Glossary

## Common Myths About Ancient Middle Eastern Clothing "Ancient Egyptians dressed in plain white." Linen was usually left white or off-white, but Egyptians decorated their dress with colored beadwork, broad collars, sashes, and jewelry.

"Clothing barely changed for a thousand years." The difference between a sixth-century Frankish tunic and a fifteenth-century Burgundian doublet or houppelande is as great as any change in the history of European dress.

"Clothing reform was simply Westernization." Reformers in Japan, China, and Korea saw clothing as a tool of national strength.

"Everyone dressed in drab brown." Undyed and cheaply dyed cloth was common among the poor, but blues, reds, greens, and yellows appear at every social level.

## Common Myths About Ancient Clothing "Everyone in Rome wore togas." The toga was formal wear for male citizens only, and even they avoided it when they could.

"Japan stopped wearing kimono after 1868." Most Japanese people wore kimono in daily life until the mid-twentieth century.

## Common Myths About Medieval Clothing "Medieval people were filthy." Linen undergarments existed precisely so they could be washed often while the woolen outer layers were brushed and aired.

"Nineteenth-century clothing was all handmade." By the second half of the century, ready-made clothing, factory-woven cloth, and machine sewing were everywhere.

"The Greeks and Romans dressed in white." Undyed cloth was common, but ancient Mediterranean clothing was often dyed and decorated.

## Textiles and Craft Nineteenth-century East Asia had some of the most sophisticated textile traditions in the world: - Chinese silk embroidery, centered in Suzhou and other cities, produced the dragon robes and mandarin squares of the court as well as embroidered women's clothing and shoes - Japanese resist dyeing — including stencil-dyed katazome and tie-dyed shibori — decorated everything from luxurious silk kimono to cotton work clothes - Kasuri, cloth woven from threads dyed in patterns before weaving, was popular for everyday cotton kimono - In the Ryukyu Kingdom, now Okinawa, brightly colored stencil-dyed bingata cloth was worn by the royal court and nobility - Among the Ainu of Hokkaido, robes woven from the inner bark of elm trees were decorated with bold appliqué patterns ## Common Myths About 19th-Century East Asian Clothing "The qipao is ancient traditional Chinese dress." The modern close-fitting qipao dates to the 1920s.

"Trousers came from Europe." Trousers developed among the horse-riding peoples of the steppe and Iran.

"Trousers were a modern invention in Europe." Trousers were standard dress for Celtic, Germanic, and steppe peoples throughout antiquity.

"Veiling began with Islam." Veiling predates Islam by well over a thousand years in the Middle East.

## Common Myths About 19th-Century Clothing "Victorian women had ribs removed to shrink their waists." There is no reliable evidence of this; the story was a rumor even at the time.

"Victorians only wore black." Black was the color of mourning and of men's formal dress, but women's fashion was often brilliantly colored — especially after synthetic dyes made vivid purples, magentas, and greens cheap.

The broad sequence ran like this: - 1800s–1810s: the high-waisted Empire or Regency gown - 1820s–1830s: wider skirts and enormous puffed sleeves - 1840s–1850s: long, narrow bodices and dome-shaped skirts over layered petticoats, then the crinoline - 1870s–1880s: the bustle - 1890s: the hourglass figure, with a smooth skirt and huge sleeves ### The Empire and Regency Gown (1800–1820) In the early 1800s, the high-waisted Empire dress inspired by classical antiquity dominated, featuring a narrow columnar silhouette in lightweight muslin.

The broad sequence ran like this: - 1800s–1810s: the high-waisted Empire or Regency gown - 1820s–1830s: wider skirts and enormous puffed sleeves - 1840s–1850s: long, narrow bodices and dome-shaped skirts over layered petticoats, then the crinoline - 1870s–1880s: the bustle - 1890s: the hourglass figure, with a smooth skirt and huge sleeves ### The Empire and Regency Gown (1800–1820) In the early 1800s, the high-waisted Empire dress inspired by classical antiquity dominated, featuring a narrow columnar silhouette in lightweight muslin.

The broad sequence ran like this: - 1800s–1810s: the high-waisted Empire or Regency gown - 1820s–1830s: wider skirts and enormous puffed sleeves - 1840s–1850s: long, narrow bodices and dome-shaped skirts over layered petticoats, then the crinoline - 1870s–1880s: the bustle - 1890s: the hourglass figure, with a smooth skirt and huge sleeves ### The Empire and Regency Gown (1800–1820) In the early 1800s, the high-waisted Empire dress inspired by classical antiquity dominated, featuring a narrow columnar silhouette in lightweight muslin.

The broad sequence ran like this: - 1800s–1810s: the high-waisted Empire or Regency gown - 1820s–1830s: wider skirts and enormous puffed sleeves - 1840s–1850s: long, narrow bodices and dome-shaped skirts over layered petticoats, then the crinoline - 1870s–1880s: the bustle - 1890s: the hourglass figure, with a smooth skirt and huge sleeves ### The Empire and Regency Gown (1800–1820) In the early 1800s, the high-waisted Empire dress inspired by classical antiquity dominated, featuring a narrow columnar silhouette in lightweight muslin.

The broad sequence ran like this: - 1800s–1810s: the high-waisted Empire or Regency gown - 1820s–1830s: wider skirts and enormous puffed sleeves - 1840s–1850s: long, narrow bodices and dome-shaped skirts over layered petticoats, then the crinoline - 1870s–1880s: the bustle - 1890s: the hourglass figure, with a smooth skirt and huge sleeves ### The Empire and Regency Gown (1800–1820) In the early 1800s, the high-waisted Empire dress inspired by classical antiquity dominated, featuring a narrow columnar silhouette in lightweight muslin.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mobutu Sese Seko banned Western suits in favor of the abacost (a Mao-suit-inspired jacket) as part of his authenticite campaign.

The abaya and various forms of face veiling continued in the Arabian Peninsula, while urban women in Istanbul and Cairo navigated between traditional and European-influenced styles.

The finest textiles, called cumbi, were woven by acllas (chosen women) sequestered in special houses throughout the empire.

In West Africa, adire cloth — cotton fabric decorated using resist-dyeing techniques with indigo — flourished among the Yoruba as both a domestic craft and a commercial enterprise.

Artists associated with the Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic movements favored loose, flowing aesthetic dress inspired by medieval styles.

Ankara (also known as African wax print) — brightly colored cotton fabric with bold, graphic patterns — became the most recognizable textile of the continent, despite its complex origins in Dutch imitations of Indonesian batik.

The rise of Afrofuturism in popular culture, amplified by films like *Black Panther* (2018), brought renewed global interest in African-inspired design.

The keffiyeh and agal headcovering continued its essential role in Arabian dress, while Persian men wore the kolah cap and distinctive pleated coats.

In Mesoamerica, agave fibers (known as ixtle) and wild cotton were the principal plant-based textile materials of the prehistoric period.

The agbada — a flowing, wide-sleeved Yoruba robe — became a red-carpet favorite, while kitenge and kanga prints from East Africa found new audiences.

The ancestors of the Akan peoples in present-day Ghana developed kente cloth, a brilliantly colored fabric woven on narrow strip looms and assembled into larger garments.

In the Andes, Quechua and Aymara weavers continued to produce extraordinary cumbi cloth on backstrap looms, adapting ancient techniques to incorporate Spanish-introduced sheep's wool alongside traditional alpaca and vicuna fibers.

In the Andes, indigenous communities also domesticated camelids — llamas and alpacas — and their soft wool became a prized textile fiber alongside cotton.

Specialist artisans called amanteca created dazzling cloaks, headdresses, shields, and fans using feathers from birds such as the quetzal, macaw, cotinga, and roseate spoonbill.

Featherwork (amantecayotl) was one of the most prestigious artistic traditions in Mesoamerica.

American sportswear — pioneered by designers like Claire McCardell, Bonnie Cashin, and later Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren — rejected the rigid formality of European couture in favor of separates, mix-and-match pieces, and fabrics that allowed freedom of movement.

The anarkali suit experienced a major revival, and experimental draping techniques gave the sari new life on international runways.

The Greeks called the Persian trousers anaxyrides and regarded them as a mark of foreignness.

Over the jama, courtiers might add an angarkha (a chest-wrapping outer coat) or a patka (a wide sash) at the waist.

Rajput courts in western India developed their own brilliant aesthetic, favoring vivid bandhani (tie-dye) turbans, fitted angarkhi tunics, and enormous pleated skirts called ghaghra for women.

In South India, men continued to wear the dhoti (an unstitched cloth wrapped around the lower body) and angavastram (shoulder cloth), while women draped the sari in styles that varied by community and region.

Senators wore tunics with a broad purple stripe, the latus clavus, running from each shoulder to the hem, while men of the equestrian order wore a narrow stripe, the angustus clavus.

In the Andean regions, Indigenous communities maintained traditional dress including the poncho for men and the layered skirts and manta shawls for women, often incorporating vibrant colors from natural dyes and later aniline dyes imported from Europe.

jpg) The earliest inhabitants of the Americas, who crossed from Asia via the Beringia land bridge during the last Ice Age, brought with them well-established traditions of working animal hides and furs into cold-weather clothing.

In tropical regions where heavy clothing was unnecessary, evidence suggests that body coverings were minimal, with animal skins and plant materials used more for protection during specific activities or for ceremonial purposes than for everyday warmth.

Ankara (also known as African wax print) — brightly colored cotton fabric with bold, graphic patterns — became the most recognizable textile of the continent, despite its complex origins in Dutch imitations of Indonesian batik.

Sculptures from Sanchi, Bharhut, and Mathura depict men and women in finely draped unstitched garments — the antariya (lower garment), uttariya (upper drape), and kayabandh (waist sash).

Belgian designers of the Antwerp Six, including Dries Van Noten and Ann Demeulemeester, challenged conventional beauty with deconstructed, avant-garde silhouettes in the 1980s and 1990s.

Women of the court wore flowing ao jackets over long qun skirts, with hair arranged in elaborate styles adorned with gold and jade ornaments.

The main sources are: - Archaeological textiles — waterlogged fragments from cities like London, York, and Dublin, and grave finds from across the continent - Herjolfsnes in Greenland, where permafrost preserved a group of nearly complete woolen garments from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, including gowns, hoods, and hose - Bog finds such as the Bocksten Man from Sweden, buried in the fourteenth century with his hood, tunic, and hose - Illuminated manuscripts, church sculpture, tomb effigies, and stained glass - Written records — wills, household accounts, guild regulations, and sumptuary laws, which describe clothing in surprising detail precisely because it was valuable Like most historical evidence, this skews toward the wealthy.

The Yoruba people produced aso oke cloth in elaborate patterns, while across the Sahel, flowing boubou robes in indigo-dyed cotton signaled wealth and refinement.

Archaeological finds of bone needles and awls — some dating to 40,000 years ago — demonstrate that early Europeans were not simply draping skins over their bodies but actively tailoring them into fitted garments.

Among the Aztec (Mexica), clothing was rigorously regulated by sumptuary laws: commoners wore simple garments of maguey (agave) fiber, while nobles dressed in fine cotton.

The Hausa weavers of what is now northern Nigeria produced elaborately embroidered robes called babban riga that served as prestige garments and trade goods across the Sahel.

Maya weavers used the backstrap loom, a portable device anchored at one end to a post or tree and at the other to a strap around the weaver's waist.

During the Three Kingdoms period (57 BCE–668 CE), the kingdoms of Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla shared broadly similar dress customs, though regional variations are evident in surviving art and artifacts.

Brazilian dress reflected the country's complex social hierarchy — elite women followed Parisian fashion closely, while Afro-Brazilian communities in Bahia developed the distinctive baiana dress with its turbaned headwrap, full white skirts, and layered pano da costa shawl, rooted in West African textile traditions.

Women wore the short jeogori jacket paired with the voluminous high-waisted chima skirt, while men wore wider jeogori with baji trousers.

Banarasi silk weavers in Varanasi continued producing their renowned brocades with gold and silver zari thread, adapting designs to changing tastes while maintaining centuries-old weaving techniques.

Rajput courts in western India developed their own brilliant aesthetic, favoring vivid bandhani (tie-dye) turbans, fitted angarkhi tunics, and enormous pleated skirts called ghaghra for women.

" Married women covered their hair with a veil and a wimple, a cloth wrapped around the neck and chin, or with a barbette chin band and linen fillet band around the head.

## Early Weaving and Dye Traditions Before the rise of the Indus cities, South Asia's earlier Neolithic and Chalcolithic communities relied on a combination of animal hides, plant fibers, and bark for body covering.

Bark cloth production continued in parts of Central and East Africa, and the dyeing traditions using indigo and other local materials persisted alongside imported fabrics.

Stone bark-cloth beaters found at sites in several African countries provide indirect evidence of this tradition stretching back thousands of years.

In East Africa, the Maasai people wore garments of animal hide and later adopted brightly dyed cotton shuka wraps, combined with elaborate beadwork that encoded age, status, and social role.

His clothing was a complex, layered ensemble: a hide coat stitched from goat and sheep skins, leggings made of goat hide, a grass cloak for rain protection, a bearskin cap, and calfskin shoes stuffed with grass for insulation.

The beizi, a long open-fronted coat, became a defining garment for both men and women.

jpg) The earliest inhabitants of the Americas, who crossed from Asia via the Beringia land bridge during the last Ice Age, brought with them well-established traditions of working animal hides and furs into cold-weather clothing.

## Textiles and Craft Nineteenth-century East Asia had some of the most sophisticated textile traditions in the world: - Chinese silk embroidery, centered in Suzhou and other cities, produced the dragon robes and mandarin squares of the court as well as embroidered women's clothing and shoes - Japanese resist dyeing — including stencil-dyed katazome and tie-dyed shibori — decorated everything from luxurious silk kimono to cotton work clothes - Kasuri, cloth woven from threads dyed in patterns before weaving, was popular for everyday cotton kimono - In the Ryukyu Kingdom, now Okinawa, brightly colored stencil-dyed bingata cloth was worn by the royal court and nobility - Among the Ainu of Hokkaido, robes woven from the inner bark of elm trees were decorated with bold appliqué patterns ## Common Myths About 19th-Century East Asian Clothing "The qipao is ancient traditional Chinese dress.

