Roman Dress Courtney & Jenna

Togas The toga is made of wool and the rich had a choice of which kind of wool they will wear. It was a large blanket draped over the body and over one shoulder leaving an arm out. It spanned between 2 ½ to 3 meters long. The toga was the dress clothing of the Romans, a thick woolen cloak worn over a loincloth or apron. Togas were not comfortable, they were heavy and hard to move in. Suffering with wearing a toga is one of the many ways to the Roman citizen’s strength and allegiance to his Empire. The color of the toga worn by men was generally white, that is, the natural color of white wool. After the 2nd century BCE, the toga was worn almost exclusively by Roman men. Women were expected to wear the stola, except for women engaged in prostitution, who were required to wear the toga. So if you saw a women wearing a toga, she would be a prostitute. People wore togas instead of tunics because wearing a tunic was a sign of poverty and weekness. As time went on, dress styles changed. Romans adopted the shirt called tunica. There were different colors for each toga for examples; the toga praetexta, with a purple border, worn by male children and magistrates during official ceremoniesthe toga picta or toga palmata, with a gold border, used by generals in their triumphs trabea – toga entirely in purple, worn by statues of deities and emperors saffron toga – worn by augurs and priestesses, white with a purple band, also worn by consuls on public festivals and equites during a transvectio.

Footwear The Calcei were the standard outdoor for a roman Roman footwear showed little distinction between male and female. One wore sandals tied round the ankle with thing strips of leather. There were three main types of footwear. The Calcei The Calcei were the standard outdoor for a roman and formed part of the toga. The Calcei was a soft leather shoe. The shoe covered the whole foot, A cross between a shoe and a sandal. These are generally considered to be the center laced shoes with the separate inner and outer soles. Calcei were formal shoes worn with the toga outside the house. Slaves were not allowed to wear calcei.

Footwear Sandals Sandals were usually worn indoors. It was improper to be seen in public wearing sandals outdoors. They wore the sandals with the tunica. It was inappropriate for them to wear the sandals with the toga. The Roman sandals consisted of a leather sole attached to the foot with interlacing thongs. The sandals were removed before reclining for a feast. At the conclusion of the feast, the diners requested their sandals.   Boots When it got wet the Romans would where Boots. The boots weren’t called boots they were called thepero, which was made of rawhide.

Undergarments As undergarments Romans simply wore a piece of loin cloth knotted on each side. Women would also wear a simple brassiere in the form of a band, tightly tied around the body, either across the bust and under clothing (fascia), or under the bust and over clothing. Undergarments are believed to generally have been of linen. Spanish, Syrian and Egyptian linen was deemed of the finest quality. Women also sometimes wore a band of cloth or leather as a bra (strophium or mamillare). Both undergarments are shown in the picture below. There were many names for their underwear for example: Subligar Subligaculum Campestre Licium Cinctus This is a picture of All meaning “little binding underneath”

Tunic The tunic is the most basic garment in Roman clothing. For most Roman and slaves the tunic is the entire clothing they would dress before going outside. The male tunic would usually reach roughly to their knees. Tunic for females would go all the way to the ground. Female’s tunic often had long sleeves; it took until the second century for long sleeves for men. On colder days Romans would were 2 or 3 tunics to say warm.

Jewelry Pearls Emeralds Turquoise Garnets Carnelian Chalcedony Many ignore the rules and wore both rings and brooches to pin their cloaks. Roman jewelry was generally made of gold rather than silver. The most popular piece of Roman Jewelry were rings, but Roman men generally only wore one ring at a time. There were different types of rings including betrothal rings. Roman jewelry was generally made of gold  rather than silver and was decorated with a variety of Precious and Semi-Precious Stones. The precious and semi-precious stones used in the making of Roman jewelry included the following: Pearls Emeralds Turquoise Garnets Carnelian Chalcedony Feldspar Amethyst

Children Clothing Children wore an amulet called the bulla. Boys would wear it until reaching their manhood, usually around the age of sixteen. Girls would wear it until they got married. Boys wore cloaks which were used as protection from the weather and was fastened at the shoulder with a clasp, called a fibula. The cloaks often had head coverings attached to them Boys wore a variety of different shoes, boots and sandals. Girls wore cloaks which were used as protection from the weather was called a paludamentum and was fastened at the shoulder with a clasp, called a fibula. The cloaks often had head coverings attached to them Girls wore a variety of different shoes and sandals

Hair and Beards The tradition of intricately groomed beards was quite common among the Greeks. It was only with the introduction of the fashion of shaving during the age of Alexander that the Greeks began to shave. Young women simply gathered their hair into a bun at the back of the neck, or coiled it into a knot a the top of the head. Married women's hairstyles were more complicated. The married woman wore their hair in Etruscan fashion, keeping all of it tied up tightly with ribbons on the very crown of the head.  Hair pieces, wigs, hair lotions and dyes were all known to the Romans. Blonde hair was a sought after commodity.

Cloaks Cloaks were used to protect against bad weather. A variety are known, at times worn over the toga itself, but more often replacing it. There are various kinds of cloaks. The pallium was worn over the tunic or the toga. This seems possibly to have been quite a colourful decorated item, hence possibly an outdoor vestment of the wealthy. The lacerna was originally a military cloak, but during the empire it begun to be extensively worn by the middle class. The wealthier people tended to wear brightly coloured lacerna, whereas the poor wore cheaper dull, dark ones. The laena was thick, round cloak which was folded double at the shoulders and was generally of heavy material, much like the military cloak. The poor wore short and dark laena, whereas the wealthy would wear brightly coloured one to cover their shoulders at banquets during the cold season.

Links http://www.ancient.eu/article/48/ http://www.tribunesandtriumphs.org/roman-clothing/ http://www.historyonthenet.com/Romans/clothing.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toga http://www.roman-empire.net/society/soc-dress.html

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