Introduction to Roman Clothing
Romans made a distinction between garments that were “put on” (called “indutus”), such as the tunica and stola, and garments that were “wrapped around” (called “amictus”), such as togas and pallas. Indutus were worn closest to the skin or underneath the amictus layer, and amictus were considered outerwear.
In the earliest days of the Roman Kingdom, both men and women wore togas, with men sometimes wearing theirs over a loincloth. Before the 2nd century BC the toga had become a garment worn over a tunica by adult males, and laws passed at this time restricted it to only freeborn male citizens. The earlier usage of the toa by both men and women remained in the practice of having freeborn children (both boys and girls) wear the toga toga praetexta (a toga with a purpura border) until they went through puberty and were considered “adults” at around age 14-16. After reaching adult status, boys donned the all white toga (toga virilis) of the citizen and girls donned the palla of the women.
Not everyone in Rome wore togas!
Men wore togas.
Togas were the required “public dress” of adult men over the age of 14 throughout the Roman Republic and very early Empire periods (sort of equivalent to a jacket and tie in the 1950’s). By the later 1st century CE the cumbersome toga was falling out of fashion. Men began wearing the smaller, less restrictive pallium or other types of cloaks. The toga was still required on formal occasions and in the Forum.
Boys & girls under the age of 14 wore the toga praetexta (the toga with a purple border).
In the days of the Roman Kingdom, only the children of Patricians (the nobles) could have a purple band on their toga. By the beginning of the Republic, all children of Roman citizens had gained the right to wear the purple border which was believed to act as a protective charm.
Boys & girls were not considered to be properly dressed to be out in public without the toga. Children began wearing the toga as soon as they were physically capable of being draped in it.
The purple border was called the praetexta, which means "woven first." It acted as a protective threshold, guarding the wearer from the dangers of the secular world and granting him (or her) additional religious protection.
The praetexta, as the part of the cloth woven first, would them lie along the *straight* edge of the toga, rather than around the curved edge as is commonly done among reenactors today.
The only women over 14 who were togas were either prostitutes or women convicted of adultery.
Adult women (over 14 years old) wore a garment called a Palla.
The palla is a long rectangle of fabric that is draped in a similar way to the simple toga.
The palla was always worn in public by adult women – it preserved the modesty of the wearer, protected her from the weather, and going without it outside the home was the equivalent of a woman from the Victorian Era going around in pants or short skirts.
Indumenta: "Put On" Garments