Abstract
The
paper addresses a research work on the history of ancient Hellenic cloth and
its global diachronic cultural and aesthetic influence. The author attempts to
reveal the significance of Hellenic textiles and clothing, based on evidence
collected from a wide geographical and temporal expanse. The article engages
further with the ancient ways of production, the textile/clothing factories and
the theatrical costumes of antiquity. The cultural field of the present work covers Hellenic pre-classical and classical textiles and fashion. Though almost
nothing has been preserved of ancient Hellenic textiles, the quantity and
magnificence of what was created can be studied from thousands of statues and
painted representations in Museums around the world. The Hellenes, or Greeks as
western people have been calling them the last two centuries, were among the
finest to portray fashion and costumes with meticulous care and precision. There are also great writers such as Homer and Herodotus, who gave explicit details
and descriptions of clothing and textiles. Hellenic draped garments, as
depicted in ancients Arts, have served as sources of inspiration for artists
and designers of all the Design periods.
Introduction
Clothing
and other textiles are of great importance to the survival of the human race,
playing key role in society, too. They are weather protections of the body,
interrelated to sex and social rank, expressing characteristics and ways of
living and thinking, of groups and individuals, of time periods and societies, projecting differences and similarities, capturing human nature. Textiles transcend boundaries,
as they unite and divide mankind. The mode of dress differentiates friend from
foe and peasant from prince. Changes in the appearance and types of garments
through the ages are a significant indicator of social, economic and
chronological changes. Clothes began from the efforts of people to cover the
human body by the skin of an animal, to be replaced later by a rectangle piece
of loomed cloth wrapped around the body, inevitably forming folds, embracing it
in a variety of elaborate ways, creating garments that are often distinguished
by their quality and simplicity (Abrams 1993:161-165).
Textiles and clothing have been also a great attraction of the
travelers of antiquity since the Egyptian and Hellenic Bronze era (Richard
1998). It is evident that traveling was quite limited at that time to few
intellectuals with curiosity. Democritos, Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, Ptolemy
were some of the well-known travelers of the ancient world and via those
travelers curiosity, fabulous hand made rare textiles moved from India and
China to Egypt, Greece, Rome and the Black Sea littoral, inspiring and
transplanting diverse local cultures, founding local heritages and cultivating
national ones.
About the Author:
Professor
Margaret C. Perivoliotis is associated with
Department of Graphic Arts and Design of Technological Educational Institution (TEI)
of Athens.
