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Introducing Ancient Egyptian Costume
Time Machine Mood 1,500 years it was very rare for men to wear anything on their torso, or upper body. For the upper class and the pharaohs, the main form of dress was the schenti, a simple kilt that tied around the waist and hung about to the knees. Working men wore first a loincloth, a very small garment that covered just the private parts, and later the loin skirt, which was somewhat more modest and covered from the waist to the mid-thigh. In about 1500B.C.E.Egyptian men began to wear simple tunics on their upper bodies. They adopted the custom from the neighboring region of Syria, which Egypt had recently conquered. Women also dressed lightly, and they too often bared much of their upper body. The basic form of female clothing was a simple dress called a kalasiris. It was a tube of cloth, sewn along one side, with one or two shoulder straps. In many cases the straps extended to mid torso, leaving the breasts exposed. Less common were several other items of female clothing. Some women wore wide skirts that they combined with a close-fitting wrap with long sleeves. During the reign of King Akhenaten, from about 1379 to about 1362B.C.E, women like the king's wife, Nefertiti, adopted long, flowing, pleated linen dresses.
T
he ancient Egyptians were the first human society to have
an identifiable sense of style in clothing. From Egypt's earliest beginnings around 3100B.C.E.to its eventual decline around 332B.C.E., Egypt's kings and queens, called pharaohs, and its many noble men and women placed great emphasis on the appearances of their clothes, jewelry, the wigs they wore in place of natural hair, and their skin. The Egyptians idolized the human body, and the clothes they wore complimented the lines of the slender bodies that were most appreciated in Egyptian
The importance of linen The single most important fabric in Egypt was linen. Linen was made from the fibers of a plant called flax. Egypt had welldeveloped weaving techniques, and many Egyptian workers were involved in producing linen fabrics. It was a light fabric, which made it comfortable in hot weather. It was also easy to starch, or stiffen, into pleats and folds, which decorated the clothing of both men and women, especially beginning in the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000窶田. 1500B.C.E.).
society. Egyptians used a variety of colors in their clothing, and these colors had symbolic meanings. Dressing for a warm climate Egypt's climate was very warm, as it is today, and Egyptian dress provided the perfect complement to this warm weather. Both men and women tended to dress very lightly. For nearly
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Blue, for example, stood for Amon, god of air; green
the natural color of flax. Another quality of linen that was
represented life and youth; and yellow was the symbol of gold.
particularly appealing was its thinness. Linen could be made
Red, which symbolized violence, was seldom used, and black
so thin, or sheer, that it was transparent. Egyptians were not
was reserved for the wigs worn by both men and women. By
modest and enjoyed showing off their bodies. Women and men
far the most revered color was white. White was a sacred color
are frequently depicted in hieroglyphs, or picture stories,
among the Egyptians, symbolizing purity. Luckily, white was
wearing see-through garments.