Beyond the Veil- A History of Womens Head Coverings in Western Europe

One of the biggest news stories this summer regarding clothing, was the notorious ban on the ‘Burkini’ in France. This story made me feel fundamentally uncomfortable, having spent reasonable amounts of time in the Middle East, I have come away an even more ardent supporter of women’s right to wear whatever they choose than perhaps I was before I went. I’m not denying there are issues in many Islamic countries surrounding women’s rights, and these need to be addressed, but the decision a women is not allowed to dress as modestly as she may choose, simply because of her religion, is a ludicrous one, and one that sits very uncomfortably with me. Nevertheless, the issue has been discussed continuously over the past few months, and it is ultimately an active debate that doesn’t need my voice added to it. What I do hope to do in the next series of my posts however is examine the tradition of women’s head coverings in Europe. These posts are not intended to make any judgement either way regarding whether it is acceptable that women should or shouldn’t veil themselves, but instead examine traditions which were very prominent until the last century, as a reminder a woman’s choice to cover up may not be so alien to our culture as it is often portrayed.

Ancient Rome

For my first post, I have chosen to look at Ancient Roman traditions of wearing a veil. The Roman veil was quite different to whatever we might imagine when we hear the word, rather than covering the face the roman veil was more similar to a modern bridal veil, a piece of fabric fastened to a women’s head, covering her hair, which she would have been expected to wear on any social and public occasion.

The HBO TV Series Rome put a lot of thought into the historical accuracy of the clothing, including the veils worn by women.

Female Modesty

Unsurprisingly, the veil was tied to the modesty of the wearer. It is often easy to forget the frequency with which it was worn, as many surviving roman busts depict women without the veil, instead focusing on the elaborate hairstyle of the subject. This isn’t without cause, history of the Western Roman Empire covers a period of nearly 1,000 years, and traditions of dress changed significantly in this period. This included the veil, which was not always worn strictly, nevertheless, this does not negate the importance of women covering their head in Ancient Rome. In 166 BCE, Sulpicius Gallus reportedly divorced his wife for going out in public with her hair uncovered, claiming only he should see her head, and she had thus disgraced him. This anecdote is from the Roman Republic, but the ties of the veil to modestly continue to exist in the early empire. The Emperor Augustus consolidated his power by claiming to restore traditional values to the empire, instituting a series of laws surrounding public and private modesty. Augustus presented his own family as the pinnacle of Roman tradition, and consequently his family was often (but not exclusively) portrayed in the veil, highlighting their modesty. Later Empresses, notably Julia Domna, wife of the Emperor Septimius Severus (who reigned 198-211 CE) are shown with elaborate hairstyles, which are impossible to imitate in real life. One school of thought suggests women wore wigs, which fulfilled the same purpose as a veil, hiding their real hair in public, and thus offering a more elaborate way of displaying their modesty.

Veiled Women on the Ara Pacis in Rome

But What about the Men?

Interestingly, the veil was not exclusively worn by women. Though there was much less expectation on men to cover their head in public, when making a sacrifice men were expected to cover their head just the same as women were, and male priests covered their head. As a consequence of this, many emperors would portray themselves wearing a veil to demonstrate their piety to the gods, and dedication to the state cult. The Emperor Marcus Aurelius (161-180 CE) depicts himself wearing a veil in a series of friezes currently on display in the Capitoline. Augustus also portrayed himself as veiled often, and on the Ara Pacis, a monument built by Augustus, both himself and his son in law Agrippa are shown with their heads covered, thus highlighting their civic and religious roles in the empire.

Marcus Aurelius Veiled when performing a public sacrifice

To Conclude…

This post barely scrapes on the vast social and political importance of the veil in the Roman Empire. With such a sprawling period, it is difficult to encapsulate every social change and its influence on dress. Nevertheless, I hope this acted as a brief introduction as to why men and women covered their hair in the Roman Empire, and in further posts I will be examining how the tradition continued in Western Europe with the arrival of Christianity.

Sources:

Meyers, R. 2012. ‘Female portraiture and female patronage in the high imperial period’. In James, S.L and Dillon, S. Blackwell Companion to Women in the Ancient World

Bonfante, L and Sebasta, J.L. (eds.) 2001. The World of Roman Costume

Colourful Clothing- The use of White

My last post, which detailed how purple was used in clothing throughout the ages, ended with me discussing on whether to talk about blue or red this week. In the end- I have decided to scratch that idea and talk about white instead. Perhaps the most obvious association we have with white in western culture is bridal wear, but this wasn’t always the case. This post will briefly chronicle the role white has played in clothing in the last 3,000 years.

