Well hello history buffs and fashionistas! I'm glad you tuned back in to learn about ancient Greek fashion. I have been busy reading all about fashion back in the BCE era. Although Greek fashion varied depending on the city-state and the time period, I am going to focus on the clothing in Athens in the "Golden Age" (around 500 BCE). First of all, Greek clothing was all hand spun wool or linen, meaning it took forever to make just one garment. Today, our clothes are mostly factory made, which is why our closets are bursting full of stuff. Back then, it took hours and hours for women to make the clothes, so people valued them more. In fact, sometimes thieves would mug people and take their clothes! Haha! The fabric used for clothing could also be used for a blanket (lol)-- it was all the same to them. This fabric was turned into a "peplos" or "chiton" (basically a tunic/dress), by pinning it at the shoulders with broaches. Women usually wore floor-length gowns while men's were cut off at the knee. Something I found very interesting is that Greek clothes were usually NOT white. Don't you think of them as white? That's because we always see Greek sculptures, but Greek sculptures were actually not white back in the day! They were painted in bright colors that wore off over the years (see photo below). In ancient Athens, female clothes were often pastel colored, although richer women might wear bright purple. Tune back in next time to learn more.
| I found all this information from the video above, as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art website. Watch and click to learn more! |  |
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