What Did Ancient Greeks and Romans Wear?

Ancient Greeks and Romans wore similar clothes. Women often wove garments for their families from wool or linen. They wove a single square or rectangular piece that could serve multiple uses, such as a garment, blanket, or shroud.

Greco-Roman clothing consisted of two garments: a tunic and a cloak. Both men and women wore sandals, slippers, soft shoes or boots.

• The tunic was a big rectangle of cloth named peplos and a chiton Peplos are heavier and pinned instead of sewn. Chitons were twice as big as peplos, made of a lighter fabric and often seamed.
• Togas were white woollen strips of cloth. They were about six feet wide and 12 feet long and were wrapped over the shoulders and body. They were worn over the tunic.
• Some Roman women were dressed in an ankle-length, pleated dress, known as a stola. They wore it over the tunics.

• A typical outfit for women consisted of a strophion, a soft band wrapped around the body's mid-section. Then a peplos was draped over the strophion, folded over along the upper edge to make a double layer in front. The top edge was draped to reach the waist and fastened at the shoulders.
• Women might also wear a chiton instead of a peplos. It consisted of twice as much material as the peplos, wide enough to allow sleeves.
• A mantle would be worn over the tunic. The Greeks called it a himation and the Romans a pallium.

Romans would wear outer garments like cloaks or capes pinned at the shoulder and fastened down the front. They were often made from wool and sometimes leather. Shoes and sandals were made of leather.

Men's and women's fashion was different throughout the Bronze and Iron ages.