Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1916-10-27
Dressmakers of Pharaoh's Time
Made Gowns Like Those
of 1916.
BOTH SEXES UsEDCOsMETICs
Expert of the New York Metropolitan
Museum Of Art Finds That Fash
Ions Changed often In Niles
Highest Civilization.

women clothes, the IdSHlOn lOr lhS
summer of 1916, was fairly popular in
Egypt about the year 25OO B. c., time
when slight mustaches were the rage
among the young men, according to re-
searches made by Miss b. M. Car
landt of the Metropolitan Museum Of
Art. She discovered that cosmetics
were much used by the women favor
ties of the Pharaohs, and also found
that the men were not averse to'toning
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:
sheathIike Garment.
"The conventional sheathlike gar
ment worn by all women was of plain
unplaited stuff, that hung from the
breast to the ankles, so scant that 1t
chung 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 1T had a narrow selvage
around the top, fringe on the bottom,
and braces that were parti-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
let's 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 a 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
to 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 a side-lOck hang
ing on either side of the face. Some
times a colored ribbon was tied around
the brow like a fillet, and often u cir
clet of real flowers was worn.
'We know that cosmetics and ONT
ments were used by both men and
women, and in this connection ii is in
teresting to note a statuette in the first
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
were soon assumed by subordinate Of
6cials until they forced their superiors
to adopt new modes. The fluctuations
Of fashion would be difficult to follow,
although there was steady tendency
to elaboration and luxury; but let us
consider the most distinct changes in
the Old Kingdom (29S0-2475 B. c. the
Middle Kingdom (21G0-17SS b. c., and
the Empire (15S0-945 3. c., as shown
In our Egyptian galleries.
"In the 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,
q skirt of linen, fastened loosely
around the lOins, or rarely they con-
trived rush mating. Even these, at
times were laid aside, and the men
appeared nude when engaged In siren
uous exercise. The offering-bearers i'm
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 hips
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 dynasty they sometimes wore
slight mustaches, but shepherds occa-
sionally allowed their hair to grow,
custom generally considered unclean.
The upper classes wore wigs of two
kinds-either short and close-fitting,
with tight little curls In horizontal
row, or long and bushy, parted In the
middle and falling well over the shout
ders. Such wigs were probably made
of sleeps wool, and actual specimens
have been found. When man wished
to assume his full dignity, he attached
a false beard of plated hair to his
chin by means Of straps. Sandals,
which were made of reeds or leather
with a strap over the instep, connect