The Elbert County tribune., 1916-09-08
Dressmakers of Pharaoh's Time
Made Gowns Like Those
of 1916.
BOTH SEXES USED COSMETICS
Expert of the New York Metropolitan
Museum of Art Finds That FASH
ions Changed Often in Niles
Highest Civilization.

women's clothes, the fashion for the
summer of 1916, was fairly popular in
Egypt about the year $500 b. c., time
when slight mustaches were the rage
among the young men, according to re-
searches made by Miss b. NJ. Car
landt of the Metropolitan Museum of
Art. She discovered that cosmetics
were much used by the women favor
ties of thu Pharaohs, and also found
that the men were not averse to Ioning
up their compilations when courts were
held along the Nile of the middle king
doms
In the monthly Bulletin of the Mu-
scum, Miss Carlandt has described the
clothes of fashionable society of the
Egypt of long ago. Her descriptions
were taken from exhibits in the mu-
scum. Depicting the costumes of the
Old Kingdom, 29S0-2475 b. c., she
says:
Sheathlike Garment.
The conventional sheathlike gar
nent worn by all women was of plain
unplaited stuff, that hung from the
breast to the ankles, so scant that 1t
clung to the figure and clearly showed
the form, fastened by straps over one
or both shoulders or merely held up by
a belt. 1t was often pure white, but
sometimes Ii had a narrow selvage
around the top, fringe on the bottom,
and braces that were partl-colored. In
the tomb of Ptahhetep at Sakkara
there is scene of Offering bearers rep
resenting estates, where the dresses
are alternately red and dark green.
These women, according to custom,
were adorned with necklaces. brace
lets and anklets of blue and green
beads.
Aside from white, green seems to
have been the color most worn, al
though we do find in reliefs red and
yellow dresses as well. The fashions
for women were simpler and less va
ried than those for men, with slight de-
viations from the conventional attire,
such as short skirt worn at times by
servants. The attire of dancing girls
varied from the regular long costume
to a short skirt, or in the later period
10 n girdle of brightly colored beads.
Most women wore wigs or dressed
their own hair long. 1t fell to the
shoulders or to the waist in the back
in large mass, with u side-lock hang
ing on either side of the face. Some
times a cOlored ribbon was tied around
the brow like fillet, and often a cir
clet of real flowers was worn.
1--WE know that cosmetics and oint-
ments were used by both men and
women, and in this connection 1t is in
t. s,+n i,, -,
Egyptian room, the eyes of which are
outlined with green band. Green
malachite was used for this, whether
purely for adornment or for medicinal
reasons we do not know, and rouge
and black paint were also employed as
part of the makeup.
Shows Diversity.
Dress In ancient Egypt, as in ev-
cry civilized country, shows diversity
according to the class or occupation of
the individual and variety dependent
upon the fashion of the day. The king
and his courtiers set the styles, which
were soon assumed by subordinate of
ficials until they forced their superiors
to adopt new modes. The fluctuations
of fashion would be difficult to follow,
although there was n steady tendency
to elaboration and luxury; but let us
consider the most distinct changes in
the Old Kingdo-2 (29S0-2415 b. C.) the
Middle Kingdom (2160-17Ss b. CO, and
the Empire Q5S0-945 b. c., as shown
in our Egyptian galleries
In :he tomb of Perneb we have
costumes that are typical of the Old
Kingdom. Humble people were salts
fed with belt, tied around the waist
with the ends hanging down in front,
a skirt of linen, fastened loosely
around the loins, or rarely they con-
trived a rush mating. Even these, at
times were laid aside. and the men
appeared nude when engaged in stren-
uous exercise. The offering bearers in
the tomb chamber wore the short white
skirt the most common article of
clothing. 1t was straight piece of white
linen cloth wrapped about their hlps
like kilt, the ends being knotted in
front or being passed under a girdle,
and sticking up above the waistline.
Men in the Old Kingdom almost in
variably clipped their hair close and
shaved their faces, although up to the
fifth dynsnty they sometimes wore
slight mustaches, Dut shepherds occa-
sionally allowed their hair to grow, a
custom generally considered unclean.
The upper classes wore wigs of two
kinds-either short and close-6tting.
with tight little curls In horizontal
row, or long and bushy, parted in the
middle and falling well over the shoul-
ders. Such wigs were probably made
of sleeps wool. and actual specimens
have been found. When man wished
to assume his tull dignity. he attached