HISTORICAL PRESENTATION FOR GREECE
TEXTILES USED
WOOL- In ancient Greece and Rome, wool fabric had the added advantage that, unlike linen, it was easy to dye. In addition, wool in its natural state came in a variety of colors depending on the breed of sheep.
LINEN With the ripeness of flax is ascertained by two indications, the swelling of the seed or its assuming a yellowish color. It is then plucked up and tied together in little bundles each about the size of a handful, hung up in the sun to dry for one day with the roots turned upward, and then for five more days with the heads of the bundles turned inward towards each other so that the seed may fall in the middle
COTTON was an imported fabric and first appeared in India. Cotton was a newer fabric used therefore they didn’t know how to make it. The Greeks thought that cotton grew on trees. However nowadays it is grown on a bush with the botanical name Gossipium herbaceum, but there is also a cotton tree, Gossipium arboretum, and possibly it was the source of the cotton fiber that the Greeks and Romans knew. During the campaign of Alexander Macedonian Greeks were amazed, seeing cotton in India for the first time. They called cotton "fur of tree".
TRUE SILK. Comes from the domesticated mulberry silkworm which extrudes a silk fiber to make its cocoon. Silkworm eggs were smuggled into the Roman Empire and became the foundation of the Byzantine silk industry. Prior to that development, all silk was imported. There have been finds of silk in Europe that date before Emperor Augustus, but silk was rare before the Augustan period when trade with India opened up. It was a luxury fabric; silk swatches were sometimes unraveled and the silk thread rewoven with fine linen in order to make it go twice as far and bring down the price.
Although ordinary Greeks wore clothes of wool or linen the rich could afford cotton and silk.
RELIGIOUS AND CULTURE
The peplos was a sleeveless, one-piece fabric with a...