On the Great Plains, bison hides provided material for robes, leggings, and moccasins, processed through laborious cycles of scraping, braining, and smoking to produce soft, durable buckskin.

In the twelfth century, elite men and women adopted the bliaut, a long gown that was fitted through the torso — often laced at the sides — with a full skirt and long, sometimes trailing sleeves.

Block printing — in which carved wooden blocks were used to stamp patterns onto cloth — and mordant dyeing — in which fabrics were treated with chemical fixatives before being dipped in dye baths to produce vibrant, colorfast hues — allowed South Asian artisans to produce richly colored cotton textiles in vast quantities for export.

The American reformer Amelia Bloomer's loose trousers worn under a short skirt, dubbed bloomers, caused a sensation in Britain in the 1850s.

The California Gold Rush of 1849 helped popularize rugged work wear — Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis patented their riveted blue jeans in 1873, creating what would become America's most iconic garment.

Genetic studies of body lice — which require clothing to survive — suggest that humans first began wearing garments at least 100,000 years ago, long before our species migrated out of Africa.

## How We Know What Ancient Europeans Wore The evidence for ancient clothing is unusually rich, though it comes in very different forms north and south: - Bog and burial finds in Scandinavia and northern Germany, where waterlogged, oxygen-free conditions preserved complete woolen outfits - Salt mines at Hallstatt in Austria, which have yielded thousands of Bronze and Iron Age textile fragments in vivid colors and patterns - Sculpture, vase painting, and frescoes from Greece and Rome, including the wall paintings buried at Pompeii and Herculaneum - Written sources — Greek and Roman authors describing their own clothing and, often disapprovingly, that of their neighbors - Everyday documents such as the Vindolanda tablets from Hadrian's Wall, where one letter to a soldier mentions a parcel of socks, sandals, and underpants sent from home ## Bronze Age Europe (3000–800 BCE) The earliest civilization in Europe, the Minoans of Crete, left frescoes and figurines showing some of the most distinctive clothing of the ancient world.

The main sources are: - Archaeological textiles — waterlogged fragments from cities like London, York, and Dublin, and grave finds from across the continent - Herjolfsnes in Greenland, where permafrost preserved a group of nearly complete woolen garments from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, including gowns, hoods, and hose - Bog finds such as the Bocksten Man from Sweden, buried in the fourteenth century with his hood, tunic, and hose - Illuminated manuscripts, church sculpture, tomb effigies, and stained glass - Written records — wills, household accounts, guild regulations, and sumptuary laws, which describe clothing in surprising detail precisely because it was valuable Like most historical evidence, this skews toward the wealthy.

Young designers increasingly focused on sustainability, working with local artisans and traditional techniques like adire (Yoruba indigo dyeing) and bogolan (Malian mud cloth) to create fashion that was both culturally grounded and environmentally conscious.

In Argentina, the gaucho of the Pampas wore baggy bombachas trousers, leather boots, and a broad belt adorned with silver coins.

Evidence of hide-working tools such as scrapers and bone awls appears at sites throughout the Fertile Crescent dating back tens of thousands of years.

In the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, survival depended on expertly tailored garments: caribou hide parkas, fur-lined boots, and mittens stitched with sinew thread using bone needles.

The Yoruba people produced aso oke cloth in elaborate patterns, while across the Sahel, flowing boubou robes in indigo-dyed cotton signaled wealth and refinement.

The Celts of Gaul wore bracae, trousers so characteristic that the Romans called part of southern Gaul *Gallia Bracata*, "trousered Gaul.

## Medieval Men's Clothing A medieval man's outfit was built in layers, and the basic layers barely changed over the millennium: - A linen shirt worn next to the skin - Linen braies, loose underdrawers tied at the waist - Hose — separate woolen leg coverings, tied to the braies or later to the doublet, which joined into a single garment in the fifteenth century - A woolen tunic, later a cotehardie or doublet - A cloak, mantle, or later a gown for warmth and formality - A hood or hat — few men went bareheaded outdoors ## Medieval Women's Clothing Women's clothing followed the same layering logic.

Beyond coral, Benin's weavers produced fine cotton textiles, while the kingdom's famous brass plaques depict warriors and courtiers wearing elaborate wrappers, leopard-skin regalia, and iron or brass ornaments that reflected a sophisticated visual language of rank and power.

The broad collar, a wide necklace of beads and gold, was one of the most characteristic pieces of Egyptian jewelry.

Everything known about Chola dynasty fashion is therefore reconstructed from images and documents: - Stone sculpture, above all at the Brihadisvara Temple at Thanjavur, consecrated around 1010 CE under Rajaraja I - Bronze icons cast by the lost-wax method — the celebrated Chola bronzes of Shiva, Parvati, and the Tamil saints - Temple frescoes in the Brihadisvara ambulatory passage - Inscriptions — many thousands, carved on temple walls and copper plates, recording donations, taxes, and temple administration in unusual detail - Tamil literature, both devotional and courtly This evidence has a built-in bias.

On the expanding western frontier, men wore buckskin jackets and trousers influenced by Indigenous garment traditions, sturdy denim work clothes, and wide-brimmed hats for sun protection.

Mountain men and fur trappers of the early 19th century adopted garments from Indigenous peoples, wearing fringed buckskin shirts and leggings made from brain-tanned deer hide — a soft, pliable material well suited to life in the wilderness.

On the Great Plains, nations such as the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Comanche created elaborate garments from buffalo hide and later trade cloth, adorned with porcupine quillwork, glass beadwork, and painted designs that carried deep spiritual and narrative significance.

In the Kingdom of Buganda and other Great Lakes societies, bark cloth production reached a high art, with the finest examples reserved for royalty and used in ceremonial contexts.

Freeborn children wore a bulla, a protective amulet hung around the neck, until they came of age.

In North Africa, the burnous (a hooded cloak) and haik (a large draped cloth) remained staples of daily dress, while the cities of Fez and Tunis developed their own luxury textile traditions.

Veiling practices ranged from the light head covering worn in daily life to the full-length burqu' or face veil adopted by elite urban women.

Women's dress relied on the farthingale, a hooped underskirt that created a wide, conical shape, while bodices were stiffened with busks — rigid inserts of wood, bone, or metal that flattened the torso into an idealized form.

### The Bustle and the Hourglass (1870–1900) The crinoline gave way in the 1870s to the bustle, a padded structure that projected fabric dramatically behind the wearer, shifting visual emphasis to the back of the dress.

Citizens wore closed leather shoes called calcei with the toga, and lighter sandals indoors.

His clothing was a complex, layered ensemble: a hide coat stitched from goat and sheep skins, leggings made of goat hide, a grass cloak for rain protection, a bearskin cap, and calfskin shoes stuffed with grass for insulation.

India had been one of the world's great textile exporters, renowned for its muslin, chintz, and calico fabrics.

### Soldiers, Shoes, and Cloaks Roman soldiers wore a woolen tunic, a sagum (a heavy cloak pinned at the shoulder), and caligae, hobnailed military sandal-boots whose tracks archaeologists can still identify.

800 BCE–100 BCE) is particularly renowned for its burial mantles: large cotton cloths embroidered in vivid colors with images of supernatural beings, animals, and human figures using camelid fiber — the wool of llamas and alpacas.

In the Andes, indigenous communities also domesticated camelids — llamas and alpacas — and their soft wool became a prized textile fiber alongside cotton.

In the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, survival depended on expertly tailored garments: caribou hide parkas, fur-lined boots, and mittens stitched with sinew thread using bone needles.

At Çatalhöyük, the remarkable Neolithic settlement in central Anatolia occupied from roughly 7500 to 5700 BCE, archaeologists have found extensive evidence of textile production.

Court kaftans were tailored from the finest silks — including kemha (a heavy brocade), seraser (cloth of gold and silver), and çatma (cut velvet) — and featured bold, large-scale patterns of tulips, carnations, pomegranates, and arabesques.

In Persia, women wore the chador over richly decorated tunics and wide trousers, with regional embroidery and textile traditions adding distinctive local character.

The Pochampally and Sambalpuri ikat traditions of southern and eastern India produced distinctive cotton and silk textiles with bold geometric patterns, while Chanderi in central India became known for its gossamer-light cotton-silk blend fabrics.

### Everyday Dress and the Queue The flowing wide-sleeved robes of the Han Chinese majority coexisted with the tighter-fitting Manchu riding garments mandated by the ruling dynasty, including the changshan for men and the early form of the qipao for women.

Recurring elements include makara kundala earrings shaped as sea-creature heads, the channavira chest chain crossing diagonally over both shoulders, the udarabandha band across the midriff, the katisutra or mekhala hip girdle worn over the drape, keyura armlets above the elbow, bangles, and heavy anklets.

The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries saw an explosion of fashion consciousness among the European elite: - Houppelandes — voluminous gowns with wide, often fur-lined sleeves and high collars — swept the courts from the 1360s onward - Poulaines, or crakows, were shoes with extravagantly long pointed toes, named for the Polish city of Kraków - The chaperon, originally a simple hood, evolved into an elaborate hat with a long tail called a liripipe - Women wore tall headdresses, including the cone-shaped hennin and horned or heart-shaped styles built over wire frames The Burgundian court of the fifteenth century set the tone for much of northern Europe.

Cowboys on the cattle trails wore chaps (leather leg coverings) over denim or wool trousers, high-heeled riding boots, and broad-brimmed Stetson hats — practical garments that became enduring symbols of the American West.

The charkha (spinning wheel) became an emblem of Indian nationhood, and wearing khadi signaled solidarity with the independence cause.

Mexican charros developed their distinctive horseman's outfit with fitted trousers, short jacket, and wide-brimmed sombrero, a style that became an enduring national icon.

The critical red came from chay root, and blue from indigo; turmeric and safflower gave yellows and pinks that faded quickly.

Next to the skin was a linen chemise or smock.

On the Great Plains, nations such as the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Comanche created elaborate garments from buffalo hide and later trade cloth, adorned with porcupine quillwork, glass beadwork, and painted designs that carried deep spiritual and narrative significance.

The Mughal passion for surface decoration gave rise to extraordinary embroidery traditions, including zardozi (gold wire embroidery), chikankari (white-on-white pulled-thread work from Lucknow), and phulkari (floral embroidery from Punjab).

Women wore the short jeogori jacket paired with the voluminous high-waisted chima skirt, while men wore wider jeogori with baji trousers.

The subsequent Chimú kingdom continued this legacy, producing gossamer-fine cotton gauzes and elaborately painted fabrics along Peru's northern coast.

In Mexico, the china poblana ensemble — a richly embroidered blouse with a sequined skirt — became a symbol of Mexican womanhood, blending Indigenous, Spanish, and possibly Asian textile traditions.

## Textiles and Craft Nineteenth-century East Asia had some of the most sophisticated textile traditions in the world: - Chinese silk embroidery, centered in Suzhou and other cities, produced the dragon robes and mandarin squares of the court as well as embroidered women's clothing and shoes - Japanese resist dyeing — including stencil-dyed katazome and tie-dyed shibori — decorated everything from luxurious silk kimono to cotton work clothes - Kasuri, cloth woven from threads dyed in patterns before weaving, was popular for everyday cotton kimono - In the Ryukyu Kingdom, now Okinawa, brightly colored stencil-dyed bingata cloth was worn by the royal court and nobility - Among the Ainu of Hokkaido, robes woven from the inner bark of elm trees were decorated with bold appliqué patterns ## Common Myths About 19th-Century East Asian Clothing "The qipao is ancient traditional Chinese dress.

India had been one of the world's great textile exporters, renowned for its muslin, chintz, and calico fabrics.

The chiton, a tunic-like garment pinned or sewn at the shoulders, was the foundation of both male and female dress.

Other garments marked activity and status: - The chlamys, a short cloak pinned at the right shoulder, was worn by horsemen, soldiers, travelers, and young men in military training - The exomis, a short tunic fastened over one shoulder only, left the working arm free and was associated with laborers and craftsmen - The petasos, a wide-brimmed hat, protected travelers from the sun Greeks often went barefoot indoors and wore leather sandals or boots outdoors.

jpg) The Chola dynasty (9th–13th century) presided over a flourishing of textile arts in southern India.

The six-to-nine-yard unstitched cloth was paired with a fitted choli blouse and a petticoat, a combination that became increasingly standardized during this period partly through colonial influence and the spread of printed fashion illustrations.

Men were encouraged to cut off the samurai chonmage topknot and adopt short Western haircuts, and in 1876 the government banned the public carrying of swords, ending the most visible sign of samurai status.

In northern India, the kurta paired with churidar or pajama trousers was common, while Mughal-influenced court dress persisted among the aristocracy.

Laborers in the countryside wore clothing little changed from the eighteenth century: in England, a loose linen smock-frock for farmworkers; across much of the continent, wooden clogs or sabots.

Nazca weavers were masters of color, dyeing camelid fibers in dozens of distinct hues using plant, mineral, and insect-based dyes — including cochineal, which produced brilliant reds.

On the Great Plains, nations such as the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Comanche created elaborate garments from buffalo hide and later trade cloth, adorned with porcupine quillwork, glass beadwork, and painted designs that carried deep spiritual and narrative significance.

The Oba (king) and his chiefs wore garments adorned with coral beads — vast quantities strung into crowns, chokers, chest coverings, and ankle-to-wrist arrays that sheathed the body in red.

The Egtved Girl, buried around 1370 BCE, wore a short woolen blouse and a knee-length corded skirt made of hanging wool strings, with a bronze belt disc at her waist.

Factory workers wore hard-wearing cotton fustian and corduroy, and French workers adopted the blue cotton work jacket that became the uniform of the laborer.

Throughout these changes, the tightly laced corset remained a constant foundation garment, shaping the torso into the fashionable ideal.

Elite Ottoman women increasingly adopted elements of Parisian fashion — corsets, European fabrics, and tailored bodices — while retaining the ferace outdoor cloak and yashmak face veil in public.

The thirteenth century returned to a looser silhouette: a cote (tunic or gown) worn under a surcote, a sleeveless or short-sleeved overgarment.

