Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-08-22
CLOTHES OF ANCIENT MAN
EVOLUTION OF DRESS FROM
CLASSIC COSTUMES.
What Was Worn by the People Who
Lived in the Ages of
the Long Ago.
Andrew Lang. In tine London Post

Andrew Lang. In the London Post.
The study of the evolution of dress.
above all Of Greek dress. might paralyZe
the genius of Darwin. Just when
man thinks that he is, at least, on the
level of scientific opinion he finds that he
has drffted leagues astern OF it. or far
away to the left or right. The subject is
so difficult because, naturally. we have
no ancient costumes before us in linen
or wool. while the early artists who de-
pict them are not always trustworthy
persons. They have a strong tendency.
from the dateless period of the artists
contemporary with the mammoth and
the reindeer IN France to the bushmen in
South Africa, to draw men with wasps
waists. and to represent people as naked
who we're certainly clothed. Nobody was
likely to go naked in a climate that
suited the mammoth and reindeer, es-
pecially If he was well supplied with bone
needles to sew his raiment. as he certain
ly was. Yet palaeolithic man usually
drew his species without stitch or Il
clout. But yesterday were his paintings
on rock walls discovered, in which his
women wear skirts with a half moon cut
but at the lower end to give play to the
ankles
1t is difficult to say whether, In warm
climates, dress was invented for the sake
of decorum or of decoration. If we take
the case of Egypt, the old Egyptian paint
ings show that for men the ordinary loin
cloth was usually sufficient. If we pass
from Egypt to Crete, the art of the mys-
FERROUS white men who founded and
achieved (about 25OO-12OO B. CO. Its civil-
cation shows in early periods men in loin
cloths. perhaps first worn by them In
northern Africa. The women, In the
opinion of DIR. Mackenzie, were originally
no better clad But on one side the ladies'
developed the loin cloth into ''belted
pannier or polonaise. without any skirt or
bodice (as also did the mem. and then
the women went on frightening the
pannier by overlapping additions till they
had compound skirt" like founced
skirt In outward appearance, and finally
fashion reveled in skirts with regular
hounces and low bodices above.
Costumes Of Old Crete.
Having. perhaps. 1000 years TO devote
to costume and fashion, these ladies of
Crete evolved almost every sort Of dress
known to us in western Europe from the
EliZabethan ruff and pulled sleeve to
the dress of England at the end of the
eighteenth century. to early Victorian. to
gaudiy colored and trimmed ''zouave
Jackets" with light founced skirts. and
even to the tam-o -shanter cap. tailor
made coat. fitting tightly to the figure,
and tweed skirt. There Is a bronze stat
uette of a Cretan lady thus attired pho
tographed in DR.. Mosso'S account of his
Cretan tour.
Ladies even forsook sandals and wore
bottlneS. In fact, some OF them. in the
ancient Cretan pictures. are known as
les ParisienneS.' very gay little persons
of about 1860 b. c. The men, on the other
hand, clung to their loin cloths or to
baggy short skirts like loose knickerbock-
ers, or wore tight. brief bathing drawers
embroidered or embossed. and only wore
long robes on Sundays. or at least when
present at religious functions. The one
fashion that the ancient Cretan women
never adopted was the familiar Greek
has no body" or bodice. no separate
skirt. but is. in fact, no more than d
square woollen blanket folded Tin a way
which do not understand) land taken up
round the waist by a girdle." 1t was
pinned up by safety pins OF tibulae over
each shoulder, and as much of II was
pulled up through the girdle, to fall over 1t
in graceful folds. as the wearer pleased.
The dress depended for it's effect, and.
indeed. for its permanence above the
of them ceased tn be safe" down came
the dress. When the Tale of Troy
was acted many years ago by the ladies
whom Sir Frederick Leighton directed.
hearts. However. they never failed to do
their duty.
Peplos and Belted Smock.
This fashion alone the Cretan ladies of
800 400 B. c. never evolved and no safety
pins are found In the older sites of Cretan
civilization. They come in at the end of
that period AS they are also found far
away In the north in Bosnia and Austria
and all across eastern central Europe, it
is probable that they were brought south
from these quarters by the prehistoric an
cestors of the Greeks. the Achaeans. Do
rans and so forth The women would
wear the peplos the men a belted smoch
or chiffon. with a cloak over 1t. also fas-
tened with a safety pin. in cold weather.
We have in Homer full description
of the smock. cloak and elaborate
gold safety pin of Odysseus. and his
swineherd belts his smock before he goes
, on a journey. This Is the dress that
Homer describes. In war man put his
corselet on over his chiffon, of which the
tails must have hung down below il. OBJ
yiously the dress Is that OF climate too
cold 10 he content with the southern
loin cloth: in fact. il * very likA the
smock and brooched and belted plaid of
the Highanders before the phiianes or
| separate skirt came into us4, with the
; coat over which the plaid is now worn.