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THE MINOAN CIVILIZATION
ANCIENT GREECE
ROMAN TIMES / BYZANTIUM
16th-18th CENTURIES
QUEEN AMALIA
BIBLIOGRAPHY

THE MINOAN CIVILIZATION

It is possible that the existence of an early civilization in the Aegean would still be unknown if it had not been for the German archaeologist HEINRICH SCHLIEMANN. Obsessed since his childhood by the Homeric tales, he believed unlike his contemporary scholars, that those tales were accurate historical documents rather than adventure stories.
In 1873, he found Troy and jubilantly set off for Greece where he believed he would find King Agamemnon�s legendary city: Mycenae. He was proved right.
From Mycenae he moved his sights to Crete, where he stated confidently he would find the cradle of the Aegean civilization. He was unsuccessful in his search, but the British archaeologist Sir ARTHUR EVANS following Schliemann�s hunch, found later the city of Knossos and named his discovery: The Minoan Civilization.

THE MINOAN COSTUME

Crete is thought to have been inhabited from the sixth millennium B.C. but it was later, probably around the late fourth-early third millennium that immigrants from Asia Minor founded a genuine civilization. They brought with them the technology and organizational flair which transformed a nation of skin clad cave dwellers into one of the most sophisticated civilizations of the ancient world.

The climate in Crete is not sufficiently dry to preserve actual examples of clothing. We have to rely on the evidence of artifacts such as pots, reliefs, frescoes and statuettes (all of which are predominantly figurative), in order to determine the dress-type of the time. Terracotta statuettes provide us with the most valuable guide not only to the shape of dress but also to the colors and their decorative forms.

The Minoan civilization was at its height between 1750 and 1580 B.C. (middle period). During this time, the palace at Knossos was built and the most exciting development at Minoan costume were seen. The palace contains a complete spinning and weaving shop along with the finest and most significant statuettes. Many of these are thought to portray goddesses, but others are clearly of mortals and their dress can be assumed to be that which was actually worn, at least by the high born.
The most striking feature of these costumes is the technical virtuosity in the standard of dress-making. Other civilizations of the time relied more on the fold and arrangement of the fabric than the cut of the garment itself. The Minoans, however, wore fitted clothes as we know them today.

Women wore skirts that fell straight from the hips and then filled out to a wide hem. Some experts consider that the lower half of the skirt was stretched over hoops of rushes, wood or even metal. Others consider that these were the earliest boned crinolines.
Belts, worn tight accentuated their tiny waists and sometimes carried a double apron that fell in front and back, over the skirt.
Above the skirt they wore a tight-fitting short sleeved bodice. In most cases, the breasts were entirely exposed with the bodice laced up below the bust. Some frescoes, however, suggest that the breasts were in fact veiled with a transparent bolero top.

Minoan women had an unprecedented love of color and display in their fabrics. Most designs were geometric, but we also have examples of decorative themes drawn from nature, using flowers, fish and birds in brilliant colors.
For the first time, we encounter a race of hat-conscious women. Two entirely different styles are portrayed on the terracottas. One, the shape of an inverted pot, and the second, a simple beret.

Men, regardless of rank or status, appeared to have favored virtual nudity. They wore belts with small cloth aprons, loin cloths and even short skirts.
Shoes for both men and women were exclusively for outdoor wear. This was deduced from various buildings in Knossos, where the steps leading up to them were very worn, but this damage stopped abruptly at the door.

The Minoans and Myceneans greatly developed the art of jewellery-making; among their finest pieces are seals made of gold.
The picture on the left, shows a male figure accompanied by two females.

Sometime, during the fifteenth century B.C., Knossos was overrun by invaders from mainland Greece, and eventually Crete was controlled from Mycenae.

Culturally, however, the normal procedure was reversed. Instead of the conquerors imposing their culture on the conquered, the Myceneans adopted the Minoan culture. The result: the Mycenean costume is virtually indistinguishable from the Minoan.

ANCIENT GREECE

Around 1.200 B.C. waves of Dorian invaders swept into Greece from Illyria on the east of the Adriatic and brought about the downfall of the Mycenaean civilization. The following four centuries are known as the "Dark Age" of Greece. The period started with a civilization of people dressed in bell-shaped skirts and tightly fitted bodices, and ended with a race dressed in draped clothes, the costumes we now associate with the Greeks and the Romans.

From the seventh century B.C. onwards, we have vast quantities of reference material for the study of costume. Greeks were among the finest exponents of figurative sculpture. Never before had costume been portrayed with such meticulous care and precision. Statues, together with untold numbers of painted pots, give the historian a unique pictorial history of the development of a nation and its fashions. At the same time, we have the invaluable contribution of the written word. Such great Greek historians as Herodotus have given us very detailed descriptions of developments in fashion and the social significance of costume and their accessories.