The cotehardie — a fitted tunic with buttons down the front and often down the forearms — replaced the loose earlier styles.

As early as 3000 BCE, coastal peoples in present-day Peru were cultivating cotton and weaving it into cloth.

By the early centuries CE, cotton weaving was established in parts of West Africa, likely through trans-Saharan contact as well as independent development.

After Prince Albert's death in 1861, Queen Victoria wore black for the rest of her life, and mourning dress became an elaborate system: widows wore dull black crape for a year or more, then moved through stages of half-mourning in gray and lavender, with jewelry of black Whitby jet.

Brummell, the leading figure of Regency fashion, rejected ornament in favor of perfect cut, spotless white linen, and an immaculately tied cravat.

Then came the revolutionary crinoline — a cage-like frame of steel hoops, patented in the 1850s, that allowed skirts to reach extraordinary widths by the late 1850s.

In the Andes, Quechua and Aymara weavers continued to produce extraordinary cumbi cloth on backstrap looms, adapting ancient techniques to incorporate Spanish-introduced sheep's wool alongside traditional alpaca and vicuna fibers.

## How We Know What Ancient Middle Eastern People Wore Evidence for ancient Middle Eastern clothing comes from a remarkable range of sources: - Egyptian tombs, where the dry climate preserved actual garments; the tomb of Tutankhamun alone held hundreds of textiles, including tunics, loincloths, shawls, and gloves - Sculpture and reliefs, such as Sumerian votive statues and the detailed palace reliefs of the Assyrian kings - Tomb paintings in Egypt showing people of every class at work and at leisure - Cuneiform tablets recording textile production, wool rations, and trade in cloth - Textile finds from desert sites such as Palmyra and Dura-Europos in Syria, which preserved wool and silk fabrics from the Roman period Much of this evidence, as usual, shows kings, gods, and officials.

Designers like Duro Olowu (Nigeria/UK), Lisa Folawiyo, and Ozwald Boateng brought African aesthetics to international runways, while Lagos Fashion Week, Dakar Fashion Week, and South African Fashion Week established the continent as a serious player in the global fashion calendar.

The toga shrank into a ceremonial garment worn by officials, and long-sleeved tunics like the dalmatic became fashionable.

Damask (named for Damascus) and muslin (associated with Mosul) entered European languages as testaments to the region's prestige.

Men who made a career of this kind of refinement were called dandies.

Produced in state-controlled workshops called dar al-tiraz, these textiles were given as robes of honor (khil'a) to officials and foreign dignitaries, making clothing a direct expression of caliphal power.

The dashiki — a colorful, loose-fitting garment of West African origin — crossed the Atlantic to become a powerful symbol of Black pride and Pan-African solidarity during the American civil rights and Black Power movements of the 1960s and 1970s.

Japan led the way, with designers like Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons, and Yohji Yamamoto astonishing the Paris fashion world in the 1980s with deconstructed, oversized, and asymmetrical garments that challenged Western conventions of beauty and fit.

In the woodlands of eastern North America, deerskin was the primary clothing material, often decorated with porcupine quill embroidery, shell beads, and plant-based dyes.

* ## Delhi Sultanate and Early Mughal Influence (13th–16th Century) The establishment of the Delhi Sultanate in 1206 introduced Central Asian and Persian clothing traditions to northern India.

On the expanding western frontier, men wore buckskin jackets and trousers influenced by Indigenous garment traditions, sturdy denim work clothes, and wide-brimmed hats for sun protection.

The rise of department stores — Macy's in New York, Marshall Field's in Chicago, Wanamaker's in Philadelphia — made fashionable ready-to-wear clothing accessible to a broad public.

The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries brought a flourishing of South Asian designer fashion.

The famed Dhaka muslin, once so fine it was called "woven air," nearly vanished as weavers lost their livelihoods.

For men, the dhoti — an unstitched garment wrapped around the waist and legs — continued as everyday wear across much of the subcontinent.

Cumbi cloth featured impossibly tight weaves with thread counts exceeding 600 per inch and incorporated techniques including tapestry, supplementary weft, and discontinuous warp and weft that remain difficult to replicate even with modern technology.

Men commonly wore the thobe or dishdasha — a long loose garment suited to the hot climate — in the Arabian Peninsula, while in the Levant and Egypt, layered ensembles of sirwal trousers, shirts, vests, and outer robes remained standard.

Cities like Timbuktu, Djenné, and Kano became major centers of textile production and commerce.

The older Doric chiton was made of wool and fastened with pins at the shoulders, while the Ionic chiton, made of lighter linen, was wider and fastened with a row of small buttons or stitches along the arms, creating the appearance of sleeves.

This double ikat technique required extraordinary planning and skill, as the dyer had to calculate exactly where each color would fall in the finished cloth.

The doublet, a fitted padded jacket, was paired with trunk hose — short, puffed breeches stuffed with horsehair or rags to achieve a rounded shape.

Spanish settlers in Mexico and Peru initially replicated Iberian court styles — doublets, ruffs, and heavy woolen cloaks — but gradually adopted lighter fabrics and looser fits suited to tropical conditions.

Court dress centered on the dragon robe, an elaborately embroidered silk garment reserved for the emperor and high officials, featuring five-clawed dragons amid clouds and waves.

### Court and Official Dress Officials wore dragon robes adorned with mandarin squares — embroidered badges indicating rank through specific bird or animal motifs.

Terracotta figurines from Indus sites depict individuals wearing what appear to be draped garments and elaborate headdresses, indicating that clothing served decorative and possibly ritual functions alongside practical ones.

In the kingdoms of the West African forest belt, draped wrappers — lengths of cloth wound around the body — served as the basic garment for both men and women, with the quality of fabric, the style of wrapping, and the addition of accessories communicating rank, occupation, and ritual status.

Dubai Fashion Week and Saudi Fashion Week attracted international attention, while homegrown designers like Elie Saab (Lebanon) and Reem Acra became fixtures of global red-carpet fashion.

Women of the Mughal court wore the peshwaz, a long, flowing dress gathered below the bust, over pajama trousers, with a sheer dupatta or odhni draped over the head and shoulders.

Men wore a jeogori (short jacket) over baji (wide-legged trousers) with a long durumagi overcoat, topped by distinctive tall-crowned gat hats made of horsehair and bamboo.

The Egtved Girl, buried around 1370 BCE, wore a short woolen blouse and a knee-length corded skirt made of hanging wool strings, with a bronze belt disc at her waist.

## How We Know What Ancient Middle Eastern People Wore Evidence for ancient Middle Eastern clothing comes from a remarkable range of sources: - Egyptian tombs, where the dry climate preserved actual garments; the tomb of Tutankhamun alone held hundreds of textiles, including tunics, loincloths, shawls, and gloves - Sculpture and reliefs, such as Sumerian votive statues and the detailed palace reliefs of the Assyrian kings - Tomb paintings in Egypt showing people of every class at work and at leisure - Cuneiform tablets recording textile production, wool rations, and trade in cloth - Textile finds from desert sites such as Palmyra and Dura-Europos in Syria, which preserved wool and silk fabrics from the Roman period Much of this evidence, as usual, shows kings, gods, and officials.

The broad sequence ran like this: - 1800s–1810s: the high-waisted Empire or Regency gown - 1820s–1830s: wider skirts and enormous puffed sleeves - 1840s–1850s: long, narrow bodices and dome-shaped skirts over layered petticoats, then the crinoline - 1870s–1880s: the bustle - 1890s: the hourglass figure, with a smooth skirt and huge sleeves ### The Empire and Regency Gown (1800–1820) In the early 1800s, the high-waisted Empire dress inspired by classical antiquity dominated, featuring a narrow columnar silhouette in lightweight muslin.

Beneath the kaftan, Ottoman men wore a gömlek (linen shirt), şalvar (wide trousers), and a fitted entari (inner robe), with the whole ensemble crowned by a turban wrapped around a tall felt cap.

Vair, made from the pieced gray-and-white winter pelts of squirrels, lined the gowns of the nobility, while ermine — white winter stoat with black tail tips — was reserved in many places for royalty.

## How We Know What Ancient Europeans Wore The evidence for ancient clothing is unusually rich, though it comes in very different forms north and south: - Bog and burial finds in Scandinavia and northern Germany, where waterlogged, oxygen-free conditions preserved complete woolen outfits - Salt mines at Hallstatt in Austria, which have yielded thousands of Bronze and Iron Age textile fragments in vivid colors and patterns - Sculpture, vase painting, and frescoes from Greece and Rome, including the wall paintings buried at Pompeii and Herculaneum - Written sources — Greek and Roman authors describing their own clothing and, often disapprovingly, that of their neighbors - Everyday documents such as the Vindolanda tablets from Hadrian's Wall, where one letter to a soldier mentions a parcel of socks, sandals, and underpants sent from home ## Bronze Age Europe (3000–800 BCE) The earliest civilization in Europe, the Minoans of Crete, left frescoes and figurines showing some of the most distinctive clothing of the ancient world.

Maya men wore the ex (loincloth) and a square mantle or pati over the shoulders, while women wore the huipil, a tunic-like garment woven in one or more panels and often decorated with brocaded or embroidered designs.

Other garments marked activity and status: - The chlamys, a short cloak pinned at the right shoulder, was worn by horsemen, soldiers, travelers, and young men in military training - The exomis, a short tunic fastened over one shoulder only, left the working arm free and was associated with laborers and craftsmen - The petasos, a wide-brimmed hat, protected travelers from the sun Greeks often went barefoot indoors and wore leather sandals or boots outdoors.

Women's dress relied on the farthingale, a hooped underskirt that created a wide, conical shape, while bodices were stiffened with busks — rigid inserts of wood, bone, or metal that flattened the torso into an idealized form.

- Textile mills in Lancashire, Flanders, and Alsace turned out cotton cloth in quantities that made it the cheapest fabric in Europe - The Jacquard loom, introduced in France in 1804, used punched cards to weave complex patterns automatically - The sewing machine, commercialized in the 1850s, sped up both home dressmaking and factory production - Mauveine, discovered by the English chemist William Perkin in 1856, launched a wave of bright synthetic aniline dyes - Department stores like Le Bon Marché in Paris made shopping for clothing a leisure activity - Fashion plates and magazines spread the latest Paris styles, while paper sewing patterns let home dressmakers copy them Not all the new technology was safe.

By the 2000s, Swedish retailer H&M and Spanish chain Zara pioneered fast fashion, translating runway trends into affordable clothing with unprecedented speed.

Warriors who captured enemies in battle earned the right to wear increasingly elaborate tilmatli designs, and the most distinguished fighters received cloaks decorated with featherwork — mosaics of tropical bird feathers painstakingly sewn onto a fabric backing.

Elite Ottoman women increasingly adopted elements of Parisian fashion — corsets, European fabrics, and tailored bodices — while retaining the ferace outdoor cloak and yashmak face veil in public.

The spread of agriculture through the Fertile Crescent during the eighth and seventh millennia BCE brought with it the systematic cultivation of flax and the development of increasingly sophisticated spinning and weaving technologies.

Sultan Mahmud II's 1829 clothing reforms banned the traditional turban for government officials and military personnel, replacing it with the fez — a brimless crimson felt cap.

" Married women covered their hair with a veil and a wimple, a cloth wrapped around the neck and chin, or with a barbette chin band and linen fillet band around the head.

Flax was among the earliest cultivated textile plants in Europe, with evidence of linen production appearing in sites across the Balkans and central Europe by the sixth millennium BCE.

Han women were also subject to footbinding, the practice of tightly binding young girls' feet to create a small, pointed shape considered beautiful and a sign of respectability.

Early in the century, men still wore knee breeches and elaborate coats, but by mid-century the frock coat worn with long trousers had become standard daytime dress.

Fullers washed and finished woolen cloth by treading it in vats of water mixed with stale urine, which was collected from public urinals.

In the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, survival depended on expertly tailored garments: caribou hide parkas, fur-lined boots, and mittens stitched with sinew thread using bone needles.

Young unmarried women wore the long-sleeved furisode, while married women wore shorter sleeves and more subdued patterns.

jpg) The earliest inhabitants of the Americas, who crossed from Asia via the Beringia land bridge during the last Ice Age, brought with them well-established traditions of working animal hides and furs into cold-weather clothing.

Factory workers wore hard-wearing cotton fustian and corduroy, and French workers adopted the blue cotton work jacket that became the uniform of the laborer.

The Gabo Reforms of 1894 attempted to modernize Korean dress codes further, simplifying court attire and permitting Western-style clothing for officials.

Men wore a jeogori (short jacket) over baji (wide-legged trousers) with a long durumagi overcoat, topped by distinctive tall-crowned gat hats made of horsehair and bamboo.

In Argentina, the gaucho of the Pampas wore baggy bombachas trousers, leather boots, and a broad belt adorned with silver coins.

Rajput courts in western India developed their own brilliant aesthetic, favoring vivid bandhani (tie-dye) turbans, fitted angarkhi tunics, and enormous pleated skirts called ghaghra for women.

Across the Atlantic, the American illustrator Charles Dana Gibson's Gibson Girl captured the same look for a sportier, more independent young woman, and the ideal spread quickly in Europe too.

The Romantic period of the 1820s and 1830s was defined by gigot sleeves, also called leg-of-mutton sleeves, which ballooned at the shoulder and narrowed at the wrist.

During the Three Kingdoms period (57 BCE–668 CE), the kingdoms of Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla shared broadly similar dress customs, though regional variations are evident in surviving art and artifacts.

Goguryeo tomb paintings depict men and women wearing jeogori-like jackets paired with wide trousers or long skirts, with belted waists and narrow sleeves — an early form of what would eventually become the hanbok.

Hip-hop fashion — oversized silhouettes, gold chains, branded athletic wear, Timberland boots, and later the sleek luxury aesthetic of artists like Kanye West and Rihanna — became one of the most influential style movements in fashion history, driven primarily by Black and Latino creativity.

Beneath the kaftan, Ottoman men wore a gömlek (linen shirt), şalvar (wide trousers), and a fitted entari (inner robe), with the whole ensemble crowned by a turban wrapped around a tall felt cap.

Extra width came from triangular gores inserted into the skirt, a technique that persisted for centuries.

