How Did the Ancient Romans Actually Dress?

When you picture a citizen of the Roman Empire

you probably imagine someone wearing a white toga, sandals, and maybe some kind of laurel on their head

Wait, your biggest dicker's ears of this. But despite what we see in movies like Gladiator

and television shows like Rome, most Romans didn't really dress that way

Today, we're going to take a look at what the ancient Romans actually wore. Toga, toga

Toga, toga, toga. Romans did wear togas. Movies didn't make that part up

In fact, they were common enough that the Romans sometimes referred to themselves as togati, or people of the toga

which sounds like a 70s yacht rock album. But togas weren't casual wear

They were status symbols worn on special occasions and reserved mostly for wealthy men

basically the ancient Roman equivalent of a nice suit or tuxedo. Interestingly, their status as formal wear

is one of the main reasons modern people think all Romans wore them

Since togas feature prominently in contemporary statues and paintings, they seem like they were everywhere

But it was usually only the wealthiest who could afford a sculpture or painting of themselves

in the first place. I've got some money to blow. Maybe I'll get a sculpture of myself

There were several toga varieties. The classic white toga, or toga virilis

was worn by young men to signal their passage into adulthood. Politicians wore a bleached version of the white toga

called the toga candida. In times of mourning, Romans wore togas of dark wool

The rarest was the toga picta, dyed purple with gold embroidery. This was reserved for generals celebrating a triumph

Togas were a status symbol mostly because they required lots of fabric

This fabric, made from wool, was expensive and time-consuming to produce, and like most of the best textiles, was only affordable to the wealthy

A toga was cut from a single piece of wool cloth in a semicircular shape, and the longest any toga could be

was about 18 feet. Like tying some of today's more elaborate neckties

wrapping a toga was a complicated process. According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary

one corner would be placed before the feet, and the straight edge was taken up and over the left shoulder

It was then pulled across the back and under or over the right arm, across the chest, and over the left shoulder again

The second corner was left hanging behind the knees, and the curved edge became the garment's hem

In addition to the toga itself, how a toga was worn was also something of a status symbol

A well-fitted and well-maintained toga was a marker of wealth and sophistication And since it very difficult to wrap a toga around one body alone trust me on that one wealthy Romans came to value slaves who had toga wrapping skills

In ancient Roman times, clothing dyes had to come from natural sources

The dye used to make a classic purple tunic worn by a Roman emperor, for example, was extracted from the glands

of a variety of sea snail called the hexaplex trunculus, which you and your friends might call the banded dye murex

which is native to the Mediterranean. These sea snails live in deeper water and were harvested via traps suspended from floats

Once enough shells were collected, it would be left in the sun to putrefy and were then crushed

leaving a distinct purple liquid. The name for this shade of purple was Tyrian purple. It was

also sometimes known as royal purple or imperial purple. The Romans did not come up with a whole

sea snail crushing thing. They actually learned the technique from one of their earliest rivals

the Phoenician civilization. The Phoenicians were seafaring and trading people based in the eastern Mediterranean

They were so heavily associated with purple dye, the name Phoenician is actually a Greek word for them

that literally means purple. It's estimated that roughly 10,000 shells were needed to produce just one gram of purple dye

That was a tough time to be a sea snail. The dye manufacturing site at the ancient city of Sidon

in modern-day Lebanon even included a waste dump of crushed shells about 40 meters high

The female counterpart to the toga was known as the stola. This was a long sleeveless garment that was sometimes hung from the shoulders with straps

If you want an easy point of reference for what that looked like, we point you to the

Statue of Liberty, who was depicted in a stola. Stolas were worn only by married women, and the garment was considered a signifier of their status

Unlike togas, which came in numerous varieties that denoted social status, stolas were relatively simple, as women didn't have a wide spectrum of career opportunities

Instead, Roman women used jewelry and elaborate hairstyles to advertise their wealth and social

rank. But Roman women took their clothes seriously. In 195 BC, they even marched in

protest of the Lexopia, a series of laws enacted in response to the financial issues of the Second

Punic War that restricted extravagant spending on fashion. The clothing item of choice for unmarried women

was a simple tunic. The tunic was also the primary garment for lower class men

as well as girls and boys. Silk originated in China as early as 6 BCE and probably no later than 3 BCE Chinese merchants gradually spread the luxury fabric across Asia via the famous Silk Road and later it made it into the Middle East and eventually the Mediterranean