As usual I will start my post talking about the Egyptians. I touched briefly on white in Egyptian clothing before- the colour was associated with purity, and is often worn by the deceased in scenes of the afterlife. Gods are also often shown in white- perhaps most famously Osiris (God of the Underworld) wears white mummy wrappings in most representations!

A Scene from the Book of the Dead where an Egyptian meets Osiris (and both wear white!)

White was worn in other ancient societies beside Egypt, and had particular importance in Rome. In the Republic, the Romans prided themselves on the ‘equality’ of their society, and the plain white toga (known as the Toga Candida) was worn by any man running for public office. Its lack of adornments was intended to put the focus on the wearers personal attributes, rather than wealth. This plain toga was the de facto uniform of a Roman gentleman, and was also worn by grooms to their wedding. White was only partially associated with brides in ancient Rome, with women wearing both white and yellow for the ceremony.

Feudalism in the medieval era noted a shift from the equaliser of white to a greater emphasis of purple and gold amongst the elite. Nevertheless, white was sometimes still worn by the wealthy to make an important social statement. Margaret Tudor, sister to Henry VIII, wore white during her marriage to James IV of Scotland. At this point, white was always worn by brides, so for Margaret, the colour was a social statement, emphasising her purity and youthfulness (she was only 13!).

White enjoyed popularity amongst the wealthy again in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. As religious sentiment in Northern Europe gradually shifted to Protestantism, simpler clothing was adopted, instead of the extravagant colours which were previously worn at court. Judges in England and the Netherlands both adopted white collars and by the early 1800s white was clearly a favourite of the elite. In Mansfield Park, written in 1806, Edmund Bertram instructs the heroine ‘A woman can never to be too fine when she is all in white’.

A Regency woman in white!

The Victorian era is what finally solidified white as the colour of brides. After Queen Victoria wore white to her wedding in 1840, the colour became increasingly popular, which was reflected in contemporary women’s journals, with the 1870 Godey’s Ladies book listing it as the perfect colour for a bride.

Queen Victoria in her (rather fabulous) wedding dress

Knowing nothing about any clothing from the last century, I am going to end the post here. I will be back in a few weeks writing about another colour, when I decided what it is.

-Rachael

Bibliography:

Snodgrass, M.E. World Clothing and Fashion: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Social Influence 

http://www.webexhibits.org/pigments/intro/whites.html

Netheron, R and Owen-Crocker, G.R. Medieval Clothing and Textiles 10.

Colourful Clothing- The Use of Purple

When I do my washing, I have noticed rather than split my clothes into lights and darks like most people, I split it into purples and non-purples. Purple is one of my favourite colours, however had I been born a few centuries earlier, I would never have been allowed to wear the colour. For millennia, purple was only accessible to the exceedingly wealthly. This post is the first in a series of colour in clothing, and will provide a whistle stop tour of how purple has been used throughout history.

Some of the aarliest references to the colour purple used in clothing are from Mesopotamia. The Assyrian King Ashurnirsirpal II lists getting ‘red-purple wool’ in his tribute from neighbouring kingdoms. This red-purple dye came from the coast of the Mediterranean, and was harvested from a type of sea snail native to the levantine coast, particularly Tyre, giving it it's name 'Tyrian Purple'. It took 9,000 snails to produce just one gram of dye, and so the colour purple was incredibly expensive. It was only really affordable to the very wealthy or royalty, which is the beginnings of its association with royalty even today. At this point, the colour purple and red are hard to distinguish, due to the similarlities in the dye colours. The Spartans would wear red-purple cloaks, to intimidate their enemies, as the cost of Laconia (the region of Greece Sparta is in) also had the sea snails, and wearing expensive red cloaks was seen as a display of wealth and power to their enemies.

