Ancient Greek Costume

These Ancient Greek Costumes were adorned with borders and motifs. More multifaceted borders portrayed themes ranging from animals, birds, and fish to intricate battle scenes. The colors of the threads were infinite. According to Herodotus, there was yellow, violet, indigo, red and purple in a single garment.

Most of the population believed in being barefoot. However, footwear was still prevalent in the ancient times. The Ancient Greek Costume was usually depicted in the statues and other scriptures with varied footwear ranging from thongs, full and toeless sandals, to ankle & calf boots. The headgear – straw hats, felt and leather hats were quite like the broad brimmed modern sun hats. So now we know where those originated!

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.