One huge misconception was that all clothing was white. That is absolutely not true! Colors ranged
from bright yellows to dark reds. The colors were vibrant and rich coming from the earth, minerals, plants, and even
shellfish. The Greeks also used colors
to accent their robes with stripes or sashes.
Other colors used included indigo, green, violet, dark purple, and blue. Fabrics were often treated to create a
pattern. The Greeks would use circles and squares create forms like the laurel,
ivy and waterleaf to decorate their clothing.
One of the other huge
misconceptions was that every one wore the same outfit: a toga. This is another massive fallacy created by fraternity
parties and lewd movies. Togas were
actually a form of Roman clothing, NOT Greek.
Greek’s wore a variety of garments, each special in their own way.
The Greeks form of the toga was called a chiton.
A chiton was the basic tunic, it consisted of fabric wrapped around the
body and pinned at the shoulder. There
were two types of chitons: the ionic chiton, worn from 550 to 480BC, and the
doric chiton, worn from 400 to 100BC.
The
Ionic Chiton came originally of Phoenician origin. It consisted of two pieces of fabric sewn
together along the top of the extended arm and was often sewn down the right
side, with the left side open. It was
also worn belted below the breasts or at the waist then pinned at the shoulders
in as many as 8 to 10 places. Both men
and women wore this type of chiton, yet it seemed to be favored more by women,
musicians, and charioteers.
The
Doric Chiton was simpler than the ionic with only a single fastening and less
fabric. The upper edge was worn folded over to hang down on the breast. The
arms were left uncovered and the fabric was held in place with a girdle which
the fabric bloused over to various degrees.
