Ancient Greek Costume

Fashion of today has its roots in the Ancient Greek Costumes. The Ancient Greeks have inspired the facet of clothing. They were painstakingly fussy about their turn out. There are innumerable statues, carvings and pottery depicting their fashion statements. Such great Greek historians as Herodotus have given us very detailed written descriptions of developments in fashion and the societal significance of Ancient Greek Costume and their accessories. The period post 1200 BC started with a civilization of people who wore bell-shaped skirts and tightly fitted bodices and ended with a race dressed in draped clothes that we associate with the Greeks.

In comparison, the Ancient Greek Costumes were more voluminous then that of the Egyptian counterparts. More often than not these were made of fine wool or linen in spite of the fact that Greeks also had access to linen, hemp cloth and silk. Although there were a variety of styles, the dresses were basically the same – rectangular pieces of cloth draped in different ways. The outfits were unisex and hardly varied down the ages.

During the festivities, teams of revelers went door to door in ancient Greek costumes, dancing and singing carols. These costumes represented figures of humans and animals. For a near perfect celebration of the history of Halloween, these revelers would wear a variety of costumes. What was more special was that most such costumes were made of different parts of animals. Sometimes such typical costumes were just disguises, with hardly anyone being aware of their relation with ancient Greek history and culture.

Wedding dresses were also a very significant part of the ancient Greek costumes. In fact, a lot of people today, for old times’ sake, choose the wedding themes of ancient Greeks. They are extremely particular that their gowns should be elegantly suggestive of the styles preferred by the Ancient Greeks. They leave no stone unturned to get the perfect look of the costumes of Greek weddings – to accentuate its overall appearance, the dress is often worn with elegant wedding sandals like those of the Greeks. Working on ancient Greek costumes for the wedding dress, the design is inspired by two main things – the sculptures of Aphrodite and the eternal beauty of ancient Greek styles!

Different periods of Greek history left their mark on the costumes worn by the Greeks. The weather too had its affect as some Greeks wore cloaks during cold. Light leather sandals or boots were a part of the ancient Greek costume to be worn for going outdoors. Costumes for babies were generally linen diapers, though older children wore a cloth wrapped around their waist.

Along with the regular chitons, the ‘peplos’ was a part of the costume of women. It was a shorter tunic worn over the chitons, and was mostly embroidered. These basic costumes were worn by Greeks for centuries. In fact, when studying about Greek costumes it becomes quite clear that the people of Greece were definitely concerned about simplicity and comfort of their attire.

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.