Not that I am saying the film 300 was accurate, but at least they wore red cloaks

In the Roman empire, the colour purple was still associated with royalty in clothing. In Rome itself, only the emperor was allowed to wear a robe in purple, though senators tunics had a purple border. Purple worn by the royal family in Rome continued for hundreds of years, the Emperor Justinian is depicted in Tyrian purple nearly a century after the fall of the Roman empire. In Rome's successor, the Byzantine empire, purple became symnonmous with the royal family, with Princes and Princesses born in the Blachernae palace receiving the title 'Porphryogennetos' meaning ‘born in the purple’

The fall of Rome did disrupt the transportation of purple dye throughout Europe. After the 600s, when the Arabians conquered the Levantine coast, Constantinople became the last center of Tyrian purple production in Europe, meaning it only became more expensive and prized. There were alternatives, by mixing wode and red dye a purple could be produced for clothing, and some Sacndinvian lichen was also used to create a similar colour. Tyrian purple was by far the preferred dye however, as it did not fade, but grew brighter in the sun. When Constantinople was conquered in 1453, Europe was cut off from the dye, only increasing its value when it could be bought.

The Early Byzantine Emperor Justinian in a purple cloak

The association between purple clothing and wealth is particularly highlighted by the Elizabethan sumptuary laws. Elizabeth I banned purple to be worn by anyone except the royal family themselves, in an attempt to codify the rules governing social class. The British monarchy also adopted purple as a mourning colour, Elizabeth herself owning a purple dress lined with ermine to be worn when in mourning. Purple was much more striking than the traditional black, and so further separated the monarchy from the populace. In 1660, Samuel Pepys recorded seeing the seeing ‘the king in purple mourning’ after the death of his brother.

Tudor King Henry VIII in red-purple clothing, from circa 1520.

Over the next few centuries, it did become more acceptable for the masses to wear purple, though price was still an issue. Perhaps mimicking the monarchy, purple was adopted as a colour of half-mourning, to be worn after black but before the grieving party returned to full colour clothing. One ladies magazine from 1837 lists ‘black for mourning and purple for half mourning’ as the correct colours to wear. The greatest innovation which introduced purple to the wider market was the discovery of a synthetic purple dye by William Henry Perkin in 1856. Perkin had been attempting to create a cure for malaria, but accidentally discovered the purple dye. No longer having to rely on expensive natural dyes has resulted in the colour being used far more frequently in clothing throughout Europe.

An 1874 portrait named 'Lady in Violet' by the Hungarian Artist Pal Syzinei Merse

So that is my brief history of the colour purple. It doesn't necessarily include every scenario it was used it (particularly for cultures outside Europe) but I hope it was enough for a brief overview. I will be back in a few weeks- though I haven't decided on a new colour yet- red or blue?

-Rachael. 

Sources:
Taylor, L. Mourning Dress: A Social and Cultural History
Glick, T. Livesy, S.J and Wallis, F. (eds.) Medieval Science, Technology and Medicine: An Encyclopedia
Condra, J. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing Through World History: Prehistory to 1500 CE

http://www.livescience.com/33324-purple-royal-color.html

http://elizabethan.org/sumptuary/who-wears-what.html

Netherton, R. Medieval Clothing and Textiles.Vol.11
Ladies Home Magazine Vol. 9 (1837)
Woodward, J. The Theatre of Death: The Ritual Management of Royal Funerals in Renaissance England 1570-1625

Fashions of Egypt- Hairy Pharoahs

This is my third (and final) post in the Egyptian fashions series. I finally get the chance to focus on something I have wanted to from the beginning- how the Egyptians wore their hair. Throughout history, how people have worn their hair has included clues to their gender, wealth and social class, something no less true for the ancient Egyptians. Alex wrote an absolutely fantastic post on wigs a few weeks ago, so this post will focus instead on how Egyptians dealt with their natural hair, and some of the seemingly strange practices involved in it.

Ancient Egypt was rife with disease, as the Nile floods only encouraged the spread of water-borne illness such as schistosomiasis and malaria. As such, grooming was incredibly important, as keeping clean was vital to a long life. Long hair, and beards, was sometimes seen as unclean, as it encouraged head lice and was a breeding ground for other diseases. This is where we reach the first hurdle in studying hair, as to prevent the spread of illness many Egyptians, and particularly men, shaved their head.

An Egyptian man with a shaved head

The first hairstyle any Egyptian wore, regardless of social class or gender, was a shaved head with a braided sidelock, or very occasionally in the New Kingdom several braids. This sidelock had a mythological importance, it was the hairstyle worn by the god Horus as a child, a form he was often represented in. It was due to the mythological significance of the sidelock that we also see it worn by various religious figures, notably ‘sem-priests’ who helped ensure the safe passage of the dead to the afterlife.

