… and take off the linen clothes that he put on when entering the sanctuary …
Leviticus 16:23
Clothing culture. Today we will get acquainted with the clothes, jewelry and hairstyles of the ancient Egyptians - people who created a unique civilization and paid great attention to their appearance. However, at first it would be appropriate to cite the periodization of ancient Egyptian history, so that later, in the text of the article itself, it would not be distracted by this.
To begin with, people appeared on the territory of Egypt more than 40 thousand years ago, but the first state formation, Predynastic Ancient Egypt, appeared there about five thousand years BC. This was followed by the era of the Early Kingdom, followed by the Old Kingdom, the time of the Pharaohs - the builders of the pyramids, the First Transitional Period ("the era of troubles"), the Middle Kingdom and the Second Transitional Period, finally, the New Kingdom and the Third Transitional Period. Its further history in connection with our topic is not interesting, because the Assyrians, Persians, then Alexander the Great, and the Romans come to Egypt, and the original Egyptian fashions are undergoing a very strong foreign influence.
And it should be noted that for all these three long eras and intermediate periods, the clothes of the peasants and common people were very simple and usually consisted of only one linen apron. During field work, he was often filmed as well. It was believed that any clothing impedes movement, and therefore many preferred to work in what their mother gave birth to.
Noble people in the era of the Old Kingdom tied aprons on their hips with wide sashes. In addition, even then, wide collars made of a wide variety of materials were in fashion: from multi-colored glass, semi-precious and precious stones to gold.
The hair on the head was shaved not only by men, but also by women, and wigs were worn on the shaved head - short, curled and long with straight strands and parting. A wig made of twisted sheep's wool was also a headdress and … a helmet for a warrior, who, again, wore only an ordinary apron and a shield, covered with the skin of a cow's wool outside.
Over time, however, tastes became more sophisticated, and people's needs more and more extensive. And to the New Kingdom of the former primitive simplicity of men's clothing, not even a trace remained. The apron was replaced by an exquisite suit that vaguely resembles a long skirt with small pleats.
The images that have come down to us can even trace the changes in fashion and tastes of the Egyptians. Of course, they all belonged only to the wealthy strata of the population, and the poor were content with the simplest clothes and did not pursue fashion.
So, in the time of Queen Hatshepsut, a short but wide shirt with a sash came into use. It became a custom to cover the upper part of the body with it, although until then the Egyptians went naked to the waist. Under Akhenaten, long pleated aprons came into fashion. They are worn in two pairs at once, with the upper one being shorter so that larger folds of the lower one peep out from under it. The ends of the belt were supposed to hang down in the form of a long bow.
In the future, men's robes became more and more diverse, although they were based on the same simple apron. Moreover, these clothes were very democratic. After all, the apron was worn by the last of the peasants and the first of people, the son of a deity - Pharaoh! But, combining its length and shape, making it smooth, now gathering in folds, now slightly covering the hips, now tight-fitting legs, now very narrow, now so wide that they could wrap the body three times, Egyptian tailors modified this most common apron to unrecognizability. So over time, it began to resemble the fashionable ladies' dress of our century, rather than the linen apron of the era of the Old Kingdom.
It is curious to note that the men's clothing of the ancient Egyptians was much more varied and refined than women's. It can even be said that it was the fashionable men who set the tone in the clothes, and not the women. In all the images, from the most ancient to those dating back to the 18th Dynasty, we see women in the same, very simple, tight-fitting linen dresses. Fashion designers even argue whether they were cut or knitted. In any case, it was the shirt cut of a woman's dress in Egypt that was the main one; the Egyptians did not know any fluffy skirts, and even more so crinolines.
But noble ladies wore long, lush wigs, curled, in curls of horsehair or sheep's wool, and adorned themselves with expensive necklaces and bracelets, rings and earrings.
The favorite color of Egyptians and Egyptians was white, but dresses of red, yellow and green were found. The uniformity of cut and style was partially offset by intricate shoulder straps that supported the dress. Sometimes they went parallel, over both shoulders, sometimes they crossed or diverged at an angle. Women of fashion adorned their dresses with patterns in the form of vertical or horizontal stripes. The shout of fashion was the ornament made in the form of variegated bird feathers or zigzags.
The epoch of the XVIII dynasty, when the huge riches of the conquered countries poured into Egypt, finally put an end to the simplicity and monotony of women's clothing. Noble Egyptian ladies are addicted to lush outfits, and fashion becomes, as it is today, very fleeting, volatile and capricious. In countless images of this era, we see Egyptian fashionistas in beautiful, floor-length dresses with invariably bare right shoulder and closed left.
A sharp distinction between the cut of the dress of noble people and the common people belongs to this period. Of course, long and lush robes that impeded movement were unsuitable for work, and the material for such an outfit was several times more than for an ordinary dress.
The shoes were relatively simple. Both the peasants and the pharaohs. Both men and women wore sandals, which consisted of a leather sole and several straps wrapped around the leg. Subsequently, sandals with curved toes came into fashion.
Elegant boxes for blush, vessels with rubbing ointments, hand-held mirrors, perfume bottles, spoons for cosmetics were the invariable accessory of every rich Egyptian woman. Egyptian jewelers gave graceful forms to all these items, decorated them with images of people, animals and birds.
The custom to circle the eyes and paint the eyelids with greasy paint made from grated malachite also goes back to ancient times. In Egypt, both men and women did this, and there was a certain meaning in this: the sticky, dark paint protected the eyes from dust and partly from the too bright African sun.
The way in which the Egyptians sometimes protected themselves from overheating is original. They attached a small fat cone to the head, made of a special thick and aromatic composition. As he melted from the sun, fragrant streams flowed down from his head, which pleasantly refreshed the body.
