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In literature and poetry, Romans were the gens togata ("togate race"), descended from a tough, virile, intrinsically noble peasantry of hard-working, toga-wearing men and women. The toga's origins are uncertain; it may have begun as a simple, practical work-garment and blanket for peasants and herdsmen.
Statue of the Emperor Tiberius showing a draped toga of the 1st century AD. The toga (/ ˈ t oʊ ɡ ə /, Classical Latin: [ˈt̪ɔ.ɡa]), a distinctive garment of Ancient Rome, was a roughly semicircular cloth, between 12 and 20 feet (3.7 and 6.1 m) in length, draped over the shoulders and around the body.
After the transition of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire in c. 44 BC, only men who were citizens of Rome wore the toga. Women, slaves, foreigners, and others who were not citizens of Rome wore tunics and were forbidden from wearing the toga. By the same token, Roman citizens were required to wear the toga when conducting official business.
Originally the toga was worn by all Romans; free citizens were required to wear togas because only slaves and children wore tunics.By the 2nd century BC, however, it was worn over a tunic, and the tunic became the basic item of dress. Women wore an outer garment known as a stola, which was a long pleated dress similar to the Greek chitons.
She was only symbolically called a togata (a woman in toga) since she was unfit to be a matron (as epitomized by the stola). [13] Female and male citizen children could wear a toga praetexta (a toga with purple border), but this usage should be kept apart from wearing the toga as an adult.
Wearing a garment to support the breasts may date back to ancient Greece. [13] Women wore an apodesmos, [14] later stēthodesmē, [15] mastodesmos [16] and mastodeton, [17] all meaning "breast-band", a band of wool or linen that was wrapped across the breasts and tied or pinned at the back.
During the Old, Middle and New Kingdom, ancient Egyptian women mostly wore a simple sheath dress called a kalasiris, [7] which is shown to cover the breasts in statues, but in paintings and relief the single breast depicted in profile is exposed. [8] Women's clothing in ancient Egypt was more conservative than men's clothing.
Ancient Egyptian women often wore a type of sheath dress, which was idealized as quite tight in art. This dress varied in design from a tube of fabric that ended before the bust and was held up by straps, to a more modest T shaped tunic style. Women also sometimes wore a skirt and cape, particularly in combination with each other. [1]