Ancient Egypt Egypt has hot and dry weather because so much of it is a desert. The ancient Egyptians had to have clothing that was not too hot and allowed free flowing air to cool their bodies. Most of the clothes they wore were made of linen that was made from the flax plant. The type and quality of linen depended upon how rich the person was.

Ancient Egypt In ancient Egypt, LINEN was by far the most common textile. It helped people to be comfortable in the subtropical heat.  WOOL was considered impure. Only the wealthy wore animal fibers that were the object of taboos. They were used on occasion for overcoats, but were forbidden in temples and sanctuaries.  

The ancient Egyptians were very concerned about their appearance and, unlike so many of the other cultures in the area at that time, chose to create individually hand sewn pieces, instead of just one big piece of cloth wrapped around their bodies. They wore a kind of TUNIC made of white linen that might make you think of a t-shirt. A man’s tunic would reach his knee area, while a woman’s tunic would go all the way to the ankles. Women’s clothes looked more like a dress, and could have one or two shoulders covered and the linen cloth for women was made with a much better quality than the men’s.

When men were working they wore a kind of ‘loin cloth or kilt’ made of linen that was wrapped around the legs and waist. The length of the kilt depended upon what was in fashion at that time. There is no evidence that men or women wore any kinds of hats. This is probably due to the hot desert sun. Wearing a hat could make the person overheated. They did wear headdresses for special occasions. Many of the Egyptians went barefoot, but the rich are shown with sandals that are made from leather; poor people wore sandals made of woven papyrus reeds, which were a kind of straw.

If someone was very wealthy, they would be seen wearing a much better type of linen and would often add jewelry made of fine gemstones for decoration. The linen was so fine that you could almost see through it. It seems that the Egyptians do share some of the same values as people of today. The wealthy were very fashion conscious and were always trying to keep up with whatever fashion trends would happen. Some of these trends were set by the royal family, while others were influenced through the imported fashions and things from other countries.

People that were poor wore a more course or rough type of linen and could not afford jewels but might have added feathers or beads. Children did not wear any clothes until they reached the age of 6. While they didn’t have any clothes, there are pictures of kids wearing anklets, collars, bracelets and hair accessories as decoration. Almost all slaves are shown with hardly any clothes and they worked without wearing anything at all. After they reached the age of six, most children wore the same type of clothes as their parents.

Art from that time shows women in very tight dresses but examples of dresses which survive from the Early Period are much more baggy and had sleeves. Indeed, if the dresses were as tight as portrayed in the art, they would have been difficult to put on, let alone walk in. 

Unlike today, men and women both wore makeup Unlike today, men and women both wore makeup. They had green and blue eye shadow and for special occasions. The lined their eyes in black kohl to help protect their eyes from the bright sunlight. The dark liner would reflect the sun away from their eyes.

The heavy eyeliner, and smoked out eyes was all the rage in that period of time. The women and men would use the eyeliner to add depth and highlight their eyes which amped up their look. With the eyeliner was strongly filled eyebrows which framed their face and their golden skin tones.

Egyptian Influence today A style of dress which is now seen everywhere would be a tight straight fitting shoulder strap dress, also now known as a bodycon dress. Egyptian Influence today

This photo is an Egyptian inspired piece made by Oscar De La Renta for the spring 2008 season. It is a long elegant gold sequined gown with jewels around the neck.

The Tunic dresses worn in 1700 B. C The Tunic dresses worn in 1700 B.C. and is now recycled and worn by model Joan Smalls Rodriguez

Linen cloth woven from flax. The earliest records of an established linen industry are 4,000 years old, from Egypt. Interesting Note: When the tomb of the Pharaoh Ramses II, who died 1213 BC, was discovered in 1881, the linen wrappings were in a state of perfect preservation after more than 3000 years. When the tomb of Tutankhamen was opened, the linen curtains were found to be intact.

Sheath In fashion, a sheath dress is a type of dress designed to fit close to the body, relatively unadorned. A sheath dress typically falls around the knees or lower thighs.

Egyptian style opal inlay pendant Scarab Egyptian style opal inlay pendant Scarabs were popular amulets (good luck charms) in ancient Egypt. They were generally intended to be worn or carried by the living. They were typically carved or molded in the form of a scarab beetle

Egyptian Art The goal in ancient Egyptian art was to show the body as completely as possible. The Egyptian used twisted perspective: they combined frontal and profile views of a person.

Egyptian showed the feet in profile, which is logical because it is much easier to illustrate feet from the side than the front. Often, the feet are separated with one slightly in front of the other to show both. The legs were also made in profile in order to show the knees and muscles.

The torso is twisted to a frontal view at the shoulders so both arms can be seen. It was also crucial to illustrate both hands, but sometimes an artist would show the same hand twice or put the hands on backwards. This doesn’t mean that the person in the portrait was deformed or the artist was incompetent; artists did this because it was more important to show all of the fingers than get the hands in the correct spots.

Heads were almost always depicted in profile view in two-dimensional art. It is easier to draw a face from the side in order to get the nose correct. Egyptian artists didn’t use shading in their paintings, and it is nearly impossible to render a realistic nose without shadow because noses don’t have outlines in real life. Profile heads also allowed the artist to show the ear, headdresses and hair.

However, artists showed the eye from a frontal view, which is why the iris is in the center of the eye. Additionally, some headdresses were twisted to show the front view to make the image cleared to the viewer.

Scale The most important figures in an artwork were the biggest; this draws the viewer’s attention to them first Gods and Goddesses were the largest. Pharaohs are the next biggest, and the size diminishes with the rank of the person. Children are often shown the smallest, regardless of age.

Color Egyptian artists were limited in their color choices based on what paint they could make, so they often used primary colors, neutral colors, and green.

Color Color was also used symbolically. During the Old Kingdom, men were painted with red skin and women were painted with yellow

Color Red was sometimes used as a magical color

Color Black and green symbolized rebirth and fertility because the rich fertile soil in Egypt was black and the growing plants were green.

Color Gods associated with the afterlife were sometimes shown with green skin to represent resurrection.

Color The God Anubis was shown in black to represent rebirth.

Color Even some lighter-skinned Egyptians were shown with black skin in their tombs to symbolize life after death.