4th Grade 2013
Fabulous Egyptian Fashion
Lily Prostic
Catherine Cook School 226 W. Schiller Lily Prostic 4th Grade 4th Grade
All About Ancient Egyptian Fashion
Intro Fashion is such a wondrous thing, especially when you’re talking about ancient Egypt fashion. I bet your wondering right now what the Pharaoh or women or workers would wear. Well, today’s your lucky day, because today you’re going to learn all about ancient Egypt fashion.
Clothes Egyptians would wear many kinds of clothes depending on what social class they or their husband would Fun Fact be in. Men would wear kilts and women would were wear dresses. Kids would The Egyptians would wear usually go around unclad until their sandals made of papyrus. teenage years. Again social classes would Paper in ancient Egypt was be really important to the way you made out of papyrus too! dressed. For example workers would wear loincloth and a cloth over their head. The cloths on the workers head would be used for protecting the head from the blazing sun. But on the other hand the Pharaoh would wear tons of jewelry. The Egyptians’ clothes were mostly made of linen. They were mostly made of linen, because Egypt was hot (and still is now!). To make the linen they got a plant called flax that they found near the Nile. Then, they would soak the flax. Next, they would then spin it in a spinner. Lastly, they would weave the little pieces of soaked flax turning a plant into linen. The linen felt and looked more like gauze than anything else (the kind of gauze you wrap you wrist in when heart). Another thing that was made out of linen is the kilt. Workers and solders, in the earlier periods, would wear 1
the kilts. It looked like a wrap-around skirt going down to about the knees. They would also wear sandals made of papyrus. But the only difference is that they would still soak it and spin it and weave it but they would cut it out into the shape of a foot using several layers.
Jewelry Jewelry could have been made of many kinds of resources. The resources were usually gold, silver, stones, and beads. They would most of the time get their resources from a mine or two. Jewelry was very important. For example it was important, because if you were poor you would still wear jewelry, even if it wasn’t nice jewelry. Kids had very strange styles compared to us today. Girls would wore a strand of beads around their waist and boys would have earrings just like girls. They also both would wear amulets and necklaces. The amulets were said to protect everyone from evil gods like Seth (he killed Oris). Necklaces were just used to look better, like we like to do these days! Some people like farmers were not very high up on the social class pyramid so they would barter for amulets. Everyone had to wear jewelry to be protected from the gods. Some gods were good though, like Ma’at. She Fun Fact The kids in ancient Egypt shaved their heads except for a little piece hanging down near the ear. The little piece near the ear was braided.
was the goddess of truth and would wear something she called her truth feather on the
This is Ma’at, the goddess of truth. top of her head.
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Hair Egyptians had very weird hair styles. They would shave their head and put on a wig made of human hair. Even girls shaved their heads! The weirdest hair style of all was probably the kids’ hair styles. They would shave their heads completely except for a little hair falling down by the ear. At least the Egyptians had a reason to shave their heads. They would shave their heads too be protected from the sun. The Egyptians had one more reason they would shave their head. The other reason was so that they didn’t get lice. They would get lice a lot if they didn’t shave their heads, because they liked to keep very clean. If your hair is to clean you get lice. Also it doesn’t sound like it would be very easy to protect their heads from the sun if you had a shaved head. But it was because their head would get very hot if they didn’t shave it because of all the hair on their head. Also what is weird is that they dyed their hair if they didn’t shave it. The weirdest thing is they dyed their palms and souls of their feet.
Makeup The makeup of the Egyptians is an interesting part of the Egyptian fashion alongside next to Fun Fact clothes and hair. Both men and woman would wear very heavy Did you know that the makeup. One of the things they would Egyptian woman were the wear would be heavy black lines first to wear makeup? around their eyes and lots and lots of lipstick. The Egyptian women would dab their face with powder and all sorts of other substances. At parties the women would put on something called an incense cone. The incense 3
cone would be made of animal fat and would drip down perfume onto the Egyptian women’s wigs and on to their body. It was known to make them smell good. Some people might say that that would just make the Egyptians sticky and uncomfortable, but they just thought it felt good it the hot weather. Women in ancient Egypt would rub something called rouge on their cheeks. The rouge would be just like perfume. It would make their cheeks a little bit sticky still. They get the stuff they need to make the makeup from animal blood and lots and lots of berries. They also use the berries to make ink also.
Conclusion Have you learned anything new? The Egyptologists know a lot about ancient Egypt, but they don’t know everything. They are still learning all about ancient Egypt. Just like you!
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Glossary Amulet- amulets were good luck charms for the Egyptians. Barter- bartering is what the Egyptians did because they didn’t have any forms of money. Flax- flax is a plant used in ancient Egypt to make linen. Incense Cone- an incense cone is what the lady’s would put on their wig at parties to make them smell good. It was made of animal fat and perfume. Loincloth- loincloths are skirts that cover the bottoms boys but they don’t go down to the knee and are not covering any skin on the left and right side so you can see the rope holding up the loincloth. Papyrus- papyrus is a plant found near the Nile used for making paper and sandals. Unclad- Naked, nude, no clothes, or undressed.
Bibliography (n.d.). Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/ Hazen, W. A. (2006). Ancient Times. Arizona: Good Year Books. Morley, J. (1995). How Would You Survive as an Ancient Egyptian. New York: Franklin Watts. Smith, M. (2010). Ancient Egypt. New York: Kingfisher. Solski, R. (1993). Ancient Egypt. New York: Learning Materials. 5
Stands, E. (2005). The Egyptolgy Hand Book. Massachusetts: CandleWick Press. The Egyptians-Clothing. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25, 2013, from History on The Net: http://www.historyonthenet.com/Egyptians/clothing.htm Youtube Egyptians Jewlery. (n.d.). Retrieved April 9, 2013, from Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/
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