The Pharaoh Akhenaten, his wife Nefertiti and their daughters

Evidence from mummies suggests wealthy women did sometimes wear their hair long, augmented by accessories made of ivory or gold. Unlike men, women were rarely depicted as bald, save as children or during the Amarna period. The positioning of some mummies suggests occasionally women wore their hair long beneath their wigs, and when they didn’t wear a wig at all may have styled their hair extravagantly to look like they were.

Egyptian women sporting a variety of different hairstyles

Men would wear their hair short, either closely cropped or completely shaven. The poor, servants and slaves are often depicted without any hair at all, a symbol of their low status. Short hair was also donned by elite men however, to make their wigs easier to wear. Men also shaved their beards, only allowing it to grow as a sign of mourning, and likely shaving again shortly after the funeral. The ‘false beard’, a plaited and curled accessory which jutted from the chin, was worn by the Pharaoh as early as 3,000 BCE however, and continued to be worn until the late period (664-332 BCE) by the Pharaoh and other elite citizens. Actual beards seem to have become more popular by Greek and Roman Egypt, where they appear on mummy portraits.

King Tutankhamun sporting a false beard

So that is it for my series on Egyptian fashions! I hope it proved interesting, and somewhat informative in places. I know I enjoyed to write it at least! Especially this last post, which I had the pleasure to write and research in Rome, which it absolutely glorious. I am still mulling over what I want my next series of posts to be- however whatever I decide on I hope proves to be as fun to write as this series has been!

Sources:

Robins G. Hair and the Construction of Identity in Ancient Egypt, c. 1480-1350 B.C

Robins G. Women in Ancient Egypt

Tyldesley J. Daughters of Isis: Women of Ancient Egypt

Image Sources:

http://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/civil/egypt/egcl06e.shtml

http://portsmouthpoint.blogspot.it/2013/03/ides-of-march-lecture-ancient-egypt.html

http://me13in.tumblr.com/post/83802148271/pseudofailure-yowhosedogisthat

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/21/king-tuts-mask-damaged_n_6520910.html

Fashions of Egypt: Accessorize like an Egyptian

My last post dealt with the styles and fabrics of Egyptian clothing, so this time I have decided to focus on jewellery, examining the gems, metals and styles the Egyptians found fashionable.

Gold was used extensively in Egyptian Jewellery. Mines in the Eastern desert made the metal (relatively) cheap and accessible, and the Pharaoh would organise mining missions personally. However, gold was often just the setting for elaborate jewelled beads. Lapis Lazuli, which came from Afghanistan, was particularly popular, as the colour blue was associated with heaven and rebirth in Egyptian myth and lore. Red carnelian also appears to have been common, and could also be mined in the Eastern desert. Some of our earliest examples of Jewellery from around 3000 BCE also feature Turquoise, which came from Sinai.

Lapis Lazuli, Turquoise and Carnelian Necklace from the British Museum

One of the most common styles of necklace was the Wesekh collar, which sprung into popularity in the eighteenth dynasty. This was a type of beaded necklace worn by both men and women, formed of many layers small and cylindrical beads (I have attached a section on how to make a collar at the end of this post). Amulets were the other main form of necklace, and were designed to grant magical protection to the wearer. These were actually worn by the dead more often than the living. Lapis Lazuli or carnelian would be shaped into a divine symbol (for example the djed pillar of Osiris, or the more famous eye of Horus) to protect the body in the perilous journey through the afterlife.

Wesekh Collar from the 11th Dynasty, at the British Museum

Djed Pillar Amulet at the British Museum

Tomb art also suggests the Egyptians wore earrings and arm bands. The tomb of Nebamun depicts women wearing large, flat, disc earrings, apparently made from pure gold. Bracelets and arm bands seem to have been tight and decorated with blue beads. The Egyptians also wore finger rings, fashioned out of any of their favorite stones, and decorated with protective hieroglyphs or divine symbols.

Women in Collars, Earrings and Bracelets at the Tomb of Nebamun

This post took a lot longer to write than intended (though I won’t pretend procrastination didn’t play some part in that). Next time, I plan to write about Egyptian hairstyles, both wigs and natural hair. For any further reading on this topic I would highly recommend www.ancientegyptonline.com which is both accurate, and fun to read.

-Rachael

Sources:

www.ancientegyptonline.com

Robins, G. 2008. The Art of Ancient Egypt. Cambridge, MA.

Harris, E.L. 1998. Ancient Egyptian Divination and Magic. Boston, MA and York Beach, ME.

