Women's Clothing: 27 BCE - 199 CE

The Early Empire: 27 BCE – 199 CE

• Tunicas:
  • The Tunica Muliebris:
    • This style is rapidly going out of fashion during this period
      • This style is still depicted on a large number of statues and busts in this period, but these may not be reflective of real life. As discussed elsewhere, there were several factors that contributed to both the decline in popularity of the gap-sleeved tunica:
        • The Roman Laws were changed in 69 CE, restricting the wearing of the stola to Senators' wives and empresses only. Since it was restricted to a single, high-ranking class of women and there were only 600 Roman Senators, the stola became a status garment in this period. Women who might not have worn the gap-sleeved tunica and stola combination on a daily basis, but who were entitled to wear it, probably did wear it in public, at least on formal occasions. These high-ranking wives continued to have their official portraits made while wearing their status garments through the mid-to-late 2nd century, even if they rarely (if ever) wore the garments in real life.
        • Once the law was changed, and Equestrian and Plebian women were no longer permitted to wear the stola, they stopped wearing the gap-sleeved tunica which was traditionally worn under the stola. The short-sleeved tunica was a less bulky, more comfortable option.
          • It should be noted that the frescoes of the Vesuvian cities of Pompeii, Stabiae, Oplontis, and Herculaneum show very few garments identifiable as stolae. Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE.
        • By the early 2nd century literary mentions of the stola as a worn garment disappear, and are replaced by infrequent use of the term "stolata" (stola-wearer) as a short-hand description for a good, faithful, morally pure wife. Engravings found on tombstones of wives from the later 2nd and 3rd centuries often depict the wife as wearing the short-sleeved tunica, but describe her as "stolata". In other words, she was "a good wife".
    • This style of tunica is somewhat similar to the Ionic Chiton, but with closed (sewn) sides. Worn by matronae under the stola, or by unmarried women and girls without the stola.
      • It was probably worn over a sleeveless under-tunic
      • Not usually worn with a long-sleeved undertunic, but can be worn with one when it’s cold. There are some artistic examples of gap-sleeved tunicas being worn over long-sleeved under-tunics.
      • Ground length and belted under the bust with a simple cord
    • Constructed of two wide rectangles of cloth to create elbow-length sleeves. The shoulder seam is not sewn, but fastened at a number of points. The sagging of the fabric between the points creates the characteristic appearance of the sleeve.
      • The fastenings vary in appearance, but are only 1-2 cm (3/4” or less) across. There are usually 3-5 fastenings shown on each sleeve, but sometimes there are as many as 7. Sometimes the last fastening was not at the very end of the sleeve, leaving short flaps.
      • In the past it was assumed that these fastenings were metal studs, brooches or small fibula but their size means they are unlikely to be brooches (metal that fine was not strong enough to stand up to much wear and tear, and would also damage the fabric)
        • It seems odd to us that, if they were made of metal (gold or copper alloy) they were not more decorated and treated as an opportunity for display of wealth (like other Roman Jewelry). It also seems odd to us that, some were made of metal, we have not found them in large quantities
      • On statues:
        • The fastenings tend to be depicted as either upstanding and roughly spherical, with uniform shapes (similar to modern globe-shaped buttons)
        • Or they are depicted as being smooth, circular, and flat (similar to modern disk-shaped buttons, but without the holes in the center)
      • In Paintings:
        • They are not usually depicted as being perfectly round
        • they often appear to have incisions or indentations in their surface, which may indicate texture or decoration
        • An indication of the color of these fastenings could help, but while this form of tunica is often depicted on statues and busts, it is fairly rare on colored wall paintings and the painted, or attached, versions on statues have not survived.
        • The clearest paintings show the fasteners in a paler color than the tunic, with darker shadows. This could represent light reflecting off metal, or it could simply be a way of making the fastenings more visible.
      • Current theories:
        • Metal fasteners may have been made of Discs, or hollow half-balls, with a bar or loop on the under side where it was sewn to the edges of the cloth. The fabric was probably gathered or pleated slightly prior to sewing on the fastining. This would create a stronger foundation for seing on the ornament and create more emphasis around the gapped openings in the sleeves. You can see these gather lines in some extant artwork.
        • Non-metal fastenings were probably small “rosettes” of gathered and sewn/bound cloth from the edges of the sleeves. which would cause the folds often seen radiating from them. The fabric from the two edges can be lightly gathered or pleated together, and then wrapped with thread to form a small fabric "tuft" or rosette. The tufts could be left standing up, or opened and flattened. The pleating or gathering of the fabric creates the fold lines shown radiating from the fastenings in some of the extant art. [Example - Tomb of the Haterii in Rome]