Ancient Egyptian Fashion

Be it international designers like John Galliano or Christian Dior or our very own Indian designers like Gaurav Gupta, Egypt has always been a source of inspiration for the fashion industry.Throughout ancient history, Egyption clothing didn’t go through any drastic changes. It however evolved a little gradually.

Clothing

Ancient Egyptions wore simple clothes made of linen to keep them cool during the hot weather. The men wore kilts of this cloth tied around their waist with a knot in the front. The length of these kilts varied over time periods being short during the Old Kingdom and reaching the calf in the Middle Kingdom

These kilts also went through certain changes in terms of pleating. During the new Kingdom, it became fashionable to wear pleated kilts.

Women wore straight ankle length dresses with traps tied at the back of their neck or behind the shoulders. The garments didn’t involve any stitching whatsoever. It became fashionable for the dresses to be pleated or draped during the New Kingdom. Sometimes women also wore short robes tied to the shoulders or at the neck.

Jewellery and head gear

The Egyptians loves their jewellery and wore as much as they could afford. Jewellery was a means for them to show off their wealth and also to look more attractive and appealing to the gods. Ordinary people wore jewellery made out of pottery beads while the royalty wore precious metals. It had a wide range and consisted of various bangles, bracelets, rings, huge loop earrings, armlet, anklet and also strings of beads worn around the head.

 Footwear

The Egyptians went barefoot most of the time with exceptions to special occasions. The common people wore sandals made out of woven papyrus or palm while the rich and the royalty made ones that were made out of leather. The sandals were pointed upwards from the front and sometimes had a pointed tip. 

                            

Makeup

Makeup was applied by both men and women. The Egyptians really liked to define their eyes and would use kohl eyeliner around their eyes. Women wore blue or green eye shadow on their eyelids which was made out of powdered minerals. They also used the kohl to define their eye brows and eye lashes. Henna was used to colour their nails and lips. Unguents and oils were applied to the skin by both sexes. 

Wigs

Due to the hot sun, men and women preferred to shave their natural hair and wear wigs. The scorching sun would damage their naturally thick and black hair and tying the hair for long durations  would risk getting lice in them. Hence as a solution, the Egyptians shaved their heads clean or cut their hair very short and wore elaborate wigs. The wigs were made of human hair alone or sometimes mixed with plant fibres and wool. The hairstyles however varied. During the old kingdom women liked to braid their wigs. The lengths were also different.