The preservation of fabric fibers and leathers allows for insights into the attire of ancient societies. The clothing used in the ancient world reflects the technologies that these peoples mastered. In many cultures, clothing indicated the social status of various members of society.
The development of attire and fashion is an exclusively human characteristic and is a feature of most human societies. Clothing made of materials such as animal skins and vegetation was initially used by early humans to protect their bodies from the elements. The usage of clothing and textiles across the ages reflects the varying development of civilizations and technologies. Sources available for the study of clothing and textiles include material remains discovered via archaeology; representation of textiles and their manufacture in art; and documents concerning the manufacture, acquisition, use, and trade of fabrics, tools, and finished garments.
Ancient Egyptian clothing
Textile materials
Although aware of other materials, the ancient Egyptians most commonly used linen, a product made from the abundant flax plant. Due to a belief that animal-based fabrics were impure, wool was rarely used and was forbidden in places like temples and sanctuaries. Other animal-based products such as pelts were reserved for priests and eventually were adopted by only the highest class of ancient Egyptian citizenry. Linen is light, strong and flexible which made it ideal for life in the warm climate, where abrasion and heat would wear and tear at clothing. Thus, most ancient Egyptians used linen as their primary textile.
The material quality of garments differed between the classes, where those of the upper class used finer linens, depicted in statues and paintings by their translucency. They also used more complex drapery, designs and patterns that included dyed threads and feathers. These materials were expensive and the wearer showed greater status by wearing them. On the other hand, cheaper and thicker linen was used within the lower class, where shorter garments were worn by the working class for better mobility in the fields.
Garments
Men in ancient Egypt often wore the loincloth (or schenti common in all classes; although men of a higher class wore longer schenti, often pairing them with a draped cape or tunic. It was considered acceptable for men and women alike to bare their chests, in both upper and lower classes. A complete lack of clothing, however, was often associated with youth or poverty; it was common for children of all social classes to be unclothed up to the age of six, and for slaves to remain unclad for the majority of their lives. Certain clothing common to both genders included the tunic and the robe. Around 1425 to 1405 BC, a light tunic or short-sleeved shirt was popular, as well as a pleated skirt.
Clothing for adult women remained unchanged over several millennia, save for small details. Draped clothes with very large rolls gave the impression of wearing several items. It was in fact a hawk, often of very fine muslin. The dress was rather narrow and even constricting, made of white or unbleached fabric for the lower classes. Garments worn by higher classes featured sleeves starting under the chest and were held up by suspenders tied onto the shoulders. These suspenders sometimes covered the breasts, other times passing between them, and were painted and colored for various reasons such as to imitate the plumage on the wings of Isis.
The characteristic of the female garment in ancient Egypt Old Kingdom was a short skirt for the lower classes, or a kalasiris, a longer skirt reaching from the ankles to just below, or just above the breasts. By the Middle Kingdom, long kilts were a fashion. They were like skirts, reaching from waist to ankles, sometimes even hanging from the armpits. The New Kingdom was the more luxurious period; people wore more clothing, sometimes in layers, with an inner and an outer garment. This outer layer was made of particularly fine, diaphanous pleated linen, and would appear almost transparent.
Clothing of the royal family was different, and was well documented; for instance the crowns of the Pharaohs as mentioned below, feather headdresses, and the khat or head cloth were all worn by nobility.
Shoes were the same for both sexes; sandals braided with leather, or, particularly for the bureaucratic and priestly classes, papyrus.