In Korea, the Goryeo dynasty (918–1392) developed a distinctive dress tradition that balanced Chinese influence with indigenous style.

Raffia palm fibers, grass, and various bast fibers were twisted into string, braided into belts, and fashioned into skirts and loincloths.

His clothing was a complex, layered ensemble: a hide coat stitched from goat and sheep skins, leggings made of goat hide, a grass cloak for rain protection, a bearskin cap, and calfskin shoes stuffed with grass for insulation.

Further south, the civilization centered on Great Zimbabwe (11th–15th century) left evidence of sophisticated textile production.

The guayabera shirt of Cuba and Mexico remained a staple of Latin American formal and business dress.

Chinese fashion experienced its own renaissance as designers like Guo Pei and Uma Wang gained global recognition, while a new generation of consumers embraced guochao — a movement celebrating Chinese heritage through contemporary design.

In North Africa, the burnous (a hooded cloak) and haik (a large draped cloth) remained staples of daily dress, while the cities of Fez and Tunis developed their own luxury textile traditions.

Scarification patterns marked ethnic identity and life stages, while elaborate hairstyling — often incorporating beads, cowrie shells, and metal ornaments — served as a form of portable art and social marker.

Samurai men wore hakama, wide pleated trousers or divided skirts, over the kimono, with a sleeveless, stiff-shouldered vest called a kamishimo for formal occasions, and carried two swords as the mark of their rank.

## Korea: The Hanbok Under the Late Joseon On the Korean peninsula, the hanbok continued as everyday dress under the Joseon dynasty.

The hanfu — a broad term for traditional Han Chinese clothing — was characterized by its cross-collar design, wrapping right over left, wide sleeves, and a sash or belt at the waist.

Working people wore cotton kimono dyed with indigo, the most common color in Japanese everyday clothing, along with short happi jackets and straw sandals.

Tokyo's street fashion scenes — from the Harajuku district's wild layering and color to the minimalism of brands like Uniqlo and Muji — became objects of global fascination.

The Indus Valley cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa reveal a civilization deeply engaged in textile production.

The Hausa weavers of what is now northern Nigeria produced elaborately embroidered robes called babban riga that served as prestige garments and trade goods across the Sahel.

Haute couture — the tradition of custom-fitted, handmade clothing produced by elite fashion houses — reached its zenith in the early 1900s under designers like Paul Poiret, who liberated women from the corset in favor of flowing, columnar silhouettes.

In the Caribbean and Brazil, enslaved and free Black women developed elaborate headwrap traditions, transforming a simple piece of cloth into an art form with regional styles and coded meanings.

Before silk became widespread, the majority of prehistoric East Asian clothing relied on hemp (Cannabis sativa), one of the oldest cultivated fiber plants in the region.

The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries saw an explosion of fashion consciousness among the European elite: - Houppelandes — voluminous gowns with wide, often fur-lined sleeves and high collars — swept the courts from the 1360s onward - Poulaines, or crakows, were shoes with extravagantly long pointed toes, named for the Polish city of Kraków - The chaperon, originally a simple hood, evolved into an elaborate hat with a long tail called a liripipe - Women wore tall headdresses, including the cone-shaped hennin and horned or heart-shaped styles built over wire frames The Burgundian court of the fifteenth century set the tone for much of northern Europe.

The main sources are: - Archaeological textiles — waterlogged fragments from cities like London, York, and Dublin, and grave finds from across the continent - Herjolfsnes in Greenland, where permafrost preserved a group of nearly complete woolen garments from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, including gowns, hoods, and hose - Bog finds such as the Bocksten Man from Sweden, buried in the fourteenth century with his hood, tunic, and hose - Illuminated manuscripts, church sculpture, tomb effigies, and stained glass - Written records — wills, household accounts, guild regulations, and sumptuary laws, which describe clothing in surprising detail precisely because it was valuable Like most historical evidence, this skews toward the wealthy.

His clothing was a complex, layered ensemble: a hide coat stitched from goat and sheep skins, leggings made of goat hide, a grass cloak for rain protection, a bearskin cap, and calfskin shoes stuffed with grass for insulation.

Women's hide dresses featured intricate yoke designs, while men's war shirts recorded acts of valor through painted and beaded imagery.

Stone tools used for hide scraping appear even earlier in the archaeological record across eastern and southern Africa.

Evidence of hide-working tools such as scrapers and bone awls appears at sites throughout the Fertile Crescent dating back tens of thousands of years.

Iran saw similar state-driven changes: Reza Shah banned the veil in 1936, while the 1979 Islamic Revolution later mandated the hijab for women, making clothing a flashpoint in political struggles over modernity, religion, and national identity.

Over this, a himation — a large rectangular cloth — could be wrapped around the body as an outer layer.

Hip-hop fashion — oversized silhouettes, gold chains, branded athletic wear, Timberland boots, and later the sleek luxury aesthetic of artists like Kanye West and Rihanna — became one of the most influential style movements in fashion history, driven primarily by Black and Latino creativity.

Samurai dress introduced practical innovations such as the hitatare, a two-piece outfit with a wide-sleeved jacket and trousers, suitable for both formal occasions and movement.

Burial sites from the Hongshan culture (c.

The robes themselves were cut in the Manchu style, with close-fitting sleeves ending in flared cuffs called horse-hoof cuffs, a reminder of the dynasty's origins as mounted warriors.

## Medieval Men's Clothing A medieval man's outfit was built in layers, and the basic layers barely changed over the millennium: - A linen shirt worn next to the skin - Linen braies, loose underdrawers tied at the waist - Hose — separate woolen leg coverings, tied to the braies or later to the doublet, which joined into a single garment in the fifteenth century - A woolen tunic, later a cotehardie or doublet - A cloak, mantle, or later a gown for warmth and formality - A hood or hat — few men went bareheaded outdoors ## Medieval Women's Clothing Women's clothing followed the same layering logic.

The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries saw an explosion of fashion consciousness among the European elite: - Houppelandes — voluminous gowns with wide, often fur-lined sleeves and high collars — swept the courts from the 1360s onward - Poulaines, or crakows, were shoes with extravagantly long pointed toes, named for the Polish city of Kraków - The chaperon, originally a simple hood, evolved into an elaborate hat with a long tail called a liripipe - Women wore tall headdresses, including the cone-shaped hennin and horned or heart-shaped styles built over wire frames The Burgundian court of the fifteenth century set the tone for much of northern Europe.

In South America, the site of Huaca Prieta on the coast of Peru has yielded cotton textiles dating to approximately 2500 BCE, among the oldest in the Western Hemisphere.

Maya men wore the ex (loincloth) and a square mantle or pati over the shoulders, while women wore the huipil, a tunic-like garment woven in one or more panels and often decorated with brocaded or embroidered designs.

Textiles used for women's garments were often richly decorated; surviving fragments reveal intricate ikat dyeing, gold-thread embroidery, and resist-printed patterns.

Ikat weaving — in which yarns are resist-dyed before being placed on the loom — reached its highest expression in the patola silks of Gujarat, where both warp and weft threads were precisely dyed to create intricate geometric, floral, and figurative patterns.

The main sources are: - Archaeological textiles — waterlogged fragments from cities like London, York, and Dublin, and grave finds from across the continent - Herjolfsnes in Greenland, where permafrost preserved a group of nearly complete woolen garments from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, including gowns, hoods, and hose - Bog finds such as the Bocksten Man from Sweden, buried in the fourteenth century with his hood, tunic, and hose - Illuminated manuscripts, church sculpture, tomb effigies, and stained glass - Written records — wills, household accounts, guild regulations, and sumptuary laws, which describe clothing in surprising detail precisely because it was valuable Like most historical evidence, this skews toward the wealthy.

The Inca empire (1438–1533) elevated textile production to a matter of state.

From the Indian Ocean coast, Indian cotton textiles — block-printed and resist-dyed — flowed into East and Central Africa, becoming integrated into local dress customs.

Bark cloth production continued in parts of Central and East Africa, and the dyeing traditions using indigo and other local materials persisted alongside imported fabrics.

Camel caravans carried indigo-dyed cloth northward and brought Mediterranean and Middle Eastern fabrics south.

In Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula, indigo-dyed cotton from India was prized, and the khanjar (curved dagger) worn at the belt served as both weapon and status marker.

In the Sahara, indigo-dyed garments were worn so consistently that the dye transferred to the wearer's skin, earning the Tuareg the name "blue people.

The earliest known cultivation of cotton (Gossypium arboreum) for textile use has been traced to the Indus Valley civilization, with fragments of cotton cloth discovered at the site of Mohenjo-daro dating to approximately 2500 BCE.

Everything known about Chola dynasty fashion is therefore reconstructed from images and documents: - Stone sculpture, above all at the Brihadisvara Temple at Thanjavur, consecrated around 1010 CE under Rajaraja I - Bronze icons cast by the lost-wax method — the celebrated Chola bronzes of Shiva, Parvati, and the Tamil saints - Temple frescoes in the Brihadisvara ambulatory passage - Inscriptions — many thousands, carved on temple walls and copper plates, recording donations, taxes, and temple administration in unusual detail - Tamil literature, both devotional and courtly This evidence has a built-in bias.

The older Doric chiton was made of wool and fastened with pins at the shoulders, while the Ionic chiton, made of lighter linen, was wider and fastened with a row of small buttons or stitches along the arms, creating the appearance of sleeves.

In Mesoamerica, agave fibers (known as ixtle) and wild cotton were the principal plant-based textile materials of the prehistoric period.

- Textile mills in Lancashire, Flanders, and Alsace turned out cotton cloth in quantities that made it the cheapest fabric in Europe - The Jacquard loom, introduced in France in 1804, used punched cards to weave complex patterns automatically - The sewing machine, commercialized in the 1850s, sped up both home dressmaking and factory production - Mauveine, discovered by the English chemist William Perkin in 1856, launched a wave of bright synthetic aniline dyes - Department stores like Le Bon Marché in Paris made shopping for clothing a leisure activity - Fashion plates and magazines spread the latest Paris styles, while paper sewing patterns let home dressmakers copy them Not all the new technology was safe.

Jade ornaments, bone hairpins, and shell beads were likely sewn onto or worn with garments, foreshadowing the elaborate costume hierarchies of later Chinese dynasties.

The jama, a long crossover robe tied at the side, became the foundation of Mughal male dress, worn over tight churidar trousers that gathered in folds at the ankle.

Jamdani — a fine muslin textile historically known as Dhakai after the city of Dhaka — preserved the art of supplementary weft weaving, with weavers creating intricate floral and geometric patterns directly on the loom without sketching designs onto the fabric itself.

## Textiles and Craft Nineteenth-century East Asia had some of the most sophisticated textile traditions in the world: - Chinese silk embroidery, centered in Suzhou and other cities, produced the dragon robes and mandarin squares of the court as well as embroidered women's clothing and shoes - Japanese resist dyeing — including stencil-dyed katazome and tie-dyed shibori — decorated everything from luxurious silk kimono to cotton work clothes - Kasuri, cloth woven from threads dyed in patterns before weaving, was popular for everyday cotton kimono - In the Ryukyu Kingdom, now Okinawa, brightly colored stencil-dyed bingata cloth was worn by the royal court and nobility - Among the Ainu of Hokkaido, robes woven from the inner bark of elm trees were decorated with bold appliqué patterns ## Common Myths About 19th-Century East Asian Clothing "The qipao is ancient traditional Chinese dress.

Women wore the short jeogori jacket paired with the voluminous high-waisted chima skirt, while men wore wider jeogori with baji trousers.

Korean artisans excelled in jogakbo, the art of piecing together scraps of silk and ramie into wrapping cloths with compositions that anticipated modern abstract art.

Men typically wore a qamis (shirt), over which they placed a jubba (a sleeved overcoat) or ridā' (a draped mantle).

The junihitoe — a layered court costume of up to twelve silk robes — exemplified the Heian period's (794–1185 CE) emphasis on color combination and aesthetic refinement.

Under Louis XIV, the justaucorps, a long fitted coat with wide cuffs, replaced the doublet as the standard male garment, worn over a waistcoat and paired with breeches and silk stockings.

South Korea's K-fashion rose to international prominence alongside the Korean Wave (Hallyu) of the 2010s and 2020s.

For labor, travel, or warfare it was worn as a kachcham, with the cloth drawn back between the legs and tucked at the waist behind, converting a drape into something closer to trousers without a stitch being sewn.

The upper body was covered by a kachchu or kurpasam, a breast band of cloth tied across the chest.

The old system of regionally varied kaftan-based garments gave way to standardized Western-style uniforms modeled on French and Prussian designs.

## Weavers, Looms, and the Temple Economy Chola inscriptions name weaving communities — the Kaikkolar, later known as Sengunthar, and the Saliyar among them — as organized groups with recognized standing, temple obligations, and internal governance.

The kalamkari tradition of the Coromandel Coast produced elaborate narrative textiles depicting Hindu mythological scenes, painted freehand with a bamboo pen.

### Women's Clothing Women wore the kalasiris, a close-fitting sheath dress with one or two shoulder straps — the name comes from the Greek historian Herodotus rather than from Egyptian.

The Safavid court favored a more fitted silhouette than the Ottomans, with a shorter qaba (robe) that fell to the knee, wrapped and tied with a kamarband sash, and worn over slim trousers.

Samurai men wore hakama, wide pleated trousers or divided skirts, over the kimono, with a sleeveless, stiff-shouldered vest called a kamishimo for formal occasions, and carried two swords as the mark of their rank.

The kandys, a long-sleeved coat draped over the shoulders like a cape, was a mark of high status.

In southern Africa, the Ndebele people developed a distinctive tradition of beaded garments and painted designs, while Kanga cloths — rectangular printed cotton wraps often bearing Swahili proverbs — emerged as a characteristic garment along the East African coast.

Cities like Timbuktu, Djenné, and Kano became major centers of textile production and commerce.

Along the Swahili coast, the kanzu — a long white robe for men — reflected Arab influence but was tailored and worn in distinctly East African ways, while women's kanga cloths bore printed Swahili proverbs that added a literary dimension to everyday dress.

