Ancient Greek Dress

Statue of a priest [Cypriot; Said to be from west of the temple at Golgoi]

Statuette of a standing maiden [Etruscan]

Attributed to the Amasis Painter: ekythos

Attributed to the Berlin Painter: Amphora

Attributed to the Brygos Painter: Lekythos

Attributed to the Phiale Painter: Lekythos depicting Poseidon pursuing Amymone

Attributed to the Persephone Painter: Bell krater depicting the return of Persephone

Attributed to the Meidias Painter: Oinochoe-chous depicting women perfuming clothes

Grave stele with a family group [Greek, Attic]

Statue of a young woman and a girl from a grave monument [Greek, Attic]

Statuette of a veiled and masked dancer [Greek, Hellenistic]

Relief of a dancing maenad [Roman copy of a Greek relief attributed to Kallimachos]

Fragment from the Eleusinian Relief [Fragments of a Roman copy set in a plaster cast of the original Greek marble relief]

Statue of a member of the imperial family shown in heroic semi-nudity [Roman]

Statue of Eirene (personification of peace) [Roman copy of a Greek bronze statue by Kephisodotos]

Statue of a wounded Amazon [Roman copy of a Greek bronze statue]

In antiquity, clothing was usually homemade and the same piece of homespun fabric could serve as a garment, shroud, or blanket. Greek vase painting and traces of paint on ancient sculptures indicate that fabrics were brightly colored and generally decorated with elaborate designs. Clothing for both women and men consisted of two main garments—a tunic (either a peplos or chiton) and a cloak (himation). The peplos was simply a large rectangle of heavy fabric, usually wool, folded over along the upper edge so that the overfold (apoptygma) would reach to the waist. It was placed around the body and fastened at the shoulders with a pin or brooch. Openings for armholes were left on each side, and the open side of the garment was either left that way, or pinned or sewn to form a seam. The peplos might not be secured at the waist with a belt or girdle. The chiton was made of a much lighter material, usually imported linen. It was a very long and very wide rectangle of fabric sewn up at the sides, pinned or sewn at the shoulders, and usually girded around the waist. Often the chiton was wide enough to allow for sleeves that were fastened along the upper arms with pins or buttons. Both the peplos and chiton were floor-length garments that were usually long enough to be pulled over the belt, creating a pouch known as a kolpos. Under either garment, a woman might have worn a soft band, known as a strophion, around the mid-section of the body.

Men in ancient Greece customarily wore a chiton similar to the one worn by women, but knee-length or shorter. An exomis, a short chiton fastened on the left shoulder, was worn for exercise, horse riding, or hard labor. The cloak (himation) worn by both women and men was essentially a rectangular piece of heavy fabric, either woolen or linen. It was draped diagonally over one shoulder or symmetrically over both shoulders, like a stole. Women sometimes wore an epiblema (shawl) over the peplos or chiton. Young men often wore a short cloak (chlamys) for riding. Greek men occasionally wore a broad-brimmed hat (petasos), and on rare occasions, Greek women donned a flat-brimmed one with a high peaked crown. Both women and men wore sandals, slippers, soft shoes, or boots, although at home they usually went barefoot.

Department of Greek and Roman Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Citation for this page

Department of Greek and Roman Art. "Ancient Greek Dress". In Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/grdr/hd_grdr.htm (October 2003)

Suggested Further Reading

Grant, Michael, and John Hazel. Who's Who in Classical Mythology. London: Dent, 1993.
Hornblower, Simon, and Antony Spawforth, eds. The Oxford Classical Dictionary. 3d ed., rev. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Pedley, John Griffiths. Greek Art and Archaeology. 2d ed. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1998.
Ridgway, Brunilde Sismondo. The Archaic Style in Greek Sculpture. 2d ed. Chicago: Ares, 1993.
Ridgway, Brunilde Sismondo. Fourth-Century Styles in Greek Sculpture. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1997.
Ridgway, Brunilde Sismondo. Roman Copies of Greek Sculpture: The Problem of the Originals. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1984.
Robertson, Martin. A History of Greek Art. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975.
Stewart, Andrew. Greek Sculpture: An Exploration. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.

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Clothing, Men's, Clothing, Women's, Textile, Wool, Textile, Linen, Clothing, Accessories, Europe, geography, Balkan Peninsula (including Greece) , Funerary Art, Berlin Painter (Greek, ca. 500-475 B.C.), Amasis Painter (Greek, ca. 560-515 B.C.), Funerary Art, Europe

Department of Greek and Roman Art

Athenian Vase Painting: Black- and Red-Figure Techniques, Classicism in Modern Dress, Scenes of Everyday Life in Ancient Greece, Roman Copies of Greek Statues, The Symposium, Geometric and Archaic Cyprus, Tanagra Figurines, Greek Terracotta Figurines with Articulated Limbs, Women in Classical Greece, Classical Art and Modern Dress, The Chiton, Peplos, and Himation in Modern Dress, Contemporary Deconstructions of Classical Dress, The Greek Key and Divine Attributes in Modern Dress, Southern Italian Vase Painting, Theater in Ancient Greece, Abridged List of Rulers: The Ancient Greek World,

Ancient Greece, 1000 B.C.-1 A.D., Italian Peninsula, 1000 B.C.-1 A.D.,

Europe, 1000 B.C.-1 A.D.

Photograph Credits