Ogden, J. 1992. Ancient Jewellery. London.

Making a Wesekh collar:

1.       First, get a length of string or wire that will fit comfortably around your collarbone, and meet at the top of your spine. Then begin to add beads. Blues, yellows and reds are the most accurate colours, but feel free to experiment with whatever you think looks best for a more modern twist.

2.       Every two or three beads along, tie another piece of short string or wire to your first piece. Continue doing this until the entire thing is filled

3.       Put a few more beads on the short pieces of string or wire, but don’t cover them completely as you will need enough room at the end to tie a knot.

4.       If you stop here, you have made a normal Egyptian necklace! However if you want to make a full collar, then begin to tie a new length of string, slightly longer than your first, to the shorter pieces. Make sure to check this will also meet on your back. Add beads as you go along, and it should look something like this.

5.       Do this as often as you want, until you are happy with number of layers in your collar. Then tie the ends together, and you have the collar!

Fashions of Egypt: Making the Kilt Cool before the Scottish did

Everyone is familiar with the stereotypical ancient Egyptian. Their wonderful lack of detail in art has resulted in an image of a ‘funny guy walking sideways’ in popular consciousness. This (arguably) simplistic style has its drawbacks- when attempting to reconstruct the clothing worn by the Egyptians, it becomes incredibly difficult.

The Ancient Egyptians: Incapable of Looking Forwards

With every society, you can tell a lot about someone’s social status by the clothes they wear. This was no less true for Egypt, where the small elite could dress in fabrics of their choice, while the poor may have worn loincloths, and slaves may have worn nothing at all. Nevertheless, most clothing for all members of society appears to have been made from only one or two pieces of fabric, knotted together as the wearer desired.

Women are often depicted in tightfitting white dresses, known as a kalasaris. This simple garment was the typical dress for any Egyptian woman, usually a tunic held up by one or two pieces of fabric. Realistically, these dresses would not have been as tight as they appear on tomb and temple walls. The Egyptians had a fantastic sense of simplicity when approaching their art, believing it didn’t have to appear realistic, so long as there was a good amount of symbolism behind it. Thus, to paraphrase one lecturer I have had, of course women were depicted in tight dresses, or if you couldn’t see their breasts, how would you know they were women?

Some Women, in the tight Kalasaris

Men could wear tunics as well, but fabulously preceding the Scottish in fashion sense, also wore kilts. The stiff triangular appearance of the kilt in most art makes it hard to imagine what it may have looked like when worn. By the New Kingdom (c.1500-1000 BCE) some more defined imagery suggests it likely had more material and layers, but again, the Egyptians drew what they liked rather than what they saw, and thus we are left with wall paintings of men in very pointy skirts.

Honestly- Who wore it better?

Almost all our remaining depictions of Egyptian clothes suggests they were white, though this by no means assures us white was the only colour the Egyptians wore. It was certainly an important colour, and perhaps the most common, but black, representing the mud in the fertile Nile valley, was also worn. Red was perhaps less common, due to associations with Seth (the god of destruction and chaos). The tomb of Nebamun, a New Kingdom official, has some wonderfully vibrant images, depicting women in luxurious golden cloth, which certainly suggests there was some variation on white, at least in elite dress.

Beautiful Golden Clothing in the Tomb of Nebamun

I don’t want to dive into hair at the moment- I feel it is a broad topic which fully deserves its own post or series of posts (though I will shamelessly plug another blog I write for, whichhas an interesting section on Egyptian Beards). Jewellery, and particularly magic amulets, is another topic I would like to explore in more depth than is afforded in one post. Therefore I will end here for now, and hopefully talk more about accessories and hair styles when I have had a chance to do more research!

-Rachael

Image References
https://hermionesknapsack.wordpress.com/tag/egyptian/
https://uk.pinterest.com/malatk23/the-ancient-middle-east-chapter-2/
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nebamun_tomb_fresco_dancers_and_musicians.png
http://nationalclothing.org/16-nationalclothing/europe/scotland/9-national-dress-of-scotland-men-s-and-ladies-kilt.html
https://uk.pinterest.com/karmenradjenovi/egypt/

Bibliography:
Condra, J. (ed.) 2008. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing through World History, Volume 1. Westport, CN and London
Nicholson, P.T and Shaw, I. (eds.) 2000. Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology. Cambridge.
Tierney, T. 1999. Egyptian Fashions. Mineola, NY.