The textile workshops, or karkhanas, established by the sultans organized weavers into specialized guilds, producing luxury fabrics including zari-embroidered cloth woven with gold and silver threads that would reach its fullest expression under the later Mughals.

The visible layers at the sleeve openings and hem were carefully coordinated according to seasonal color schemes, a practice called kasane no irome.

Meanwhile, the Parsi community in western India developed distinctive embroidered saris blending European lace techniques with Indian motifs, and the Kashmiri shawl remained one of the most coveted luxury textiles in the world, prized in both South Asian and European fashion.

Shibori tie-dyeing produced patterns ranging from simple dots to elaborate geometric and abstract designs, while kasuri (ikat weaving) created geometric patterns by pre-dyeing warp or weft threads.

## Textiles and Craft Nineteenth-century East Asia had some of the most sophisticated textile traditions in the world: - Chinese silk embroidery, centered in Suzhou and other cities, produced the dragon robes and mandarin squares of the court as well as embroidered women's clothing and shoes - Japanese resist dyeing — including stencil-dyed katazome and tie-dyed shibori — decorated everything from luxurious silk kimono to cotton work clothes - Kasuri, cloth woven from threads dyed in patterns before weaving, was popular for everyday cotton kimono - In the Ryukyu Kingdom, now Okinawa, brightly colored stencil-dyed bingata cloth was worn by the royal court and nobility - Among the Ainu of Hokkaido, robes woven from the inner bark of elm trees were decorated with bold appliqué patterns ## Common Myths About 19th-Century East Asian Clothing "The qipao is ancient traditional Chinese dress.

Recurring elements include makara kundala earrings shaped as sea-creature heads, the channavira chest chain crossing diagonally over both shoulders, the udarabandha band across the midriff, the katisutra or mekhala hip girdle worn over the drape, keyura armlets above the elbow, bangles, and heavy anklets.

jpg) In ancient Mesopotamia, one of the earliest and most distinctive garments was the kaunakes, a skirt or wrap made from sheepskin with the fleece left on, or later woven to imitate tufted fleece.

Sculptures from Sanchi, Bharhut, and Mathura depict men and women in finely draped unstitched garments — the antariya (lower garment), uttariya (upper drape), and kayabandh (waist sash).

The keffiyeh and agal headcovering continued its essential role in Arabian dress, while Persian men wore the kolah cap and distinctive pleated coats.

Court kaftans were tailored from the finest silks — including kemha (a heavy brocade), seraser (cloth of gold and silver), and çatma (cut velvet) — and featured bold, large-scale patterns of tulips, carnations, pomegranates, and arabesques.

The Asante continued to innovate in kente weaving, incorporating new color palettes made possible by imported synthetic dyes while maintaining the symbolic pattern systems that made each cloth a wearable text.

In West Africa, the kente cloth of the Asante kingdom — woven in narrow strips on specialized looms and assembled into brilliantly patterned garments — remained a powerful symbol of status and identity.

Scarlet was originally the name not of a color but of the most expensive grade of fine woolen cloth, frequently dyed a brilliant red with kermes, a dye made from dried insects.

Song-era advances in silk weaving — particularly kesi (cut silk tapestry) — produced textiles of extraordinary intricacy, with pictorial designs that blurred the line between fabric and painting.

Recurring elements include makara kundala earrings shaped as sea-creature heads, the channavira chest chain crossing diagonally over both shoulders, the udarabandha band across the midriff, the katisutra or mekhala hip girdle worn over the drape, keyura armlets above the elbow, bangles, and heavy anklets.

The khadi cloth — hand-spun and hand-woven — would later become the signature fabric of Indian nationalism.

In Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula, indigo-dyed cotton from India was prized, and the khanjar (curved dagger) worn at the belt served as both weapon and status marker.

In the Sahel, the Fulani people perfected khasa blankets — thick cotton wrappers with bold geometric patterns in indigo and white.

Produced in state-controlled workshops called dar al-tiraz, these textiles were given as robes of honor (khil'a) to officials and foreign dignitaries, making clothing a direct expression of caliphal power.

Arab and Indian merchants arriving at ports like Kilwa, Mombasa, and Mogadishu traded cotton cloth, silk, and beads for gold, ivory, and local goods.

The emperor's garments were distinguished by the finest fabrics — gossamer-weight muslin from Bengal, brocaded kimkhab woven with gold and silver thread, and pashmina shawls from Kashmir that could pass through a finger ring.

Men and women wore variations of the kimono, a T-shaped wrapped garment secured with an obi sash, with fabric patterns and layering conventions signaling season, status, and occasion.

Over it went the kirtle, a close-fitting woolen dress that by the fourteenth century was laced snugly to support the bust.

The agbada — a flowing, wide-sleeved Yoruba robe — became a red-carpet favorite, while kitenge and kanga prints from East Africa found new audiences.

For country life and sport, men wore the belted tweed Norfolk jacket with knickerbockers, loose breeches gathered below the knee.

Men and women alike lined their eyes with kohl, a dark cosmetic that also protected against the glare of the sun.

The keffiyeh and agal headcovering continued its essential role in Arabian dress, while Persian men wore the kolah cap and distinctive pleated coats.

The layered court robes of the Heian era gradually gave way to the kosode, a smaller-sleeved garment that had originally served as an undergarment.

The upper body was covered by a kachchu or kurpasam, a breast band of cloth tied across the chest.

In northern India, the kurta paired with churidar or pajama trousers was common, while Mughal-influenced court dress persisted among the aristocracy.

Dyeing techniques using indigo, turmeric, and lac produced vibrant, colorfast textiles.

Designers like Duro Olowu (Nigeria/UK), Lisa Folawiyo, and Ozwald Boateng brought African aesthetics to international runways, while Lagos Fashion Week, Dakar Fashion Week, and South African Fashion Week established the continent as a serious player in the global fashion calendar.

On the Great Plains, nations such as the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Comanche created elaborate garments from buffalo hide and later trade cloth, adorned with porcupine quillwork, glass beadwork, and painted designs that carried deep spiritual and narrative significance.

Senators wore tunics with a broad purple stripe, the latus clavus, running from each shoulder to the hem, while men of the equestrian order wore a narrow stripe, the angustus clavus.

Through the 1950s and 1960s, European designers like Cristobal Balenciaga, Hubert de Givenchy, and Yves Saint Laurent continued to set global trends, with Saint Laurent's Le Smoking tuxedo for women becoming one of the century's most iconic garments.

The production of leather from animal hides required considerable skill and knowledge.

Mountain men and fur trappers of the early 19th century adopted garments from Indigenous peoples, wearing fringed buckskin shirts and leggings made from brain-tanned deer hide — a soft, pliable material well suited to life in the wilderness.

Film costumes set national trends: the ornate lehenga choli (skirt and blouse sets) worn in wedding scenes drove bridal fashion for decades, while the casual styling of leading actors influenced everyday dress across class lines.

## Egyptian Dress In Egypt, the warm climate and the abundance of flax made linen the fabric of choice for nearly all classes of society.

The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries saw an explosion of fashion consciousness among the European elite: - Houppelandes — voluminous gowns with wide, often fur-lined sleeves and high collars — swept the courts from the 1360s onward - Poulaines, or crakows, were shoes with extravagantly long pointed toes, named for the Polish city of Kraków - The chaperon, originally a simple hood, evolved into an elaborate hat with a long tail called a liripipe - Women wore tall headdresses, including the cone-shaped hennin and horned or heart-shaped styles built over wire frames The Burgundian court of the fifteenth century set the tone for much of northern Europe.

The interwar period brought Coco Chanel's revolutionary approach: her little black dress, tweed suits, and jersey knits transformed luxury from ostentatious ornament into understated elegance.

In the Andes, indigenous communities also domesticated camelids — llamas and alpacas — and their soft wool became a prized textile fiber alongside cotton.

Loom weights, spindle whorls, and carbonized fragments of woven fabric indicate that the inhabitants were producing plain-weave linen on simple looms.

A well-dressed man's wardrobe by mid-century included: - A white linen or cotton shirt with a detachable, starched collar - A waistcoat, often the one place where color and pattern survived - A tailcoat for evening and formal dress, or a frock coat for day - Trousers, which fully replaced breeches by the 1830s outside court dress - A neckcloth or cravat, gradually giving way to the necktie - A top hat, gloves, and a walking stick or umbrella By the century's end, the lounge suit — ancestor of the modern business suit — was gaining acceptance for everyday wear.

In East Africa, the Maasai people wore garments of animal hide and later adopted brightly dyed cotton shuka wraps, combined with elaborate beadwork that encoded age, status, and social role.

Traces of madder (a red dye derived from the Rubia plant) have been identified on cotton fragments from Mohenjo-daro, representing some of the earliest evidence of dyed cloth anywhere in the world.

The Qing dynasty mandated the changshan (a long, side-fastening robe) and the magua (a riding jacket) for men, along with the queue hairstyle.

## Mesoamerican Weaving In Mesoamerica, cotton was the primary textile fiber of the lowlands, while maguey (agave) fiber served highland communities.

By century's end, American women could order the latest styles from mail-order catalogs like Sears, Roebuck and Co.

Recurring elements include makara kundala earrings shaped as sea-creature heads, the channavira chest chain crossing diagonally over both shoulders, the udarabandha band across the midriff, the katisutra or mekhala hip girdle worn over the drape, keyura armlets above the elbow, bangles, and heavy anklets.

Officials and courtiers wear wound head cloths and turbans in sculpture; kings wear the conical makuta crown.

## China: Qing Dynasty Dress In Qing dynasty China, the Manchu court dress system remained officially in force throughout the century.

### Court and Official Dress Officials wore dragon robes adorned with mandarin squares — embroidered badges indicating rank through specific bird or animal motifs.

In the Andean regions, Indigenous communities maintained traditional dress including the poncho for men and the layered skirts and manta shawls for women, often incorporating vibrant colors from natural dyes and later aniline dyes imported from Europe.

The mantua, an open-fronted gown draped over wide panniers (side hoops that extended the skirt laterally), created the characteristic wide-hipped silhouette of the Rococo period.

In China, the Zhongshan suit (later known in the West as the Mao suit) emerged as a symbol of republican modernity, replacing the long robes and Manchu-influenced garments of the Qing dynasty.

Sewing machines, synthetic dyes like mauveine, and mass-produced textiles fundamentally changed how clothing was made and who could afford it.

However, evidence from the earlier site of Mehrgarh in Balochistan suggests that cotton fibers were being used as early as the sixth millennium BCE, making South Asia the birthplace of the world's most widely worn natural fiber.

Recurring elements include makara kundala earrings shaped as sea-creature heads, the channavira chest chain crossing diagonally over both shoulders, the udarabandha band across the midriff, the katisutra or mekhala hip girdle worn over the drape, keyura armlets above the elbow, bangles, and heavy anklets.

In the northeast, Muga silk — a golden-hued wild silk unique to Assam — was woven into mekhela chadors prized for their luster and durability.

## Men's Wear and the Rise of the Suit The 19th century was the period in which the modern men's suit took shape.

In Mexico, the emergence of mestizo dress combined Spanish tailoring with Indigenous textiles, producing garments like the china poblana — a richly embroidered skirt and blouse ensemble that became an icon of Mexican identity.

The new government mandated Western-style military uniforms for its armed forces and encouraged officials to adopt Western dress as a symbol of modernization.

In the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, survival depended on expertly tailored garments: caribou hide parkas, fur-lined boots, and mittens stitched with sinew thread using bone needles.

The subsequent Nazca and Moche cultures (c.

## The Modest Fashion Movement and Gulf Luxury The early twenty-first century saw the emergence of modest fashion as a global movement with deep roots in the Middle East.

Arab and Indian merchants arriving at ports like Kilwa, Mombasa, and Mogadishu traded cotton cloth, silk, and beads for gold, ivory, and local goods.

The earliest known cultivation of cotton (Gossypium arboreum) for textile use has been traced to the Indus Valley civilization, with fragments of cotton cloth discovered at the site of Mohenjo-daro dating to approximately 2500 BCE.

Arab and Indian merchants arriving at ports like Kilwa, Mombasa, and Mogadishu traded cotton cloth, silk, and beads for gold, ivory, and local goods.

Strict sumptuary laws regulated fabric, color, and pattern by social class: samurai wore subdued silk robes with family crests (mon), while wealthy merchants, barred from wearing silk, developed extraordinarily fine cotton and linen garments with elaborate resist-dyeing techniques like shibori and yuzen.

Block printing — in which carved wooden blocks were used to stamp patterns onto cloth — and mordant dyeing — in which fabrics were treated with chemical fixatives before being dipped in dye baths to produce vibrant, colorfast hues — allowed South Asian artisans to produce richly colored cotton textiles in vast quantities for export.

Silk weaving was well established on the peninsula by the first centuries CE, and Korean artisans produced fine ramie cloth (known as mosi) that was prized for its lightness and cool texture in summer months.

Mountain men and fur trappers of the early 19th century adopted garments from Indigenous peoples, wearing fringed buckskin shirts and leggings made from brain-tanned deer hide — a soft, pliable material well suited to life in the wilderness.

After Prince Albert's death in 1861, Queen Victoria wore black for the rest of her life, and mourning dress became an elaborate system: widows wore dull black crape for a year or more, then moved through stages of half-mourning in gray and lavender, with jewelry of black Whitby jet.

In the northeast, Muga silk — a golden-hued wild silk unique to Assam — was woven into mekhela chadors prized for their luster and durability.

India had been one of the world's great textile exporters, renowned for its muslin, chintz, and calico fabrics.

The oldest known textile fragments — pieces of linen fabric dated to approximately 7000 BCE — were discovered at the Neolithic site of Nahal Hemar in the Judean Desert.

In India, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru popularized the Nehru jacket (a tailored, mandarin-collared coat) as a distinctly Indian form of formal menswear, while women continued to wear the sari in its remarkable regional diversity — from the tightly pleated Maharashtrian nauvari to the flowing Bengali tant in fine cotton.

In the Southwest, Navajo weavers produced blankets and wearing garments on upright looms using hand-spun wool dyed with indigo and native plants, creating bold geometric patterns prized by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous traders.

The subsequent Nazca and Moche cultures (c.

