Ancient Roman Textiles

Ancient Roman Clothes for Women

Typical Ancient Roman Clothes for Women was like this:

Stola and Palla

The women of ancient Rome wore a long tunic called a “Stola.” The stola, which went down to the feet of the wearer, often had a woolen mantle over it called a “palla”. The positioning of the tunic was complicated due to the many layers of the cloth used for the different styles of the garment.

Ancient Roman Clothes for Women

In most cases, the stola was worn as described: first, a long-sleeved tunic was put on, and over it, a shorter tunic with short sleeves.

Ancient Roman Clothes for Women

The peplos was made from two rectangular pieces of cloth partially sewn together on both sides; the open sections at the top were then folded down in the front and back. The woman pulled this garment over her head and fastened it at her shoulders with two large pins, forming a sleeveless dress; she then tied a belt over or under the folds.

Ancient Roman Clothes for Lower Class Women

Lower class women usually wore simple wool tunics with holes for the heads and arms, held by a belt at the waist. On occasion, tunics were made out of cool linen for summer wear but because of linen’s scarcity at the time; it was rarely ever worn at all.

The more common sleeved tunic worn by women was similar to the Greek chiton. Two wide pieces of cloth were sewn together almost to the top, leaving just enough room for armholes.

Ancient Roman Clothes for Women

The woman pulled this garment over her head and used several pins or buttons to fasten it at intervals over her shoulders and arms, forming a dress with sleeves which could be belted under the breasts, at the waist, or at the hips.

The length of the sleeves was determined by the width of the cloth. Statues clearly show the manner of fastening the sleeves as well as various modes of draping and belting the tunic.

Girls Clothing

Girls wore a simple tunic with a belt at the waist. When they went outside, they wore a second tunic that reached their feet.

Women often dyed their hair, usually golden-red and making different hairstyle. They used false hairpieces to make their hair thicker or longer. Sometimes, Roman women wore their hair up, in carefully arranged styles, held with jeweled hairpins. Sometimes they wore it down, curled in ringlets.

Women’s street shoes were made of leather, like a man’s. In the house, most Romans (men and women) wore sandals. Women’s sandals were brightly colored. Some were even decorated with pearls.

More info on- Roman men’s clothing