The following chart demonstrates continuity and change in men’s wardrobes in the Old, Middle, and New
Kingdoms. Many innovations occurred in the Middle King- dom and continued into the New Kingdom. New King- dom dress was the most various and elaborate.
S O U R C E:Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, Pharaonic Egyptian Cloth- ing(Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1993).
Garment Old Kingdom Middle Kingdom New Kingdom
Cloth loincloth X X X
Leather loincloth X X
Short wraparound kilt X X X
Long wraparound kilt X X
Sash kilt X
Bag tunic X
Long, narrow apron X X X
Triangular apron X X
Sashes and straps X X X
Long cloak X X X
Short cloak X
Shawl X X X
SOURCE: Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, Pharaonic Egyptian Clothing (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1993).
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either over or under the breasts, depending on the amount of material available and the task the wearer performed. Often women wore either single or double straps with the wraparound dress. The straps covered part of the torso. There was a wide variation in the way the straps were worn. Women wore either one or two straps, arranged either across the body or hanging straight from the shoulder. The straps also varied in width from broad to narrow. These straps were proba- bly decorative but might have served some practical pur- pose. Vogelsang-Eastwood suggested they were neither pinned nor sewn to the wraparound dress. The major- ity of wraparound dresses both in art and from archae- ology are white.
SHEATHES ANDCOMPLEXDRESSES.Many art his- torians have claimed that the most common dress that ancient Egyptian women wore was a sheath with either one or two straps. Vogelsang-Eastwood argued convinc- ingly that this sheath is actually a wraparound with straps. She doubted the reality of the sheath dress be- cause there are no archaeological examples of it among the twenty known dresses from ancient Egypt and be- cause no woman’s grave has contained the pins that would have attached the straps to a sheath. Moreover, many scholars have commented that the sheath dress would have been difficult to wear while performing the tasks portrayed in tomb and temple paintings and re- liefs. Kneeling, bending, and walking would have been
94 Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.) Fashion
Fragment of a tomb painting with seated woman with lotus in one-strap dress. BROOKLYN MUSEUM OF ART, 05.390, CHARLES EDWIN WILBOUR FUND. REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION.
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impossible if women wore a sheath that was as tight as artists portray. Thus the art historian Gay Robins sug- gested that the tight sheath was only an artistic conven- tion and not a real dress. A more accepted dress form by art historians was the complex wraparound dress. Artists first depicted women wearing the complex wraparound dress during the New Kingdom (1539–1075 B.C.E.).
Women created these dresses from large cloth rectangles wrapped in various decorative manners. Sometimes a sec- ond, smaller length of cloth secured the garment in place as a sash. The wearer could drape the cloth over one or both shoulders, wrap it around the lower part of the body, and tuck it into itself at the waist. Other versions of the dress included knotting the cloth under the breast.
The dresses could be pleated or plain. Women at all so- cial levels wore the complex wraparound dress.
V-NECKED AND BEADED DRESSES. V-necked dresses were tailored and cut to shape. Some examples have sleeves, while others are sleeveless. The sleeveless v-necked dress first appears in the Third Dynasty (2675–2625 B.C.E.) and continues into the New King- dom. Both royal women and upper-class women wore this dress. There are some examples with pleats, though pleating is less common than plain examples. V-necked dresses with sleeves survive in the archaeological record in greater numbers than sleeveless v-necked dresses. The seamstress made the bodice and sleeves from two pieces of cloth that she attached to a large rectangle of cloth that formed the skirt. Archaeologists have discovered ex- amples of these dresses dating from the First to Eleventh Dynasties (3100–1938 B.C.E.), proving their popularity for at least 1,200 years. Yet artists never seem to repre- sent such dresses in the artistic record. This evidence provides a caution concerning the reliability of tomb and temple representations to provide a complete pic- ture for modern scholars. Bead-net dresses were often worn over V-neck dresses as well as wraparound dresses and were constructed in geometric patterns. Two ar- chaeological examples date to the Old Kingdom. The beads are cylinders of blue or green faience threaded into a diamond pattern. In the artistic evidence the bead-net dresses are worn over a wraparound dress. In art the bead-net dresses are fairly common in the Old and Middle Kingdoms, but decline in number during the New Kingdom.