In southern Africa, the Ndebele people developed a distinctive tradition of beaded garments and painted designs, while Kanga cloths — rectangular printed cotton wraps often bearing Swahili proverbs — emerged as a characteristic garment along the East African coast.

In India, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru popularized the Nehru jacket (a tailored, mandarin-collared coat) as a distinctly Indian form of formal menswear, while women continued to wear the sari in its remarkable regional diversity — from the tightly pleated Maharashtrian nauvari to the flowing Bengali tant in fine cotton.

Royal regalia included the striped nemes headcloth and the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt.

The Neolithic revolution brought settled agricultural life and with it the time and resources to develop more sophisticated textile crafts, including spinning with simple drop spindles and weaving on rudimentary looms.

After World War II, Christian Dior's 1947 New Look — with its cinched waist, padded hips, and voluminous skirt — reasserted Paris as the center of fashion.

The nivi or lower garment, wrapped around the waist and legs, is an ancestor of the dhoti — the unstitched rectangular cloth worn by men across the subcontinent.

## Nok Culture and Early Cotton Weaving The Nok culture of central Nigeria (c.

For country life and sport, men wore the belted tweed Norfolk jacket with knickerbockers, loose breeches gathered below the knee.

The Oba (king) and his chiefs wore garments adorned with coral beads — vast quantities strung into crowns, chokers, chest coverings, and ankle-to-wrist arrays that sheathed the body in red.

Men and women wore variations of the kimono, a T-shaped wrapped garment secured with an obi sash, with fabric patterns and layering conventions signaling season, status, and occasion.

Women of the Mughal court wore the peshwaz, a long, flowing dress gathered below the bust, over pajama trousers, with a sheer dupatta or odhni draped over the head and shoulders.

Pakistan developed its own sartorial identity around the shalwar kameez, which became standard dress for both men and women, while Sri Lanka's national dress incorporated the osariya style of sari draping alongside influences from colonial-era fashion.

Enslaved Africans in the Americas were typically provided with minimal, coarse clothing — rough osnaburg linen or cheap cotton — but created expressions of identity and resistance within these constraints.

The most extraordinary window into prehistoric European dress is Ötzi the Iceman, a naturally mummified man discovered in the Alps dating to approximately 3300 BCE.

In cold weather, civilians and soldiers alike wore the paenula, a hooded, bell-shaped cloak.

In northern India, the kurta paired with churidar or pajama trousers was common, while Mughal-influenced court dress persisted among the aristocracy.

### Roman Women's Clothing Women of status wore the stola, a long draped dress, over their tunic, and might add a palla (a draped shawl) when going out.

In warmer southern regions, clothing was lighter and sometimes minimal, with woven plant fibers, Spanish moss, and palm fronds serving as materials for skirts, breechcloths, and capes.

The mantua, an open-fronted gown draped over wide panniers (side hoops that extended the skirt laterally), created the characteristic wide-hipped silhouette of the Rococo period.

Brazilian dress reflected the country's complex social hierarchy — elite women followed Parisian fashion closely, while Afro-Brazilian communities in Bahia developed the distinctive baiana dress with its turbaned headwrap, full white skirts, and layered pano da costa shawl, rooted in West African textile traditions.

The Paracas culture (c.

The parivattam, a cloth tied about the head, was conferred by temple or ruler as a formal mark of distinction — a use in which the value lay in who bestowed the cloth rather than in the cloth itself.

Meanwhile, the Parsi community in western India developed distinctive embroidered saris blending European lace techniques with Indian motifs, and the Kashmiri shawl remained one of the most coveted luxury textiles in the world, prized in both South Asian and European fashion.

The emperor's garments were distinguished by the finest fabrics — gossamer-weight muslin from Bengal, brocaded kimkhab woven with gold and silver thread, and pashmina shawls from Kashmir that could pass through a finger ring.

Maya men wore the ex (loincloth) and a square mantle or pati over the shoulders, while women wore the huipil, a tunic-like garment woven in one or more panels and often decorated with brocaded or embroidered designs.

Over the jama, courtiers might add an angarkha (a chest-wrapping outer coat) or a patka (a wide sash) at the waist.

In Gujarat, patola double-ikat silk weaving survived as a specialized family craft, with each sari requiring painstaking labor to align pre-dyed warp and weft threads into precise patterns.

A short jacket called a spencer or a long coat called a pelisse was worn over the thin gown for warmth, along with large cashmere shawls imported from Kashmir or imitated in Paisley, Scotland.

Women sometimes wore the peplos, a heavier woolen garment folded over at the top and pinned at the shoulders.

Elaborate periwigs — large curled wigs — became essential for men of rank, and the French court at Versailles became the undisputed capital of European fashion.

Women of the Mughal court wore the peshwaz, a long, flowing dress gathered below the bust, over pajama trousers, with a sheer dupatta or odhni draped over the head and shoulders.

Other garments marked activity and status: - The chlamys, a short cloak pinned at the right shoulder, was worn by horsemen, soldiers, travelers, and young men in military training - The exomis, a short tunic fastened over one shoulder only, left the working arm free and was associated with laborers and craftsmen - The petasos, a wide-brimmed hat, protected travelers from the sun Greeks often went barefoot indoors and wore leather sandals or boots outdoors.

The six-to-nine-yard unstitched cloth was paired with a fitted choli blouse and a petticoat, a combination that became increasingly standardized during this period partly through colonial influence and the spread of printed fashion illustrations.

In the 1840s the look became more demure: sloping shoulders, a long pointed bodice, and a bell-shaped skirt supported first by layers of stiffened petticoats.

The Mughal passion for surface decoration gave rise to extraordinary embroidery traditions, including zardozi (gold wire embroidery), chikankari (white-on-white pulled-thread work from Lucknow), and phulkari (floral embroidery from Punjab).

Women of the Tang court wore ruqun — a blouse tucked into a high-waisted skirt — often paired with sheer silk shawls called pibo that draped over the shoulders.

Loom weights, spindle whorls, and carbonized fragments of woven fabric indicate that the inhabitants were producing plain-weave linen on simple looms.

## Early Weaving and Dye Traditions Before the rise of the Indus cities, South Asia's earlier Neolithic and Chalcolithic communities relied on a combination of animal hides, plant fibers, and bark for body covering.

In tropical regions where heavy clothing was unnecessary, evidence suggests that body coverings were minimal, with animal skins and plant materials used more for protection during specific activities or for ceremonial purposes than for everyday warmth.

Evidence from lake dwelling sites in Switzerland and other Alpine regions has preserved remarkable fragments of Neolithic textiles, including woven linen cloth and plant-fiber cordage.

The Pochampally and Sambalpuri ikat traditions of southern and eastern India produced distinctive cotton and silk textiles with bold geometric patterns, while Chanderi in central India became known for its gossamer-light cotton-silk blend fabrics.

In the Andean regions, Indigenous communities maintained traditional dress including the poncho for men and the layered skirts and manta shawls for women, often incorporating vibrant colors from natural dyes and later aniline dyes imported from Europe.

On the Great Plains, nations such as the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Comanche created elaborate garments from buffalo hide and later trade cloth, adorned with porcupine quillwork, glass beadwork, and painted designs that carried deep spiritual and narrative significance.

The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries saw an explosion of fashion consciousness among the European elite: - Houppelandes — voluminous gowns with wide, often fur-lined sleeves and high collars — swept the courts from the 1360s onward - Poulaines, or crakows, were shoes with extravagantly long pointed toes, named for the Polish city of Kraków - The chaperon, originally a simple hood, evolved into an elaborate hat with a long tail called a liripipe - Women wore tall headdresses, including the cone-shaped hennin and horned or heart-shaped styles built over wire frames The Burgundian court of the fifteenth century set the tone for much of northern Europe.

International brands took notice: Nike launched the Pro Hijab in 2017, and major fashion houses began featuring hijab-wearing models on runways and in advertising campaigns.

The Safavid court favored a more fitted silhouette than the Ottomans, with a shorter qaba (robe) that fell to the knee, wrapped and tied with a kamarband sash, and worn over slim trousers.

Men typically wore a qamis (shirt), over which they placed a jubba (a sleeved overcoat) or ridā' (a draped mantle).

### Everyday Dress and the Queue The flowing wide-sleeved robes of the Han Chinese majority coexisted with the tighter-fitting Manchu riding garments mandated by the ruling dynasty, including the changshan for men and the early form of the qipao for women.

Specialist artisans called amanteca created dazzling cloaks, headdresses, shields, and fans using feathers from birds such as the quetzal, macaw, cotinga, and roseate spoonbill.

The Qing dynasty mandated the changshan (a long, side-fastening robe) and the magua (a riding jacket) for men, along with the queue hairstyle.

These garments, often decorated with quillwork or later beadwork, represented a practical fusion of European and Native American clothing traditions that became iconic of the frontier era.

The Inca also used textiles for record-keeping: the quipu, a device of knotted colored strings, encoded numerical and possibly narrative information, making Andean cloth not merely a covering for the body but a medium of communication and governance.

Women of the court wore flowing ao jackets over long qun skirts, with hair arranged in elaborate styles adorned with gold and jade ornaments.

In the Kongo Kingdom, raffia cloth woven from palm fiber was produced in enormous quantities, serving as both garment material and currency.

Raffia palm fiber was woven into cloth in the forests of Central and West Africa, producing textiles admired for their suppleness and capacity for decoration.

Silk weaving was well established on the peninsula by the first centuries CE, and Korean artisans produced fine ramie cloth (known as mosi) that was prized for its lightness and cool texture in summer months.

The rebozo, a long rectangular shawl used for carrying children, covering the head, and signaling social status, exemplified this cultural fusion, combining Spanish mantilla traditions with Indigenous weaving techniques.

Men typically wore a qamis (shirt), over which they placed a jubba (a sleeved overcoat) or ridā' (a draped mantle).

Cowboys on the cattle trails wore chaps (leather leg coverings) over denim or wool trousers, high-heeled riding boots, and broad-brimmed Stetson hats — practical garments that became enduring symbols of the American West.

Scholar-officials wore the round-collared robe with rank badges — embroidered squares on the chest and back depicting birds for civil officials and beasts for military ones.

The ruff, a pleated and starched collar radiating outward from the neck, became the defining accessory of the age, worn by men and women across Protestant and Catholic Europe alike.

Spanish settlers in Mexico and Peru initially replicated Iberian court styles — doublets, ruffs, and heavy woolen cloaks — but gradually adopted lighter fabrics and looser fits suited to tropical conditions.

Women of the Tang court wore ruqun — a blouse tucked into a high-waisted skirt — often paired with sheer silk shawls called pibo that draped over the shoulders.

Russet, a rough woolen cloth in grays and browns, was so strongly associated with rural laborers that it appears in literature as shorthand for humble folk.

### Soldiers, Shoes, and Cloaks Roman soldiers wore a woolen tunic, a sagum (a heavy cloak pinned at the shoulder), and caligae, hobnailed military sandal-boots whose tracks archaeologists can still identify.

After a portrait of the young Prince Albert Edward in a sailor's uniform in 1846, the sailor suit became one of the most popular outfits for European children for nearly a century.

## Weavers, Looms, and the Temple Economy Chola inscriptions name weaving communities — the Kaikkolar, later known as Sengunthar, and the Saliyar among them — as organized groups with recognized standing, temple obligations, and internal governance.

## How We Know What Ancient Europeans Wore The evidence for ancient clothing is unusually rich, though it comes in very different forms north and south: - Bog and burial finds in Scandinavia and northern Germany, where waterlogged, oxygen-free conditions preserved complete woolen outfits - Salt mines at Hallstatt in Austria, which have yielded thousands of Bronze and Iron Age textile fragments in vivid colors and patterns - Sculpture, vase painting, and frescoes from Greece and Rome, including the wall paintings buried at Pompeii and Herculaneum - Written sources — Greek and Roman authors describing their own clothing and, often disapprovingly, that of their neighbors - Everyday documents such as the Vindolanda tablets from Hadrian's Wall, where one letter to a soldier mentions a parcel of socks, sandals, and underpants sent from home ## Bronze Age Europe (3000–800 BCE) The earliest civilization in Europe, the Minoans of Crete, left frescoes and figurines showing some of the most distinctive clothing of the ancient world.

Beneath the kaftan, Ottoman men wore a gömlek (linen shirt), şalvar (wide trousers), and a fitted entari (inner robe), with the whole ensemble crowned by a turban wrapped around a tall felt cap.

The Pochampally and Sambalpuri ikat traditions of southern and eastern India produced distinctive cotton and silk textiles with bold geometric patterns, while Chanderi in central India became known for its gossamer-light cotton-silk blend fabrics.

Mexican designers drew on indigenous textile traditions like huipil weaving and Oaxacan embroidery, while Brazilian fashion — showcased at Sao Paulo Fashion Week, one of the world's largest — developed a distinctive aesthetic that blended tropical exuberance with cosmopolitan sophistication.

jpg) The sari remained the primary garment for women across much of South Asia throughout the 19th century, but its draping styles and the contexts in which it was worn shifted considerably.

Dubai Fashion Week and Saudi Fashion Week attracted international attention, while homegrown designers like Elie Saab (Lebanon) and Reem Acra became fixtures of global red-carpet fashion.

Scarification patterns marked ethnic identity and life stages, while elaborate hairstyling — often incorporating beads, cowrie shells, and metal ornaments — served as a form of portable art and social marker.

Scarlet was originally the name not of a color but of the most expensive grade of fine woolen cloth, frequently dyed a brilliant red with kermes, a dye made from dried insects.

## How We Know What Ancient Middle Eastern People Wore Evidence for ancient Middle Eastern clothing comes from a remarkable range of sources: - Egyptian tombs, where the dry climate preserved actual garments; the tomb of Tutankhamun alone held hundreds of textiles, including tunics, loincloths, shawls, and gloves - Sculpture and reliefs, such as Sumerian votive statues and the detailed palace reliefs of the Assyrian kings - Tomb paintings in Egypt showing people of every class at work and at leisure - Cuneiform tablets recording textile production, wool rations, and trade in cloth - Textile finds from desert sites such as Palmyra and Dura-Europos in Syria, which preserved wool and silk fabrics from the Roman period Much of this evidence, as usual, shows kings, gods, and officials.

