Figure 1.--We know a great deal about Greek clothing because of all the available images. Greek stamnoses are one of the sources. A stamnos is a Greek pottery type used to store liquids. It is a squat shape compared to the more utilitarian amphora and has two stubby handles. The one shown here is known as 'departure of warrior'. It has been dated to about 450 BC. It comes from arivate collection and nothing is know about its origins. It sghows a familly scene. The mother and a younger brother are crying as tghe older brother leaves for battle. We are not sure who the man at the right is, perhaps the father or a young warrior companion. The image offers us both a family scene and gender clthing trends. Art offer depicts nudes as a way of demonstating artistic skills. In this case we believe the naked child is a realistic depiction of how younger Greek children commonly appeared. We are not sure why the sword is in mid air. Perhaps mother is holding it from a string. Put your cursor on the image for a clearer drawing.

Greek garments for men and women wore very similar garments, although the length was very different. Neither men or women wore fitted garments. They both wore clothes that was draped around the body. A common factior for both men and women is that the clothing was fashioned from uncomplicated basic rectagular shapes produced from weaving looms. The various garments we see men and women wearing result from girdles, belts and brooches, clasp or pins. They were used to create shape and forms. Greek clothing was thus essentially artfully draped cloths which have been pinned and tucked into the desired position. This was true for both men and women. The basic garment for both men and women was a tunic called the chiton. It was a rectagular cloth textile which was folded and wrapped arond the body. The look could be different, especially for younger men who commonly wore chitons to a shorter length.

Men

The primary garment for Greek men was a tunic. This was a garment without sleeves that hung from the shoulders to anout knee length. Men for every day mostly commonly wore a short knee length chiton. The basic garment was the same as worn by women, but the look was very different. We are not entirely xure about the reasons for the different gender styling, but suspect it was aimple matter of practicality. Men were more likelky to be engaged in physical labor. And the shorter lengths were more practical than the long draped chitons worn by women. This is the same reason that Greek warrirts commonly wore short tunics when engaged in combat, it was the most practical clothing for what was demanded of them. Men might pin their chiton on the left shoulder leaving a bare right shoulder. We also see men wearing the same two shoulder pinned fashion as the woman wore. Men did not always wear short chitons. We see them wearing long flowing chitons like the ones worn by women. As far as can tell, this mostly was a fashion for older men and on formal occassions. During cold weather they might wear a wool cloak over their tunic. The cloak was also useful as a blanket. Their legs were left bare. Well off Greeks would have sandals, but less well off individuals would go barefoot.

Women

The primary garment worn by women was a simple piece of wool or linen fabric. This was not a fitted garment, but rather wrapped and pinned in place in various ways. The fabric as it was a plain piece of cloth did not change over time, but women did alter the the look by varying the wrapping, folding and pinning the cloth. To secure the garment, a fabric belt was tied in place around the waist. Women wore their garments much longer than men wore their tunics. Women wore their clothes to their ankles so as to cover their legs. Their chitons have the look of floor length dresses. The two pin style at the shoulders were almost always chosen by women. The early Doric chiton were made from woven cloths that were made to height of the woman with an additiinal length, about a foot. This of course could be easily calculated as the textiles were woven at home and was just a matter of adjusting the size of the loom. The width was made to be about the open arm span. Then when the garment was put on, points were pinned together and then wrapped around the body. This once the weoman was pleased with the effect, was then held in place by belts and girdles at the waistline. Women also wore cloaks in cold weather.