THE DORIC AND THE IONIC COSTUME

During the periods under discussion, generally referred to as Archaic and Classical, there were two basic styles of costume for both men and women: Doric, in existence at the beginning of the Archaic period, and Ionic which was adopted later.

The most basic garment for women was the Doric peplos, worn universally up to the beginning of the sixth century B.C.
Made from a rectangle of woven wool, it measured about six feet in width and about eighteen inches more than the height of the wearer from shoulder to ankle in length. The fabric was wrapped round the wearer with the excess material folded over the top. It was then pinned on both shoulders and the excess material allowed to fall free, giving the impression of a short cape. The pins used for fastening the shoulders of the peplos were originally open pins with decorated heads, but they were later replaced by fibulae or brooches.

Herodotus, explaining this development, tells us a rather macabre story:
After a disastrous military campaign by the Athenian army, all the forces were put to death except one man who managed to escape, return to Athens and tell the women about their husbands' fate.
Devastated the women took the huge pins from their Doric peplos and butchered the man in anger and contempt.
The men of Athens, Herodotus tells us, were so horrified that they declared that Ionic dress should be worn in the future.
Whether the story is true is uncertain, but there was for sure a period when open pins went out of favor.

The drawing on the left is showing the Doric chiton, the basic garment worn by Greek women up to the beginning of the sixth century B.C.
It was folded so that there was an overlap of material on the bodice; the cloth was secured in place (on the shoulders) by pins.

One way of draping the Doric peplos involved covering the pouching formed by the belt with another section of the woollen rectangle.
This maiden from the Acropolis dates from the 6th century B.C.
The statue was originally brightly painted.

The Ionic chiton which followed was similar to the Doric peplos in overall construction. The woolen fabric was replaced by thin linen or occasionally silk, reflecting the increased influence of Asia Minor on the country. Again the costume was made from a single rectangle of material but much wider than that used for the peplos, measuring up to ten feet wide. It had no surplus material and was measured exactly from shoulder to ankle. The enormous width required that eight to ten fibulae were needed to fasten the top edge, leaving an openwork seam either side of the neck which ran across the shoulders and down the arms to form elbow-length sleeves.

The garment on the left, the Ionic chiton, was an alternative to the Doric chiton. The main difference lay in its greater width.
The top edges of the material were fastened on the shoulder with clasps, so giving the wearer greater opportumity for the display of jewellery.

An other garment worn throughout this period was an outer garment usually worn by men, the himation. It was also made from a rectangle of woven wool and started as outdoor wear, but, with the arrival of the lighter material of the Ionic chiton, it was worn at any time.
At the start of the Archaic period the himation was comparatively small and worn over the shoulders as a cloak but, as time passed and Greek taste became more sophisticated, methods of draping it became more elaborate and its dimensions increased to ten or twelve feet by five feet. When worn alone, a fashion much favored by philosophers and orators, the draping of the himation was at its most complex form.

Forms of male dress throughout the Archaic and Classical periods were very similar to women's. The two basic garments, the chiton and the himation, were adopted by both sexes. The full-length chiton was worn by all Greek men until the fifth century B.C. when, except for the elderly, it was abandoned in favor of a shorter version, which was knee-length. It was sometimes pinned on the left shoulder only, leaving the right shoulder and arm free. Soldiers worn a chiton on which both shoulders and arms of the garment were sewn, leaving a wide slit for the head. It was generally tied at the waist and a certain amount of material was gathered above the belt to draw the hem-line to mid-thigh level.

It is a popular misconception that Greek costumes were white.
This idea most probably arose because most Greek statues are of marble, bronze, or some other monochromatic material, and even the ones which were originally polychromatic had lost their colors by the time they were discovered.
During the Archaic period, clothes were generally white or off-white, commoners were forbidden to wear red chitons and himations in theaters or public places, but by the fifth century costumes were decorated with a wide range of colors.

Homer tells us of extravagant costumes woven with threads of silver and gold.

Pottery, statues and the written word have given us some knowledge of their decorative themes. One of the most common designs for borders was the Greek key pattern which has been used as a decorative motif ever since. More complex borders depicted themes ranging from animals, birds, and fish to complex battle scenes. The colored threads for these embroideries appear to have been limitless. Herodotus mentions yellow, violet, indigo, red and purple in a single garment.

ROMAN TIMES / BYZANTIUM

There were no new features introduced into the conventional dress
during the classical age (5th century B.C.).

In the Hellenistic period that followed, the Greek style of dress won ascendency among the neighbouring Romans and spread throughout the Mediterranean, especially among the urban classes.

