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Similar to Roman men, the basic item of clothing was the tunic (tunica), though women's tunics were fuller and longer, usually extending to the feet. There were two basic styles of tunic, both similar to tunics worn by Greek women: the peplos and the chiton. At the time of their marriage, over the tunica women wore a stola, a long, sleeveless tunic fastened at the waist by a belt and cleverly draped to form elegant pleats. Stola was frequenly if not always suspended at the shoulders from short straps. The stola was a symbol of marriage and all women married according to Roman law were entitled to wear it. Not all did, since it was not a particularly fashionable or flattering garment, but wearing the stola was a way for a woman to publicly proclaim her respectability and adherence to tradition. Outdoors they wore a cloak (palla), which could be used to cover the head.The most common type of footwear were calcei, similar to ankle boots. Roman matrons used pearls, gems and glass pasted with bright yellow of the gold to produce jewels of great effect and ostentation. Women's clothing styles were relatively simple and unchanging, so they had to emphasize elaborate hairstyles and jewelry in order to stand out from other women. |
