Greece is known throughout the world as a source of beauty, grace, and culture. Many of the ideals that we hold politically, religiously, and philosophically have at least part of their roots in ancient Greece. In accordance with the value of beauty in form and in the idealizing of character ( such as depicted by the Greek Gods and Goddesses), Greece has been the home of many beautiful creations in dress as well as in the other arts. Lovers of beauty everywhere are inspired by the flow and drapery that is seen in the historical evidence of artifacts such as pots, reliefs, frescoes and statuettes (Wilcox, 1979).
The climate of Greece is similar to that of other Mediterranean countries. In the lowlands the summers are hot and dry, with clear, cloudless skies, and the winters are rainy. The mountain areas are much cooler, with considerable rain in the summer months. Frost and snow are rare in the lowlands, but the mountains are covered with snow in the winter. The rainfall varies greatly from region to region. The temperatures vary from freezing in January to near 100 degrees in July. Dress varied in thickness and also in the number of layers that were worn in the different seasons.
In ancient Greece as in many agrarian societies there was the need for freedom of movement for women who worked in the fields or selling in the market place. Few women were sufficiently well-to-do to live without working; those who resided in the country would probably have shared in agricultural labor. Those living in town engaged in trade or kept shops with their husbands, as well as their tasks of housekeeping, childcare, wool working, and food preparation. The Greek ideal as put forth by her philosophers, would have kept women at the hearth but the reality was that women had to earn money and work in the fields as well. They used their garments to carry many items that they needed in their daily lives.
The climate in Crete is not sufficiently dry to preserve actual examples of clothing. The dress of the ancient Greeks is known through archeologists such as Heinrich Schliemann. It is primarily through the depictions of dress as portrayed in clay which is often the most lasting of artifacts of a civilization, that we can have an idea of the dress of these ancient peoples. Terracotta statuettes provide us with the a guide not only to the shape of dress but also to the colors and their decorative forms.
Through the perseverence of belief that the Homeric tales were not fantasies but based in some truth, Schliemann and Sir Arthur Evans who followed him were able to find the remains of the cities of Mycenae and Knossos. Crete is thought to have been inhabited from the sixth millennium B.C. but it was later, probably around the late fourth-early third millennium that immigrants from Asia Minor brought the first more advanced civilization. The Minoan civilization was at its height between 1750 and 1580 B.C. The excavations of the palace at Knossos unearthed a complete spinning and weaving shop. The traditional raising of sheep as well as the raising of plants such as flax provided the weavers with materials (Pomeroy, Burstein, Roberts 1998).
The most striking feature of these costumes is the technical virtuosity in the standard of dress-making. Other civilizations of the time relied more on the fold and arrangement of the fabric than the cut of the garment itself. The Minoans, however, wore fitted clothes as we know them today. As today there was a vast difference between the clothes of the common people and the wealthy. It is likely that the depictions that have been preserved most often show the higher classes although common people are also shown. From the most common fragments of Minoan artifacts we know that women wore skirts that fell straight from the hips and then filled out to a wide hem. It appears that in some cases that the lower half of the skirt was stretched over hoops of rushes, wood or even metal. Others consider that these were the earliest boned crinolines (Anderson, Garland 1974).
Belts, worn tight accentuated their tiny waists and sometimes carried a double apron that fell in front and back, and a bodice was laced over the breasts. The evolution in thought of the Minoan culture brought the conception of geometric patterns as well as decorative designs taken from Nature(Turner, 1979).. Men, regardless of rank or status, appeared to have favored virtual nudity. They wore belts with small cloth aprons, loin cloths and even short skirts
When the Myceneans took over Knossos from the Minoans in the fifteenth century they adopted the Minoan culture and costume. It was very unusual for conquerors to take on the culture of the conquered and shows the appreciation of the advanced design of the clothing.
Around 1.200 B.C. the Dorian invaders came into Greece from Illyria on the east of the Adriatic and brought about the end of the Mycenaean civilization. The period started with a civilization of people dressed in bell-shaped skirts and tightly fitted bodices, and ended with a race dressed in draped clothes, the costumes we now associate with the Greeks and the Romans. In general this movement from fitted clothing to draped would be seen as a reverse evolution. The drapery of the Greeks and Romans, however, was preserved in many sculptures and became an ideal of beauty and graciousness.
Forms of male dress throughout the Archaic and Classical periods were very similar to women's. The two basic garments, the chiton and the himation, were adopted by both sexes. The full-length chiton was worn by all Greek men until the fifth century B.C. when, except for the elderly, it was abandoned in favor of a shorter version, which was knee-length. It was sometimes pinned on the left shoulder only, leaving the right shoulder and arm free. Made from a rectangle of woven wool, it measured about six feet in width and about eighteen inches more than the height of the wearer from shoulder to ankle in length. The fabric was wrapped round the wearer with the excess material folded over the top. It was then pinned on both shoulders and the excess material allowed to fall free, giving the impression of a short cape. The pins used for fastening the shoulders of the peplos were originally open pins with decorated heads, but they were later replaced by fibulae or brooches.
A story is still in existence that after a terrible battle in which most all but one man were killed, the survivor returned to the women and was murdered with the pins that held their garments. From that time for a period of time there is no record of these pins being used as they were banned (Papantoniou, 1985).
Greek taste became more sophisticated and methods of draping became more elaborate and the dimensions increased to ten or twelve feet by five feet. When worn alone, a fashion much favored by philosophers and orators, the draping of the himation was at its most complex form. This is an example of more elaborate and less practical dress being worn by those of greater wealth. Not only can they afford to have the excess of fabric but they can also afford the inefficiency of movement.
It is a popular misconception that Greek costumes were white. This idea most probably started because most Greek statues are of marble, bronze, or some other neutral material, and even the ones which were originally colored had lost their colors by the time they were discovered. It is known however, that although during the Archaic period clothes were usually of the natural fabric color, by the fifth century clothing was decorated with a wide range of dyes and embroidery. Commoners were forbidden wear red in public just as commoners were forbidden to wear purple in England. (Houston,1965).
One of the most common designs for borders was the Greek key pattern which has been used as a decorative motif ever since. More complex borders depicted themes ranging from animals, birds, and fish to complex battle scenes. The colored threads for these embroideries appear to have been limitless. Herodotus mentions yellow, violet, indigo, red and purple in a single garment.
In the early Christian times, with the spread of the narrow horizontal loom, a new garment appears: the dalmatic. It is fashioned from more than one piece of cloth; its shape is that of a narrow "tunic" with sleeves sewn onto it and gussets inserted in the side seams (Tilke, 1990). The spread of weaving techniques, dye plants, and loom forms from one country to another would influence the patterns that became popular in a particular era. Religious beliefs as well influenced dress modes with their ideas of what was modest and what the roles of men and women should be in the home and in society.
The Mediterranean has been the center of cultural growth throughout civilization. It differs drastically from areas such as the Caribbean where the climate may be similar but the culture never really developed. The high state of philosophy, the intricate literature and mythology, the development of political ideals such as the city-state and the intense love of art and architecture all reflect a people that have created beauty even in the harshness of primitive conditions. The beauty of drapery, design and simplicity found in Greek costume has inspired sculptors, painters, and artists of many eras.
