced leather cap worn fur-side in, was found in a Danish bog in 1950. He is dated to 50 B.C.
In Egypt
When wool and silk became widely available around 4000 B.C., the use of color exploded because animal fibers accept dye so much better than flax.
Only in Egypt, where wool was never much used, did clothing remain white and simple. All Egyptians, regardless of class, wore linen. Differences in status were shown by the fineness of the cloth, which, for royalty, could be almost transparent.
Egyptian men wore knee-length kilts that were often pleated. Women wore slim, tubular shoulder-strap jumpers reaching either above or below the breasts to the ankles. For decoration and color, women wore skirts and even entire dresses of beaded nets, put on over the linen jumpers.
Egyptian weavers also made linens for towels, bedsheets, blankets and mummy wrappings, and to barter. Some are as long as 75 feet long and 9 feet wide. At a hundred threads an inch, that's more than 153 miles of yarn.

Egyptian men favored short, pleated kilts, made of linen.

Ancient Peru
Textiles were valued more than silver by the ancient Andeans. To weave their intricate patterns required extraordinary skill and patience: a single tunic might take nine miles of colored thread.
Textiles uncovered on mummies dating to 500 B.C. on the Paracas Peninsula of Peru are some of the most astonishing ever made. Woven on huge looms, they are vividly colored and often depict strange animals. These textiles were grave goods, meant to accompany the dead to the next life. One mummy, of 429 discovered there, was buried with 56 items of clothing, including 13 turbans.

Incan mummies were bundled in cloth and buried with tools for making textiles.

The clothing of the Iceman

2006-09-26T22:46:00.000-07:00

Reconstruction of the Iceman with Clothing and Equipment
A few fragments of the Iceman's upper garment, mainly consisting of hide from a domesticated goat, have survived. The shirt was made of long, rectangular strips of skin that were joined by over-sewing on the inside, with animal sinews used as thread. The different colored vertical strips of skin may have been intended as a pattern.

Iceman's Upper Garment - Made from Strips of Goat Hide
No pieces of the shoulders of the garment were recovered, so there is some speculation as to whether the Iceman's shirt had sleeves. The upper garment likely reached down to the Iceman's knees.

Left: Vertical Strips Were Neatly SewnRight: Iceman's Garment Had Been Mended with Rough Stitching

Since there are no sign of fasteners, it is assumed that the Iceman's upper garment was closed with a belt. Fragments of the Iceman's belt, made of calf leather, show that his belt was originally about six feet long, therefore reaching around his hips twice.

The Iceman's Belt
A piece of sewn-on leather formed a small pouch that contained five items including a drill, scraper, and a flint flake. A black mass of tinder fungus filled most of the bag. Traces of pyrites were found indicating that lumps of pyrite were used by the Iceman to create sparks.

The Iceman wore a grass cape to protect himself from rain; Detail of woven grass

The Iceman's cloak was made of long stalks of Alpine grass and was open at the front. The original length is thought to have been about 90 cm and would have covered the Iceman's entire torso and his thighs. Some Alpine shepherds wore grass and straw cloaks for rain protection into the 20th century.
Bearskin headgear was discovered during the second examination of the site. The Iceman's cap was made of the pelt of a brown bear and had two leather thongs attached to the lower rim for the purpose of tying it under the chin.

Iceman's Bearskin Cap

Originally about three feet long, the Iceman's loincloth consisted of long, narrow strips of goat hide joined by over-sewing with animal sinews. The loincloth would have been drawn between the Iceman's legs and fastened at the front and back with a belt.
The Iceman wore leg protection that covered the thighs and lower legs, therefore not really a pair of trousers. The leggings were made of goat hide with a deerskin strap sewn onto one end that could be tied down when doing up the shoes, preventing the leggings from riding up. Similar loincloths and leggings were also worn by North American Indians well into the 19th century.

When Iceman was recovered, the right shoe was still on the mummy's foot. The shoe consists of an oval leather sole with turned up edges that were held in place using a leather thong. A woven net of grass was attached on the inside to hold hay in place acting as protection against the cold.

The Iceman's Shoes
The Iceman's shoe was closed with a leather upper that was attached to the sole using another leather thong. The shaft around the ankle was bound with grass filaments to prevent moisture from getting into his shoes. The soles of the shoes were made of brown bear skin. The uppers were make of deerskin and were closed using shoe laces.