## How We Know What Ancient Europeans Wore The evidence for ancient clothing is unusually rich, though it comes in very different forms north and south: - Bog and burial finds in Scandinavia and northern Germany, where waterlogged, oxygen-free conditions preserved complete woolen outfits - Salt mines at Hallstatt in Austria, which have yielded thousands of Bronze and Iron Age textile fragments in vivid colors and patterns - Sculpture, vase painting, and frescoes from Greece and Rome, including the wall paintings buried at Pompeii and Herculaneum - Written sources — Greek and Roman authors describing their own clothing and, often disapprovingly, that of their neighbors - Everyday documents such as the Vindolanda tablets from Hadrian's Wall, where one letter to a soldier mentions a parcel of socks, sandals, and underpants sent from home ## Bronze Age Europe (3000–800 BCE) The earliest civilization in Europe, the Minoans of Crete, left frescoes and figurines showing some of the most distinctive clothing of the ancient world.

Court kaftans were tailored from the finest silks — including kemha (a heavy brocade), seraser (cloth of gold and silver), and çatma (cut velvet) — and featured bold, large-scale patterns of tulips, carnations, pomegranates, and arabesques.

Fragments of woven silk fabric discovered at the Hemudu site point to a sophisticated understanding of sericulture even in this remote period.

The sewing machine, patented by Isaac Singer in the 1850s, transformed both home sewing and industrial garment production.

Pakistan developed its own sartorial identity around the shalwar kameez, which became standard dress for both men and women, while Sri Lanka's national dress incorporated the osariya style of sari draping alongside influences from colonial-era fashion.

The shawl — a large rectangle of fabric wrapped around the body — was worn by Assyrian and Babylonian elites, often richly embroidered with geometric and floral motifs.

Personal adornment was equally important: shell beads dating to over 75,000 years ago from Blombos Cave in South Africa represent some of the earliest known jewelry, and ostrich eggshell beads, bone pendants, and ochre body paint all point to a rich tradition of decorating the body that predates and complements the development of clothing itself.

### Men's Clothing Men wore the shendyt, a wrapped linen kilt tied at the waist.

The sherwani, a long structured coat, emerged during this period as a formal garment blending Mughal tailoring traditions with British frock coat influences.

Strict sumptuary laws regulated fabric, color, and pattern by social class: samurai wore subdued silk robes with family crests (mon), while wealthy merchants, barred from wearing silk, developed extraordinarily fine cotton and linen garments with elaborate resist-dyeing techniques like shibori and yuzen.

## Medieval Men's Clothing A medieval man's outfit was built in layers, and the basic layers barely changed over the millennium: - A linen shirt worn next to the skin - Linen braies, loose underdrawers tied at the waist - Hose — separate woolen leg coverings, tied to the braies or later to the doublet, which joined into a single garment in the fifteenth century - A woolen tunic, later a cotehardie or doublet - A cloak, mantle, or later a gown for warmth and formality - A hood or hat — few men went bareheaded outdoors ## Medieval Women's Clothing Women's clothing followed the same layering logic.

In East Africa, the Maasai people wore garments of animal hide and later adopted brightly dyed cotton shuka wraps, combined with elaborate beadwork that encoded age, status, and social role.

The oldest known bone needles with eyes for threading, dating to approximately 61,000 BCE, were discovered at Sibudu Cave in South Africa, providing direct evidence that early Africans were stitching animal hides into fitted garments rather than simply wrapping them around the body.

Over the kirtle, women of means wore a gown or surcote; in the fourteenth century the sideless surcote, cut away deeply at the sides to reveal the fitted kirtle beneath, became fashionable at court.

jpg) The origins of silk production in China reach far deeper into prehistory than once believed.

Chinese silk brocades reached new heights of complexity under the Ming and Qing dynasties, with imperial workshops like the Jiangning Weaving Department in Nanjing producing fabrics in intricate patterns of dragons, phoenixes, and auspicious symbols.

5000–3000 BCE) and related Neolithic sites along the Yellow River suggests that the cultivation of silkworms (Bombyx mori) and the reeling of silk fibers were already practiced by the fifth millennium BCE.

During the Three Kingdoms period (57 BCE–668 CE), the kingdoms of Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla shared broadly similar dress customs, though regional variations are evident in surviving art and artifacts.

In the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, survival depended on expertly tailored garments: caribou hide parkas, fur-lined boots, and mittens stitched with sinew thread using bone needles.

Men commonly wore the thobe or dishdasha — a long loose garment suited to the hot climate — in the Arabian Peninsula, while in the Levant and Egypt, layered ensembles of sirwal trousers, shirts, vests, and outer robes remained standard.

Laborers in the countryside wore clothing little changed from the eighteenth century: in England, a loose linen smock-frock for farmworkers; across much of the continent, wooden clogs or sabots.

Mexican charros developed their distinctive horseman's outfit with fitted trousers, short jacket, and wide-brimmed sombrero, a style that became an enduring national icon.

The Song dynasty (960–1279 CE) shifted toward a more restrained aesthetic.

Designers like Duro Olowu (Nigeria/UK), Lisa Folawiyo, and Ozwald Boateng brought African aesthetics to international runways, while Lagos Fashion Week, Dakar Fashion Week, and South African Fashion Week established the continent as a serious player in the global fashion calendar.

In warmer southern regions, clothing was lighter and sometimes minimal, with woven plant fibers, Spanish moss, and palm fronds serving as materials for skirts, breechcloths, and capes.

A short jacket called a spencer or a long coat called a pelisse was worn over the thin gown for warmth, along with large cashmere shawls imported from Kashmir or imitated in Paisley, Scotland.

The Yangshao people left behind ceramic impressions of woven fabrics and numerous spindle whorls — small weighted discs used in hand spinning — indicating that textile production was a routine household activity across Neolithic Chinese settlements.

The Neolithic revolution brought settled agricultural life and with it the time and resources to develop more sophisticated textile crafts, including spinning with simple drop spindles and weaving on rudimentary looms.

For civilian officials, the stambouline — a black frock coat worn with the fez — became the standard formal outfit, blending European tailoring with Ottoman identity.

Cowboys on the cattle trails wore chaps (leather leg coverings) over denim or wool trousers, high-heeled riding boots, and broad-brimmed Stetson hats — practical garments that became enduring symbols of the American West.

### Roman Women's Clothing Women of status wore the stola, a long draped dress, over their tunic, and might add a palla (a draped shawl) when going out.

Everything known about Chola dynasty fashion is therefore reconstructed from images and documents: - Stone sculpture, above all at the Brihadisvara Temple at Thanjavur, consecrated around 1010 CE under Rajaraja I - Bronze icons cast by the lost-wax method — the celebrated Chola bronzes of Shiva, Parvati, and the Tamil saints - Temple frescoes in the Brihadisvara ambulatory passage - Inscriptions — many thousands, carved on temple walls and copper plates, recording donations, taxes, and temple administration in unusual detail - Tamil literature, both devotional and courtly This evidence has a built-in bias.

## Streetwear, Hip-Hop, and Cultural Influence The late twentieth century saw the Americas produce another seismic shift in global fashion: streetwear.

Woven on narrow strip looms by male weavers, kente consisted of long, thin bands of silk or cotton stitched together into a large wrapper.

Underneath, Roman women and men wore a subligaculum, a loincloth or shorts, and women wore a strophium, a band of cloth wrapped around the chest.

Underneath, Roman women and men wore a subligaculum, a loincloth or shorts, and women wore a strophium, a band of cloth wrapped around the chest.

Strict sumptuary laws regulated fabric, color, and pattern by social class: samurai wore subdued silk robes with family crests (mon), while wealthy merchants, barred from wearing silk, developed extraordinarily fine cotton and linen garments with elaborate resist-dyeing techniques like shibori and yuzen.

Cumbi cloth featured impossibly tight weaves with thread counts exceeding 600 per inch and incorporated techniques including tapestry, supplementary weft, and discontinuous warp and weft that remain difficult to replicate even with modern technology.

The thirteenth century returned to a looser silhouette: a cote (tunic or gown) worn under a surcote, a sleeveless or short-sleeved overgarment.

The Suzhou embroidery tradition became particularly renowned, with skilled artisans splitting silk threads into as many as sixteen thinner strands to create pictorial works so fine they resembled paintings.

The Swadeshi movement of the early 1900s had its roots in late-19th-century calls to reject foreign textiles and support indigenous production.

Germanic, Celtic, and Norse peoples brought their own textile traditions, favoring woven patterns, tablet-woven trims, and natural dyes from plants like woad (blue), madder (red), and weld (yellow).

A well-dressed man's wardrobe by mid-century included: - A white linen or cotton shirt with a detachable, starched collar - A waistcoat, often the one place where color and pattern survived - A tailcoat for evening and formal dress, or a frock coat for day - Trousers, which fully replaced breeches by the 1830s outside court dress - A neckcloth or cravat, gradually giving way to the necktie - A top hat, gloves, and a walking stick or umbrella By the century's end, the lounge suit — ancestor of the modern business suit — was gaining acceptance for everyday wear.

Unlike the draped and wrapped garments of Mesopotamia and Egypt, the Persians wore tailored and sewn clothing — fitted tunics, trousers, and sleeved coats.

The new ruling class wore tailored and stitched garments — a stark contrast to the draped styles of earlier periods.

The distinctive Safavid taj — a tall, baton-shaped turban with a protruding rod — became a political symbol of the Shia dynasty.

Everything known about Chola dynasty fashion is therefore reconstructed from images and documents: - Stone sculpture, above all at the Brihadisvara Temple at Thanjavur, consecrated around 1010 CE under Rajaraja I - Bronze icons cast by the lost-wax method — the celebrated Chola bronzes of Shiva, Parvati, and the Tamil saints - Temple frescoes in the Brihadisvara ambulatory passage - Inscriptions — many thousands, carved on temple walls and copper plates, recording donations, taxes, and temple administration in unusual detail - Tamil literature, both devotional and courtly This evidence has a built-in bias.

jpg) The Tang dynasty (618–907 CE) represented a golden age of Chinese fashion, marked by cosmopolitan openness and extravagant court dress.

Prehistoric African hide-workers scraped, stretched, and treated skins using a variety of techniques, including smoking and the application of animal fats and plant-based tanning agents such as bark extracts.

In India, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru popularized the Nehru jacket (a tailored, mandarin-collared coat) as a distinctly Indian form of formal menswear, while women continued to wear the sari in its remarkable regional diversity — from the tightly pleated Maharashtrian nauvari to the flowing Bengali tant in fine cotton.

This was part of the broader Tanzimat modernization program that sought to remake the Ottoman Empire along European lines.

Cumbi cloth featured impossibly tight weaves with thread counts exceeding 600 per inch and incorporated techniques including tapestry, supplementary weft, and discontinuous warp and weft that remain difficult to replicate even with modern technology.

The Wari empire (600–1000 CE) established a tradition of large-scale textile production featuring complex tapestry weave tunics with bold geometric and iconographic designs.

Italian houses like Gucci, Prada, and Versace rose to rival Paris, while London's punk movement — driven by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren — injected anarchic energy into mainstream fashion with tartan, safety pins, and deliberately torn fabrics.

Etruscan men wore the tebenna, a semicircular mantle draped over the body that is widely considered the ancestor of the Roman toga.

Everything known about Chola dynasty fashion is therefore reconstructed from images and documents: - Stone sculpture, above all at the Brihadisvara Temple at Thanjavur, consecrated around 1010 CE under Rajaraja I - Bronze icons cast by the lost-wax method — the celebrated Chola bronzes of Shiva, Parvati, and the Tamil saints - Temple frescoes in the Brihadisvara ambulatory passage - Inscriptions — many thousands, carved on temple walls and copper plates, recording donations, taxes, and temple administration in unusual detail - Tamil literature, both devotional and courtly This evidence has a built-in bias.

The Indus Valley people also appear to have been early practitioners of textile dyeing.

## How We Know What Ancient Middle Eastern People Wore Evidence for ancient Middle Eastern clothing comes from a remarkable range of sources: - Egyptian tombs, where the dry climate preserved actual garments; the tomb of Tutankhamun alone held hundreds of textiles, including tunics, loincloths, shawls, and gloves - Sculpture and reliefs, such as Sumerian votive statues and the detailed palace reliefs of the Assyrian kings - Tomb paintings in Egypt showing people of every class at work and at leisure - Cuneiform tablets recording textile production, wool rations, and trade in cloth - Textile finds from desert sites such as Palmyra and Dura-Europos in Syria, which preserved wool and silk fabrics from the Roman period Much of this evidence, as usual, shows kings, gods, and officials.

Men commonly wore the thobe or dishdasha — a long loose garment suited to the hot climate — in the Arabian Peninsula, while in the Levant and Egypt, layered ensembles of sirwal trousers, shirts, vests, and outer robes remained standard.

The basic male garment was the tilmatli, a rectangular mantle knotted over one shoulder, with the quality of its decoration marking the wearer's rank.

Hip-hop fashion — oversized silhouettes, gold chains, branded athletic wear, Timberland boots, and later the sleek luxury aesthetic of artists like Kanye West and Rihanna — became one of the most influential style movements in fashion history, driven primarily by Black and Latino creativity.

Cities like Timbuktu, Djenné, and Kano became major centers of textile production and commerce.

Tiraz — fabrics bearing embroidered or woven inscription bands, often with the name of the ruling caliph — served as both luxury goods and instruments of political authority.

The toga, Rome's most iconic garment, was a large semicircular cloth of wool draped over the body in prescribed folds.

### Types of Toga The toga's color and trim told onlookers exactly who they were looking at: - The toga virilis, plain and undyed, was worn by adult male citizens; putting it on for the first time, usually around age fifteen, marked a boy's coming of age - The toga praetexta, with a purple border, was worn by magistrates and priests — and by freeborn children - The toga candida, rubbed with chalk to a brilliant white, was worn by men running for office; it gives us the word "candidate" - The toga pulla, in dark wool, was worn in mourning - The toga picta, dyed purple and embroidered in gold, was reserved for generals celebrating a triumph and, later, for emperors The toga was heavy, hot, and difficult to put on without help, and by the imperial period many Romans avoided it in daily life.