The tunic was a Roman innovation. It comprised a piece of cloth, with a slit for the head at its centre point. Although now this garment was hanging from the shoulders, it was also woven in one piece on a frame-shaped loom.
The tunic began to develop when the cloth was first woven in the shape of a cross: when folded in two, the cloth itself formed a pair of sleeves.

Long and short cloaks or mantles were worn over the tunic; just as people had earlier worn the "himation", so the Romans now wore the "stole" and "tonga".

In the early Christian times, with the spread of the narrow horizontal loom, a new garment appears: the dalmatic.
It is fashioned from more than one piece of cloth; its shape is that of a narrow "tunic" with sleeves sewn onto it and gussets inserted in the side seams.
This is the garment that survived as an element of local Greek costumes in the form of the basic undergarment, the chemise.

From now on, once the single piece of cloth was cut to make a "composite" sewn dress, the way opened to the development of cutting and tailoring skills that lead in time to the designing of clothes.

The Eastern Roman Empire is an important factor in the history of Greek costume.
Over the years it estarlished a new and distinctive civilization, the Byzantine.
While still basically Roman, the design of dress starts borrowing from Asian cultures and acquires a character that clearly reflects the eastern styles of garment.
Byzantium became the fashion crucible in which many types of dress were transformed into the distinctive costumes that came to be worn by the Mediterranean and the Balkan people.

It was the Byzantine emperors who conciously allowed themselves to be influenced by the East, in particular Persia. Their subjects followed, creating a provincial Byzantine style destined to win over the Ottoman conquerors who destroyed Constantinople in 1453, but only to be captivated by the dazzling Byzantine civilization.

16th-18th CENTURIES

However exotic this period of fashion may seem to western European eyes, it was the elaborate costumes with all their trimmings that merchants brought back from remote parts of Asia that struck the people of Byzantine and post-Byzantine times as so outlandish.

The same kind of garments eventually reached the ports of Europe where they were adopted and modified, only to find their way back to the countries of their origin or to places lying in between, such as the Balkan peninsula.

It was the western costume though that mostly influenced the style of dress worn in the Aegean islands and in the coastal cities of mainland Greece.

Renaissance fashions based on the full-length dress prevailed there, to be succeeded by an Aegean version of dhe rococo style.

Many of the travelers who visited Greece between the 16th and 18th centuries have left us a record of what they observed. Some traces remain, like fossils, in the costumes of Chios, Siphnos, the northern Sporades, and also in some of the Dodecanese islands.

QUEEN AMALIA

The Costume of the 1800s

In 1837, the arrival of the first queen of Greece in Athens, Queen Amalia, was another milestone in the evolution of costume.

An intelligent woman, she soon realized her attire ought to emulate that of her oddly dressed people; and so, she created a romantic folksy court dress, what it became a national Greek costume still known as the Amalia dress.

It follows the Biedermeier style, with a kaftan (kavadi) top over which is worn a richly embroidered jacket. It was completed with a cap or fez, traditionally worn by married women, or with the kalpaki (a toque) of the unmarried woman, to which was added the black veil donned by Roman Catholics for going to church.

This dress became the usual attire of all Christian townswomen in Turkish-occupied as well as liberated Balkan lands as far north as Belgrade.

Detail of foundi hem, silk embroidery on cotton.
From a Western Attica village, 1850-1900
Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Local costume held its own in villages situated in the plains, on the mountains, and by the sea-coast.
It was indeed at this juncture that they seem to have ceased evolving, just a short while before they began to be abbandoned, in the face of the second and more powerful wave of western fashion: the fashion estarlished by Queen Olga (from 1864 on), in alliance with the Greek industrial revolution which, in the case of clothing, was marked by sewing mashines, fashion periodicals and embroidery pattern books, and most importantly by the schools that taught cutting and dress-making skills.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

J.Anderson & Madge Garland, A History of Fashion, Orbis Purlishing, London, 1979.
Max Tilke, Costume Patterns & Designs, A. Zwemmer, Ltd, London
R. Turner Wilcox,The Dictionary of Costume, The Anchor Press Ltd, Tiptree, Essex.
Joanna Papantoniou, Greek Women's Dress & Jewelry Past & Present, Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation, Nafplion, 1985.
Linda Welters, Women's Traditional Costume in Attica,Greece,Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation, A. Petroulakis, Athens.

For more on the history of ethnic, historic and theatrical costume visit:
The Costume Site
Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation

Metsovo, late 70's: visiting with the local ladies.
They LOVED what I wore!!!

Part of this work was done for
The Institute of International Education School Program
during the 19th Festival of Nations, honoring Greece.

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