Chronology of the Development of Boys' Clothing Styles: Pre-history

2006-09-23T13:46:00.000-07:00

Anthropologists have debated at what stage in human evolution did people begin to wear clothes. Almost certainly the first clothes were animal skins. More contentious is when people started wearing animal furs, presumably initially for warmth. There is little evidence that anthropolgists have been able to develop about clothing worn in prehistory. One aspect that is difficult to determine is the extent of body hair of early men like Neanderthals. Man's transition from hairy to hairless and the development of clothing are critical stages in both biological and cuktural evolution. While anthropolgists can sudy focilized bones to assess physical evolution, the fact that fur and fabric rot mean that there is not physical evidence available to provide insights as to when people first began to wear clothes. Some fascinating finds in the Middle Eastern desserts or the Ice man in the alps provide fascinating information about the clothing of erly man, but not about when man began wearing clothes. Interesting DNA evidence from lice are providing some possible insights.
Body Hair (1 million years ago)
One aspect that is difficult to determine is the extent of body hair of early men like Neanderthals. Man's transition from hairy to hairless and the development of clothing are critical stages in both biological and cultural evolution. A new report based on Human DNA suggests that peope became hareless about 1 million years ago. [Rodgers]
Neanderthals (130,000-30,000 years ago)
Neanderthals dominated Europe fot 100,000 years. They inhabited most of Europe an western Asia. Beanderthals developed a culture similar to that of early man. They wore clothes and used fire. They were nomadic hunters. I am not sure to what extentb if any they developed agriculture. They made stone, but no metal tools. Their principal weapons were spears and clubs. Neanderthals disappeared after the arrival of modern man. Neanderthals were heavy built and squat, more powerful, but apparently less intelligent than modern man and were unable to successfully compete with modern man. The last Neaderthal traces date back to about 30,000 BC. One enduring debate in anthropology is whether is how Neanderthals are related to modern men. We know that the two groups coexisted before Neanderthals seemingly disappeaed. Some believe that modern man outcompeted and displaced Neanderthals. Others that Neanderthals merged with and interbread with modern man. A recent study based on an assessment of sculls have found substantial differences which suggest that the two were different species rather than related sub-species. [Harvati] Teeth studies suggest that Neanderthal children grew faster than human children. Some anthropologists believe that Neandethals may have been anatomically adult by about age 15, but not all anthropologists accept this theory.
Stages
Anthropolgists have studied a variety of stages in pre-history. Technological developments are of great importance, including fire, tools, pottery, and metal working. Clothing is one of the important developments. Anthropologists have debated at what stage in human evolution people begin to wear clothes. Many of these developments occurred before the Holocene (past 10,000 years.) Other major developments in pre-history include religion, writing, and kingship.
Economic Organization
The primary ecomic organization for much of pre-history was hunter-gathering including fishing. This by its very nature was small tribal activity. Gradually pastoralism and primitive agriculte developed. Agriculture was limited by the technology of the day.
Early Clothes (40,000-25,000 years ago)
Almost certainly the first clothes were animal skins. More contentious is when people started wearing animal furs, presumably initially for warmth. There is little evidence that anthropolgists have been able to develop about clothing worn in prehistory, primarily because clothing deteriorates over time. Some fascinating finds in the Middle Eastern deserts or the Ice man in the alps provide fascinating information about the clothing of erly man, but not about when man began wearing clothes. Anthropolgists believe that needles and other artifacts suggest that people were sewing clothes at least 25,000 years ago and possibly as much as 40,000 years ago. Some anthropolgists speculate that man first using animal skins about 100,000 years ago, but these are only rough estimates with no real evidence to support them. Also unknown us precisely when people first took the step from just draping animal skins on them to actually fashioning crude garments.

Clothing was a major step in the human experience. Clothing was an enormous step in the expansion of human inhabitation and the appearance of culture. The key activity to early humans became food production, but the production of clothing became the second most important activity. Determining when people began fashioning clothes is of interest to antrhropolgusts because it represents a cultural step of huge importance. Once people began creating clothing it expanded the environments which they could exploit. It also meant the fise of fashion, affording people to convey information about tribal identity, social status, fertility, and other mnatters--all imprtat cultural matters.
Research Difficulties
While anthropolgists can sudy focilized bones to assess physical evolution, the fact that fur and fabric rot mean that there is not physical evidence available to provide insights as to when people first began to wear clothes. As such any evidence from this era is extremely tantilizing. One fascinating glimse is the preserved impressions seen here of pre-historic foot steps . This is an actual piece of pre-historic evidence. This is an actual adult and child foot print. The story seems to be that a mother and child probably went to a river to collect water. They leave their foot prints behind and the sun bakes them. Hundreds of thousands of years later the Leaky family find them. Actually there is even more to the footprint story. The Leaky's believe that there are three sets of footprints. The third set is inside the larger adult one. The scene from thousands odf years ago comes to life. A child, laughing as the little one plays a game of walking inside the footprints of mum while the other child walks in the water by mum's side.
DNA Evidence

