This article needs additional citations for verification. (February 2019) |
Clothing in ancient Greece refers to clothing starting from the Aegean bronze age (3000 BCE) to the Hellenistic period (31 BCE).[1] Clothing in ancient Greece included a wide variety of styles but primarily consisted of the chiton, peplos, himation, and chlamys.[2] Ancient Greek civilians typically wore two pieces of clothing draped about the body: an undergarment (χιτών : chitōn or πέπλος : péplos) and a cloak (ἱμάτιον : himátion or χλαμύς : chlamýs).[3] The people of ancient Greece had many factors (political, economic, social, and cultural) that determined what they wore and when they wore it.[2]
Clothes were quite simple, draped, loose-fitting and free-flowing.[4] Customarily, clothing was homemade and cut to various lengths of rectangular linen or wool fabric with minimal cutting or sewing, and secured with ornamental clasps or pins, and a belt, or girdle (ζώνη: zōnē).[4][page needed] Pieces were generally interchangeable between men and women.[5] However, women usually wore their robes to their ankles while men generally wore theirs to their knees depending on the occasion and circumstance.[4] Additionally, clothing often served many purposes than just being used as clothes such as bedding or a shroud.[6]
In ancient Greece the terms ἀκεστής (male) and ἀκέστρια (female) were used for people who patched and restored clothing.[7]
The shoemakers had two kind of knives for cutting leather, the σμίλη or σμιλίον, which has a straight blade and the τομεὺς or περιτομεύς, which had a crescent shaped blade.[8]