The Greek Gods

The Ancient Greek Clothing consisted of loose clothes because the weather was hot most of the year. The clothing was made from either linen or wool. Long pieces of fabric were used to make the clothing and they were very simply made. The men often wore a tunic called a Chiton. The chiton was a big square of material which was held together with pins at the shoulders and then they wore a belt around the waist. These were made of wool in the winner time and linen in the summertime.

The clothing that the women wore were also made from large squares of material. These too were made from linen or wool. These pieces of material made dresses for them when they were pinned in certain places and they also wore belts around their waist. These dresses went clear down to their ankles. Many of the clothes were made by the women or female slaves. The clothing could be purchased in the marketplace (or agora), but they were very expensive.

The wealthy people in Greece could have very colorful tunics made for them but the poor wore plain colored clothing. The people wore cloaks in the winter time over their tunics made from wool. Most Greeks went barefoot but if they needed shoes they wore leather sandals or boots.

The Greek curled their hair and arranged them in interesting and designed styles. They held their hair in place with wax or lotions. Women kept their hair long, braided and arranged on top of their head, or they might wear their hair in pony tails. They used headbands which were made from ribbon or metal.

The materials used to make the clothing was either very finely woven wool, loose woven wool, or linen. The colors of the materials were green, indigo, yellow, violet, dark red, dark purple, There were also white and other colors which came from things of the earth. There were also motifs used and they were usually something like circles, squares, vegetable shapes, ivy, water leaf, and laurel. There are several other garments which were worn in the 16th century. They were the Doric Chiton, which was made from wool died indigo. It was wrapped around the body and pinned on each shoulder and hung down over the breast, then folded round the body and left the arms uncovered. Another clothing piece was called the Ionic Chiton. It was made from thin wool like crepe and very similar to the material still used today in Greece. This garment was made by cutting the cloth with enough width from two pieces which were sewn together along the top of the extended arm. It was also often pleated and long. It was sometimes sewn together all down the right side with the left side left open. Both men and women wore these garments.