The Greeks and Romans were aware of the existence of China and its silk as early as the 4th century BCE

In their writings, they even referred to China as Ceres, literally the Kingdom of Silk

Silk made its way into Roman wardrobes by the 1st century BCE

There are even surviving references to it in the writings of Augustan poets like Ovid and Horace

The historian Suetonius recorded the fact that the emperor Caligula was fond of wearing silk

Emperor Marcus Aurelius sent the first envoy to China in 166 CE, the first known instance of

direct contact between the two civilizations. That really kicked things off because by 380 CE

the soldier and historian Marcellinus Ammianus observed that the use of silk, which was once

confined to the nobility has now spread to all classes without distinction, even to the lowest

Ancient Roman women had their own version of activewear that was relatively similar to the modern bikini

The top was called a strophium, or breastband, and it was often made of linen, and the bottom

was called a subligaculum. Men, on the other hand, wore a perizoma

or more commonly known as the loincloth. However, despite their similarity to swimwear

these outfits were actually worn for athletics, not for swimming. For example, a Roman woman might

wear such an outfit to participate in sports like running, discus throwing, the long jump

or an ancient ballgame that was one of the earliest form of team sports. Archaeologists

have recovered some of these garments. One thong-like subligaculum is on display at the

Museum of London. A detailed mosaic showing these garments can be seen at the Villa Romana del Casale

near Piazza Armarina in Sicily. While it's likely that many Romans simply went commando

we do know that at least some Romans wore undergarments. For the most part, Roman undergarments

were similar to what they wore when playing sports. Roman men and women both sometimes wore a subligoculum

also called the sublicker, underneath their tunics. Roman women also wore the stroppia

or an alternative support garment called a mamillare. Roman women also sometimes wore an undertoga

like a slip called a super-rus or super-room. Most of these garments would have been made

from either linen or leather. Since nudity was somewhat taboo in their society

people from the lowest social strata, such as peasants or gladiators were often depicted wearing nothing but their underwear Another thing the movies got right

is that the Romans did wear the sandals they're usually depicted in. They show

But in reality, those sandals were mainly worn indoors. When venturing outside, Romans often

wore shoes that fully covered their feet. These were often made out of leather

and were available to all classes, although wealthier Romans did wear more expensive shoes

Some things don't change. Unlike today, Roman shoes appear to have been styled as unisex garments

Roman soldiers, as you might expect, had an even more durable footwear option available to them

Called the Caligae, these were open-toed boots made with hobnails that gave extra traction

The Roman emperor Gaius Kaiser Augustus Germanicus, better known by his nickname Caligula, or Little Boots

received his nickname from the small boots made for him to wear on his father Gomaticus' campaigns as a boy

Cute story, if Caligula wasn't synonymous with depraved tyranny. If you've ever wondered how people washed their clothes

before soap or Tide Pods were widely available, then here's a handy tip

They wash them in urine. You see, like modern cleaning products, urine is chock full of ammonia

a natural solvent that breaks up dirt and grease. In fact, even after soap became popular in Europe

for personal hygiene, urine was still used to get rid of tough stains

Romans collected their urine in vessels that lined the streets. Pedestrians would simply stop and relieve themselves

and continue with their day. When full, these urine jugs would go to a fullonica, or laundry

Once the urine was poured over dirty clothes, a Roman laundry worker would stand in the tub and stomp on it

That's a tough job, but it could be shittier. Sandals are a very sensible choice for the Mediterranean

climate during the warmer months of the year. But the Romans conquered plenty of regions

with less hospitable climates. Places in the empire like Great Britain and parts of southern Scandinavia get extremely cold

And in all fairness, Rome gets chilly too. So when Romans needed a cold weather option

they took socks, knitted with a divided toe, and wore them with sandals

Divers excavating an underwater Roman fort near the River Tees near Darlington in the UK

discovered a razor handle carved to resemble a human foot. And it's clearly wearing sandals with socks

The look also appeared on a bronze statue discovered in Southwark. This proves that it's not just your dad

that thinks socks and sandals are practical and fashionable. Some things never go out of style