Ancient Greek Costume

With the Greek civilization counted as one of the oldest civilizations, it is no surprise that ancient Greek male costume has always been intriguing both for the researchers as well as those who are fascinated by everything Greek’. Though the generally worn costume by most Greek men was a comfortable, tunic-like garment, it was mostly given a shape with a kind of belt. This kind of an ancient Greek male costume was called a chiton. A similar type of this dress was worn by women too, though with an additional covering.

To beat the cold, older men wore draped a blanket like costume, either by itself or over their chitons. Travelers had an added variation to the regular costume worn by ancient Greek males – the Chalmys, which was essentially a small rectangular piece of cloth placed over one of their shoulders.

Greeks were very conscious of the human body and displayed it to the best advantage. Rather than conceal, these Ancient Greek Costumes, artistically showed-off the human form.

These may seem rather vulgar in the present day and rather impractical too but they were in vogue at that time. Some of the outfits are the chiton (unisex), exomis (males), tunic (males), himation (males), Doric (females) and ionic (females).

Though most of the dresses were drapes cloths, it is known that the Greeks definitely knew how to make sleeves. However, since normal straight sleeves were considered less aesthetic, bare arms were preferred.

A cursory glance at ancient Greek costume helps people to reflect on the past so as to have a deeper understanding of the present and the future. Greek culture is a subject that is studied in depth as Greece is considered one of the greatest civilizations of ancient times. Hence, the subject of ancient Greek costume also becomes extremely important.

The remains of the city-states of Greece have been researched to know about the every day life of Greeks, from carvings, tombs and ruins. Greek costumes, by and large, were fairly simple and light. The reason behind this probably was the hot climate Greece.

Greeks mostly preferred loose and comfortable costumes. Ancient Greek costumes were mostly white. For colors, they dyed the fabrics in bright colors or bleached them. The most typical of costume consisted of different pieces of the ‘chiton’ – a long square costume, with pins attached around arms to make sleeves and also a belt. For summers, the costume was in linen, and for winter it was woolen. A chiton was a unisex costume, similar to the tunics of the present day. This ancient Greek costume was decorated with embroidery to indicate the wearer’s city-state.