The birthday of fashion

2006-09-22T22:45:00.000-07:00

Humans only started wearing clothes as little as 40,000 years ago, according to a new genetic study which has calculated when the human body louse evolved - a creature which needs clothes to lay its eggs on.According to the research, by Professor Mark Stoneking and colleagues at the Max Planck Insitute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany and published in the latest issue of the journal Current Biology, humans might have first worn clothes around 42,000 to 72,000 years ago.Anthropologists have long wondered when clothes began to appear. Since fur and fabrics do not fossilise, no evidence has been left, apart from some fabrics more than a few thousand years old. The new approach focused on the subtle genetic differences between the head louse (Pediculus humanus capitis) and the body louse (P. humanus corporis or P. h. humanus). These human ectoparasites differ mainly in their habitat on the host: head lice live in the hair and scalp, while body lice feed on hairless parts of the body but lay their eggs only in clothes. "This ecological differentiation probably arose when humans adopted frequent use of clothing," write the researchers. Thus, an indirect measure of when our ancestors first wore clothes would have emerged by figuring out when body lice first appeared, the researchers concluded.Stoneking's team used a molecular clock approach - a dating method based on the rate that specific types of mutations accumulate in DNA."Sequences were obtained from two mtDNA [mitochondrial DNA] and two nuclear DNA segments from a global sample of 40 head and body lice. ... We also included a chimpanzee louse (Pediculus schaeffi), assuming that human and chimpanzee lice co-speciated with their hosts," the researchers reported. "The divergence time of 5.5 million years between humans and chimpanzees also corresponds to the P. humanus-P. schaeffi divergence, and hence was used as a calibration point for molecular clocks."DNA analysis of the 40 human head lice and body lice sent from around the world revealed the modern genetic variation in the parasites.Assuming that mutations occur at a given rate, Stoneking's team came to the estimate that "body lice originated not more than about 72,000 to 42,000 years ago." The date fits with fossil and archaeological evidence: the only tools that can be definitely associated with clothing, such as needles, are about 40,000 years old.The genetic results also indicate greater diversity in African than non-African lice, suggesting an African origin of human lice which matches human origins."It is a clever study and their results makes sense to me," evolutionary biologist Blair Hedges of Pennsylvania State University, told Discovery News."Molecular clocks are not perfect chronometers - they need a lot of sequence data for precision. In this case, the estimate of 72,000 years has a large statistical error associated with it. With more genes, that error can be reduced considerably," Hedges said. "Nonetheless, the ballpark time - 50[,000] to 100,000 years ago - makes a lot of sense because that is when modern humans were leaving Africa for the cooler northern latitudes and would have needed clothing."

What is Fashion?

2006-09-21T15:13:00.000-07:00

Fashion is something we deal with everyday. Even people who say they don't care what they wear choose clothes every morning that say a lot about them and how they feel that day.
One certain thing in the fashion world is change. We are constantly being bombarded with new fashion ideas from music, videos, books, and television. Movies also have a big impact on what people wear. Ray-Ban sold more sunglasses after the movie Men In Black. Sometimes a trend is world-wide. Back in the 1950s, teenagers everywhere dressed like Elvis Presley.

Who dictates fashion?
Musicians and other cultural icons have always influenced what we're wearing, but so have political figures and royalty. Newspapers and magazines report on what Hillary Clinton wears. The recent death of Diana, the Princess of Wales, was a severe blow to the high fashion world, where her clothes were daily news.
Even folks in the 1700s pored over fashion magazines to see the latest styles. Women and dressmakers outside the French court relied on sketches to see what was going on. The famous French King Louis XIV said that fashion is a mirror. Louis himself was renowned for his style, which tended towards extravagant laces and velvets.

Clothes separate people into groups.
Fashion is revealing. Clothes reveal what groups people are in. In high school, groups have names: "goths, skaters, preps, herbs." Styles show who you are, but they also create stereotypes and distance between groups. For instance, a businessman might look at a boy with green hair and multiple piercings as a freak and outsider. But to another person, the boy is a strict conformist. He dresses a certain way to deliver the message of rebellion and separation, but within that group, the look is uniform. Acceptance or rejection of a style is a reaction to the society we live in.

Fashion is a language which tells a story about the person who wears it. "Clothes create a wordless means of communication that we all understand," according to Katherine Hamnett, a top British fashion designer. Hamnett became popular when her t-shirts withlarge messages like "Choose Life" were worn by several rock bands.