Mummy's Wrap

The Old Kingdom, as was seen in Ancient Egyptian Clothing Part 1 – Men’s Clothing, saw only the simplest fashions in clothing.  For women’s fashion this simplicity seems to span not only the Old Kingdom, but most of the Middle Kingdom and some of the New Kingdom, as well.  Dresses were simple, tight sheaths, beginning at or below the breasts and falling to the ankles.  Many times these sheaths are seen to be supported by two wide cloth braces over the shoulders  (Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, pg. 212).  There is much debate by scholars about how the paintings depicting women and their clothing should be interpreted.  Some say the paintings should be taken at face value, that the women’s breasts were exposed.  While this certainly would not be considered shocking to the ancient Egyptians, it is possible, considering some artwork shows the breasts covered, that this was mere artistic license taken by the ancient artists.  The most likely interpretation is that both the exposed breasts and the covered breasts were acceptable to the ancient Egyptians (www.womenintheancientworld.com). Dying fabrics was not unknown to the ancient Egyptians.  In fact, dying practices were understood as far back as the Predynastic periods.  Colors included the three primary colors, blue, red and yellow, and the many other colors produced by the different combinations of the primary colors.  While dresses have been noted to use the red and yellow colors, even combinations of the two, the blue dye was not commonly used in the dynastic periods. The ancient Egyptians used mostly plant material to accomplish their dyes.  Using a plant called madder or Rubia tintorium, red ochre or even a mixture of Henna and the flowers of Carthamus Tinctorius accomplished red dye.  Yellow dye was accomplished by using Carthamus tinctorius, safflower or iron buff.  Blue, a color not used often in ancient Egypt, but was used commonly during the Coptic period and later, was accomplished by using indigotin, otherwise known as woad or Isatis tinctoria (Hall, Egyptian Textiles, pg. 10).  One more ingredient was needed in the dying process.  There was a binding agent required in dying fabrics, allowing the dye to bond to the fabric and not wash out.  This agent is known as alum, a crystal that is water soluble, and found in ancient times only in the oases of the Libyan desert (wikipedia.org).  The fact that the ancient Egyptians had only this one source of alum, it was very expensive to dye cloth.  Colored dresses would have belonged only to high-class women, possibly even only royal women (Hall, Egyptian Textiles, pg. 10-11).  There is another theory that ancient Egyptians shunned the colorful clothes, opting instead for the pure white of cleanliness, something they were very fond of will be discussed in a later post (Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, pg. 217).  Many portraits of high class or noble women and goddesses show a type of sheath dress that is adorned with patterns.  While these patterns may have been dyed onto the fabric, it may be more likely that these designs represent beadwork. Women’s dresses were often accented by jewelry, especially a large beaded collar.  A more unfamiliar form of jewelry was a beaded dress worn over a sheath dress, the most spectacular example of which was discovered by W. M. Petrie.  This beaded dress was designed for a young girl of approximately thirteen years of age.  The delicate dress was most likely worn only for special occasions or as a court dress.  This particular dress dates to the Fifth Dynasty (www.archaeology.org).  The author could find no other examples of time periods the beaded dress was worn. While women throughout the dynasties often wore cloaks, they became popular in the middle of the New Kingdom.  By the Eighteenth Dynasty, the fashion of dresses and cloaks changed with the Heretic King, Akhenaten.  Women from this period onward wore sheer dresses, or cloaks sometimes depicted as covering a sheath dress, other times the body was clearly visible beneath the elegantly draped material.  As was mentioned earlier, the nude body did not hold the same stigma for the ancient Egyptians as it does in modern times.  These portraits of women wearing nothing but the sheer cloaks and dresses could very well be accurate representations of the style of dress.  The cloaks worn by women often mimicked the tunics and over clothes worn of the men of the same time period, maybe with more adornments, such as fringes and colorful or beaded belts (Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, pg. 216).  Like the men, the women’s over garments often shrouded the left arm, allowing the right arm free movement.  These cloaks or over dresses are sometimes portrayed as having sleeves or even only one sleeve for the left arm.  Many times these over garments were pleated, just as the men’s were (Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, pg. 218).

© 2009, Page Strong. All rights reserved.

That's a Wrap!

Questions? E-mail the Scribe!

Tags: alum, ancient, ancient clothing, ancient dye, Ancient Egypt, ancient egyptian clothing, beaded dress, beaded dresses, clothing, dress, dresses, dye, egypt, egyptian clothing, egyptians clothing, Libya, sheath dress, sheath dresses, women's clothing

This entry was posted by Page Strong on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 10:36 and is filed under Ancient Egypt, Every Day Life, life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.