Even the ancients were slaves to fashion, classics scholar notes
A distraught woman sits holding her hair in her lap, crying over the bad dye job that caused the hair to fall out, leaving her bald. In a hapless effort to cheer her, her male companion tells her not to worry; her dark locks can be replaced with a blond wig.
The scene could easily have come straight from an episode of "I Love Lucy" or "Friends," yet its author predates the age of television. In fact, he predates the last millennium — and nearly all of the one before that. He is Ovid, who in his first-century A.D. poem "Amores" gave an account of his effort to comfort his bereft mistress by offering her a wig made of hair from Germany.
Ancient Romans may have concentrated their energy on conquering Gaul, but that doesn’t mean they and their Grecian counterparts weren’t as conscious of their appearance and dress as we are today. Indeed, modern beauty-seekers — with their breast implants, steroid use and excessive dieting — don’t have much on the ancients. Not only did they use noxious mixtures of bear grease and worm ointments to dye graying hair, women used lead-based acetate to whiten their complexions.
"It was recognized by the third century B.C. that it was toxic, but in Rome, women continued to use it," even knowing that it could lead to death, said Assistant Professor of Classics Jeri DeBrohun (left) — who’s currently writing "Fashioning Antiquity," a book on fashions from 600 B.C. to the fourth century A.D.
Although classical scholars haven’t found any fashion handbooks in ancient ruins, numerous surviving icons have long fueled romantic images of gladiators and goddesses. "There was a great deal of complexity and sophistication to the way [the ancients] dressed," she said. "We tend to idealize them."
DeBrohun, who specializes in Latin elegiac poetry, has studied the icons and relics, but she’s also mined the plentiful references to dress and beauty customs in the writings of Ovid, Pliny and others. There she’s uncovered a more realistic picture of classical customs in dress.
For the ancient Greeks and Romans, fashion was about more than just looking good, she’s found; it also provided a means of marking social, political, religious and even moral distinctions — for men and women. Beards, hairstyles, wigs, jewelry, perfumes and cosmetics, as well as clothing, all played a role in fashion mores.
For males in particular, fashion standards were strict regarding hair length, the cultivation or absence of beards, and body hygiene and scent. Deviations from the accepted dress and grooming code were considered "inappropriate, effeminate and even dangerous," said DeBrohun.
Still, "men could use dress to make political statements," she said. For example, wearing a passé color marked one as a conservative — not unlike today. Rebellious youth found an expressive outlet for their political and/or philosophical differences in dress, too; Cicero scornfully wrote of one deviant group by referring to their "little beards," worn in a time when clean-shaven faces were the norm.
Changes in classical fashions weren’t tied to any spring show on the Coliseum catwalk; most change occurred far more slowly than today.
"In fact some argue the history of fashion doesn’t include antiquity," said DeBrohun. "But some aspects did change rapidly, such as the use of dyes and shades of, say, the color purple."
Even without the aid of television and periodicals, ancient trendsetters made their mark. Alexander the Great, with his flowing hair and beardless face, was emulated for decades.
As in current times, dress was an indicator of class and ethnicity, as well; it identified priests, senators, commoners and barbarians. (The Greeks and Romans were among the last to wear trousers — although soldiers sometimes "went native" in the colder northern climates.)
"Especially in Rome, almost every aspect of who someone was could be seen in their dress," said DeBrohun.
Fashioning Antiquity is scheduled for publication in the winter of 2002-03.