### Types of Toga The toga's color and trim told onlookers exactly who they were looking at: - The toga virilis, plain and undyed, was worn by adult male citizens; putting it on for the first time, usually around age fifteen, marked a boy's coming of age - The toga praetexta, with a purple border, was worn by magistrates and priests — and by freeborn children - The toga candida, rubbed with chalk to a brilliant white, was worn by men running for office; it gives us the word "candidate" - The toga pulla, in dark wool, was worn in mourning - The toga picta, dyed purple and embroidered in gold, was reserved for generals celebrating a triumph and, later, for emperors The toga was heavy, hot, and difficult to put on without help, and by the imperial period many Romans avoided it in daily life.

### Types of Toga The toga's color and trim told onlookers exactly who they were looking at: - The toga virilis, plain and undyed, was worn by adult male citizens; putting it on for the first time, usually around age fifteen, marked a boy's coming of age - The toga praetexta, with a purple border, was worn by magistrates and priests — and by freeborn children - The toga candida, rubbed with chalk to a brilliant white, was worn by men running for office; it gives us the word "candidate" - The toga pulla, in dark wool, was worn in mourning - The toga picta, dyed purple and embroidered in gold, was reserved for generals celebrating a triumph and, later, for emperors The toga was heavy, hot, and difficult to put on without help, and by the imperial period many Romans avoided it in daily life.

### Types of Toga The toga's color and trim told onlookers exactly who they were looking at: - The toga virilis, plain and undyed, was worn by adult male citizens; putting it on for the first time, usually around age fifteen, marked a boy's coming of age - The toga praetexta, with a purple border, was worn by magistrates and priests — and by freeborn children - The toga candida, rubbed with chalk to a brilliant white, was worn by men running for office; it gives us the word "candidate" - The toga pulla, in dark wool, was worn in mourning - The toga picta, dyed purple and embroidered in gold, was reserved for generals celebrating a triumph and, later, for emperors The toga was heavy, hot, and difficult to put on without help, and by the imperial period many Romans avoided it in daily life.

### Types of Toga The toga's color and trim told onlookers exactly who they were looking at: - The toga virilis, plain and undyed, was worn by adult male citizens; putting it on for the first time, usually around age fifteen, marked a boy's coming of age - The toga praetexta, with a purple border, was worn by magistrates and priests — and by freeborn children - The toga candida, rubbed with chalk to a brilliant white, was worn by men running for office; it gives us the word "candidate" - The toga pulla, in dark wool, was worn in mourning - The toga picta, dyed purple and embroidered in gold, was reserved for generals celebrating a triumph and, later, for emperors The toga was heavy, hot, and difficult to put on without help, and by the imperial period many Romans avoided it in daily life.

## How We Know What Ancient Middle Eastern People Wore Evidence for ancient Middle Eastern clothing comes from a remarkable range of sources: - Egyptian tombs, where the dry climate preserved actual garments; the tomb of Tutankhamun alone held hundreds of textiles, including tunics, loincloths, shawls, and gloves - Sculpture and reliefs, such as Sumerian votive statues and the detailed palace reliefs of the Assyrian kings - Tomb paintings in Egypt showing people of every class at work and at leisure - Cuneiform tablets recording textile production, wool rations, and trade in cloth - Textile finds from desert sites such as Palmyra and Dura-Europos in Syria, which preserved wool and silk fabrics from the Roman period Much of this evidence, as usual, shows kings, gods, and officials.

A well-dressed man's wardrobe by mid-century included: - A white linen or cotton shirt with a detachable, starched collar - A waistcoat, often the one place where color and pattern survived - A tailcoat for evening and formal dress, or a frock coat for day - Trousers, which fully replaced breeches by the 1830s outside court dress - A neckcloth or cravat, gradually giving way to the necktie - A top hat, gloves, and a walking stick or umbrella By the century's end, the lounge suit — ancestor of the modern business suit — was gaining acceptance for everyday wear.

High-status Celts wore the torc, a heavy neck ring of twisted gold or bronze.

Norse women fastened a strapped overdress with a pair of large oval tortoise brooches at the shoulders, often with strings of glass beads hung between them.

The presence of standardized weights and measures across Indus cities suggests that textiles may have been produced not only for local use but also for trade — a hypothesis supported by the discovery of Indus-style cotton cloth fragments in Mesopotamian archaeological contexts.

Along the West African coast, the arrival of European traders in the fifteenth century introduced trade cloth from the Netherlands, England, and Portugal, which African consumers adopted selectively, favoring certain colors and patterns while rejecting others.

The trans-Saharan trade routes that connected West Africa to North Africa and the Mediterranean profoundly shaped the region's textile culture.

The famous "Priest-King" statue shows a figure wearing a trefoil-patterned shawl draped over one shoulder, suggesting that even in this early period, textile decoration and draping style carried social meaning.

Early in the century, men still wore knee breeches and elaborate coats, but by mid-century the frock coat worn with long trousers had become standard daytime dress.

The doublet, a fitted padded jacket, was paired with trunk hose — short, puffed breeches stuffed with horsehair or rags to achieve a rounded shape.

Beneath the toga, both men and women wore a tunica — a simple sewn garment similar to the Greek chiton.

Sultan Mahmud II's 1829 clothing reforms banned the traditional turban for government officials and military personnel, replacing it with the fez — a brimless crimson felt cap.

Dyeing techniques using indigo, turmeric, and lac produced vibrant, colorfast textiles.

Shoes were leather turnshoes, stitched inside out and then turned so the seam sat on the inside.

The interwar period brought Coco Chanel's revolutionary approach: her little black dress, tweed suits, and jersey knits transformed luxury from ostentatious ornament into understated elegance.

The Twelve Symbols of imperial authority — sun, moon, stars, mountains, and eight other motifs — continued to adorn the emperor's ceremonial garments, maintaining an unbroken link to ancient Chinese cosmology even under Manchu rule.

By the time of the earliest Mesopotamian cities in the fourth millennium BCE, the region's weavers had mastered complex techniques including twill weave and were producing textiles from both linen and wool — the latter made possible by the selective breeding of sheep for their fleece rather than their meat.

These early Peruvian weavers produced remarkably sophisticated fabrics using twining techniques — interlocking weft threads around warp threads by hand, before the development of true loom weaving.

The most prized color of all was Tyrian purple, extracted in tiny quantities from murex sea snails and so costly that it became a lasting symbol of power.

Recurring elements include makara kundala earrings shaped as sea-creature heads, the channavira chest chain crossing diagonally over both shoulders, the udarabandha band across the midriff, the katisutra or mekhala hip girdle worn over the drape, keyura armlets above the elbow, bangles, and heavy anklets.

The unification under Unified Silla (668–935 CE) brought greater standardization of court dress, with Tang dynasty court dress regulations adopted as formal attire.

The old system of regionally varied kaftan-based garments gave way to standardized Western-style uniforms modeled on French and Prussian designs.

Chola dynasty clothing was almost entirely unstitched — lengths of cotton or silk wrapped, pleated, and tucked rather than cut and sewn.

Temple sculptures and bronzes from this period reveal men and women wearing finely draped unstitched garments — lengths of cotton or silk wrapped, pleated, and tucked with remarkable precision.

Today, European fashion exists in tension between its couture heritage and sustainability movements, with designers increasingly turning to upcycled materials, zero-waste pattern cutting, and circular fashion models that aim to reconcile the continent's outsized influence on global dress with the ecological costs of mass production.

An upper cloth, the uttariya, was draped over the shoulders.

Vair, made from the pieced gray-and-white winter pelts of squirrels, lined the gowns of the nobility, while ermine — white winter stoat with black tail tips — was reserved in many places for royalty.

Veiling practices ranged from the light head covering worn in daily life to the full-length burqu' or face veil adopted by elite urban women.

* The standard male garment was a single length of cloth wrapped at the waist and falling to the knee or ankle — the veshti of Tamil usage.

In the Andes, Quechua and Aymara weavers continued to produce extraordinary cumbi cloth on backstrap looms, adapting ancient techniques to incorporate Spanish-introduced sheep's wool alongside traditional alpaca and vicuna fibers.

This created a distinctive dual wardrobe system — yofuku (Western clothing) for public and professional settings and wafuku (Japanese clothing) for domestic and ceremonial use.

Under Louis XIV, the justaucorps, a long fitted coat with wide cuffs, replaced the doublet as the standard male garment, worn over a waistcoat and paired with breeches and silk stockings.

Women's hide dresses featured intricate yoke designs, while men's war shirts recorded acts of valor through painted and beaded imagery.

The Wari empire (600–1000 CE) established a tradition of large-scale textile production featuring complex tapestry weave tunics with bold geometric and iconographic designs.

The development of warp-weighted looms during this period represented a major technological leap, enabling the production of wider and more uniform fabrics.

## Wax Print Cloth and New Textile Economies One of the most significant textile developments of the century was the introduction of wax print cloth to West Africa.

The Neolithic revolution brought settled agricultural life and with it the time and resources to develop more sophisticated textile crafts, including spinning with simple drop spindles and weaving on rudimentary looms.

Germanic, Celtic, and Norse peoples brought their own textile traditions, favoring woven patterns, tablet-woven trims, and natural dyes from plants like woad (blue), madder (red), and weld (yellow).

After Prince Albert's death in 1861, Queen Victoria wore black for the rest of her life, and mourning dress became an elaborate system: widows wore dull black crape for a year or more, then moved through stages of half-mourning in gray and lavender, with jewelry of black Whitby jet.

Elite Egyptians of both sexes shaved their heads and wore wigs of human hair for formal occasions.

" Married women covered their hair with a veil and a wimple, a cloth wrapped around the neck and chin, or with a barbette chin band and linen fillet band around the head.

By the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age, European communities were producing dyed textiles, with woad providing blue and various plant sources yielding yellows and browns — a far cry from the unadorned animal hides of their Ice Age ancestors.

In the Andes, indigenous communities also domesticated camelids — llamas and alpacas — and their soft wool became a prized textile fiber alongside cotton.

Numerous spindle whorls and fragments of woven cotton cloth have been recovered from these sites, and the uniformity of thread diameter in surviving samples suggests the use of well-developed spinning techniques.

Evidence from lake dwelling sites in Switzerland and other Alpine regions has preserved remarkable fragments of Neolithic textiles, including woven linen cloth and plant-fiber cordage.

In warmer southern regions, clothing was lighter and sometimes minimal, with woven plant fibers, Spanish moss, and palm fronds serving as materials for skirts, breechcloths, and capes.

The main sources are: - Archaeological textiles — waterlogged fragments from cities like London, York, and Dublin, and grave finds from across the continent - Herjolfsnes in Greenland, where permafrost preserved a group of nearly complete woolen garments from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, including gowns, hoods, and hose - Bog finds such as the Bocksten Man from Sweden, buried in the fourteenth century with his hood, tunic, and hose - Illuminated manuscripts, church sculpture, tomb effigies, and stained glass - Written records — wills, household accounts, guild regulations, and sumptuary laws, which describe clothing in surprising detail precisely because it was valuable Like most historical evidence, this skews toward the wealthy.

## How We Know What Ancient Europeans Wore The evidence for ancient clothing is unusually rich, though it comes in very different forms north and south: - Bog and burial finds in Scandinavia and northern Germany, where waterlogged, oxygen-free conditions preserved complete woolen outfits - Salt mines at Hallstatt in Austria, which have yielded thousands of Bronze and Iron Age textile fragments in vivid colors and patterns - Sculpture, vase painting, and frescoes from Greece and Rome, including the wall paintings buried at Pompeii and Herculaneum - Written sources — Greek and Roman authors describing their own clothing and, often disapprovingly, that of their neighbors - Everyday documents such as the Vindolanda tablets from Hadrian's Wall, where one letter to a soldier mentions a parcel of socks, sandals, and underpants sent from home ## Bronze Age Europe (3000–800 BCE) The earliest civilization in Europe, the Minoans of Crete, left frescoes and figurines showing some of the most distinctive clothing of the ancient world.

Archaeological evidence from the Yangshao culture (c.

The Yangshao people left behind ceramic impressions of woven fabrics and numerous spindle whorls — small weighted discs used in hand spinning — indicating that textile production was a routine household activity across Neolithic Chinese settlements.

Elite Ottoman women increasingly adopted elements of Parisian fashion — corsets, European fabrics, and tailored bodices — while retaining the ferace outdoor cloak and yashmak face veil in public.

Outdoors, women covered themselves with a large enveloping cloak called a ferace and a face veil or yaşmak.

This created a distinctive dual wardrobe system — yofuku (Western clothing) for public and professional settings and wafuku (Japanese clothing) for domestic and ceremonial use.

Strict sumptuary laws regulated fabric, color, and pattern by social class: samurai wore subdued silk robes with family crests (mon), while wealthy merchants, barred from wearing silk, developed extraordinarily fine cotton and linen garments with elaborate resist-dyeing techniques like shibori and yuzen.

Yuzen dyeing, developed in Kyoto in the late 17th century, allowed artisans to paint elaborate pictorial scenes directly onto silk using rice-paste resist techniques, transforming the kimono into a wearable canvas.

The Mughal passion for surface decoration gave rise to extraordinary embroidery traditions, including zardozi (gold wire embroidery), chikankari (white-on-white pulled-thread work from Lucknow), and phulkari (floral embroidery from Punjab).

Banarasi silk weavers in Varanasi continued producing their renowned brocades with gold and silver zari thread, adapting designs to changing tastes while maintaining centuries-old weaving techniques.

In China, the Zhongshan suit (later known in the West as the Mao suit) emerged as a symbol of republican modernity, replacing the long robes and Manchu-influenced garments of the Qing dynasty.

In southern Africa, the Zulu kingdom developed a codified dress system in which specific styles of animal-skin garments, headbands, and beadwork indicated age, gender, marital status, and social role.

Zulu beadwork — intricate patterns of colored glass beads strung into panels, necklaces, and garment embellishments — used imported European trade beads to create a distinctly African visual language in which specific color combinations conveyed messages of love, mourning, or social status.