Byzantine Dress - Female Dress

Female Dress

Modesty was important for all except the very rich, and most women appear almost entirely covered by rather shapeless clothes, which needed to be able to accommodate a full pregnancy. The basic garment in the early Empire comes down to the ankles, with a high round collar and tight sleeves to the wrist. The fringes and cuffs might be decorated with embroidery, with a band around the upper arm as well. In the 10th and 11th century a dress with flared sleeves, eventually very full indeed at the wrist, becomes increasingly popular, before disappearing; working women are shown with the sleeves tied up. In court ladies this may come with a V-collar. Belts were normally worn, possibly with belt-hooks to support the skirt; they may have been cloth more often than leather, and some tasselled sashes are seen. Neck openings were probably often buttoned, which is hard to see in art, and not described in texts, but must have been needed if only for breast-feeding. Straight down, across, or diagonally are the possible options. The plain linen undergarment was, until the 10th century, not designed to be visible. However at this point a standing collar starts to show above the main dress.

Hair is covered by a variety of head-cloths and veils, presumably often removed inside the home. Sometimes caps were worn under the veil, and sometimes the cloth is tied in turban style. This may have been done while working - for example the midwives in scenes of the Nativity of Jesus in art usually adopt this style. Earlier ones were wrapped in a figure-of-eight fashion, but by the 11th century circular wrapping, possibly sewn into a fixed position, was adopted. In the 11th and 12th centuries head-cloths or veils began to be longer.

With footwear, we are on firmer ground, as there are considerable numbers of examples recovered by archaeology from the drier parts of the Empire. A great variety of footwear is found, with sandals, slippers and boots to the mid-calf all common in manuscript illustrations and excavated finds, where many are decorated in various ways. The colour red, reserved for Imperial use in male footwear, is actually by far the most common colour for women's shoes. Purses are rarely visible, and seem to have been made of textile matching the dress, or perhaps tucked into the sash.

Dancers are shown with special dress including short sleeves or sleeveless dresses, which may or may not have a lighter sleeve from an undergarment below. They have tight wide belts, and their skirts have a flared and differently coloured element, probably designed to rise up as they spin in dances. A remark of Anna Komnene about her mother suggests that not showing the arm above the wrist was a special focus of Byzantine modesty.

Although it is sometimes claimed that the face-veil was invented by the Byzantines, Byzantine art does not depict women with veiled faces, although it commonly depicts women with veiled hair. It is assumed that Byzantine women outside court circles went well wrapped up in public, and were relatively restricted in their movements outside the house; they are rarely depicted in art. The literary sources are not sufficiently clear to distinguish between a head-veil and a face-veil. Strabo, writing in the first century, alludes to some Persian women veiling their faces (Geography, 11. 9-10). In addition, the early third century Christian writer Tertullian, in his treatise The Veiling of Virgins, Ch. 17, describes pagan Arab women as veiling the entire face except the eyes, in the manner of a niqab. This shows that some Middle Eastern women veiled their faces long before Islam.