BAGTUNICS.Both men and women wore bag tu- nics. They could wear them either full-length or half- length. Though the full-length bag tunic superficially resembled the modern Egyptian galabiyah due to its shirt-like nature, the bag tunic differs from the mod- ern costume because male and female galabiyahs are
constructed in entirely different ways. Bag tunics for men and women, however, were both made from a sin- gle piece of cloth, folded, and then sewn together on two sides, leaving holes for the arms. The bottom was left open. A key-hole shaped opening was cut in the shorter side to allow the wearer to pull it over the head.
The ends and the openings were hemmed. Some bag tunics were made from heavy material while others were from fine material, and people of all stations owned both kinds. Vogelsang-Eastwood and others suggested that the differences in weight represent summer and winter wear. Some bag tunics were also decorated. They could have fringe, bead work, gold or faience sequins, applied patterns, or embroidery. The full-length bag tunic first appeared in the Middle Kingdom and
Fashion
The Lady Tjepu wears a complex wraparound dress that be- came fashionable in the New Kingdom. More complex and lux- urious fashions reflect the wealth of the period. BROOKLYN MUSEUM OF ART, 65.197, CHARLES EDWIN WILBOUR FUND. REPRO- DUCED BY PERMISSION.
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became widespread in the New Kingdom. While both men and women wore the full-length bag tunic, only men wore the short bag tunic. This garment was iden- tical to the long bag tunic, differing only in its length.
The existing archaeological examples of short bag tu- nics date to the Eleventh Dynasty (2081–1938 B.C.E.) and to the New Kingdom (1539–1075 B.C.E.). They vary in length from seventy to ninety-three centimeters (27.5 to 36.6 inches). Mainly workmen wore these garments that seem to replace the archaic wraparound worn during the Predynastic Period and the Old King- dom. These changes suggest that the Egyptians in- creasingly wore sewn garments during the transition to the New Kingdom.
SHAWLS AND CLOAKS.Shawls and cloaks are sim- ilar because people wore them over other garments. In Egypt, shawls and cloaks were both fashioned from ob- long, square, or rectangular pieces of cloth. Scholars have paid little attention to archaeological examples of shawls.
Of nineteen shawls that Howard Carter, the archaeolo- gist, mentioned in his notes on the tomb of Tu- tankhamun, scholars have had access to only one fine linen example. Carter, however, discovered it wrapped around the neck of a statue of the jackal god Anubis.
Thus it is not clear that this is an example of human clothing. In tomb and temple reliefs, some officials in the Middle Kingdom wore pleated shawls. But the ma- jority of representations of shawls are worn by foreign
musicians during the reign of Akhenaten (1352–1336
B.C.E.). Cloaks were similar to blankets, a large oblong, square, or rectangular piece of cloth worn for warmth.
People could either wrap them around the body or knot them at the shoulder. No archaeological examples have been recognized, but artists often depicted people wear- ing cloaks. Normally wraparound cloaks were worn over both shoulders and held together with the hands, espe- cially in Old Kingdom examples. In some Middle King- dom and New Kingdom examples in art, the cloak passes over only one shoulder and is wrapped tightly around the body. More active people, such as hunters and char- iot drivers, wore knotted cloaks. The difference in whether an Egyptian wore a wraparound or knotted cloak seems to depend on whether his/her hands needed to be free. Thus the wraparound cloak was worn when a person could hold the cloak closed, while active peo- ple whose hands were otherwise occupied knotted their cloaks.
ACCESSORIES. There were three types of acces- sories that could be added to most types of clothing:
sashes, straps, and codpieces. Sashes differed from belts because they were made from cloth rather than leather.
Sashes were an important element in ancient Egyptian clothing and were commonly illustrated in depictions of men and women. Surviving examples of sashes from archaeological contexts are made from rope or tasseled cloth. In general the cloth sashes had hemmed edges
96 Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.) Fashion
WOMEN’S