Roman Royals outfits

Overview

Roman empire. Rich, broad empire. when professors at University gave us the lectures of emperors and generals, I sat just like a child listening to nighttime stories.

Coming to reenactment, you notice how much Roman culture was influenced by different world trends and how they influenced them.

In this project, I took a mix of Egyptian culture, the Roman empire, eastern motives, and north-western technologies.

Jewelry

For jewelry, I found a set of earrings and a ring, along with a necklace. All made out of Amethyst and gold, earrings accompanied by pearl.

Earrings more than likely were worn by a woman, but a ring and necklace could have been worn by both. Saying this to say, the ring designed for His Highness and necklaces earrings were made for Her Highness.

I selected the closest material to create a replica. Earings have 7 strings instead of three; also the form of the amethyst is different from the original. The ring and the pendants were recreated using bead embroidery with cabochon (click this link to find out more about it).

Tunics

The men in Roman Empire were wearing short-sleeved knee-length tunics, and women wore tunics floor length, which were sewn on their sides and open on top. The fabric was held by the brooches or pins at the shoulders. The front and back fabrics are folded up front and on the back.

The princess has a yellow linen tunic, and the Prince has a blue tunic the color was selected to be the kingdom’s colors.

Below are the rough sketches I made for the clothes and archaeological design or roman clothes I used as inspiration.

Trim

The trim I selected for Her highness tunic is based on the textile findings from Egypt. I adopted the design for Baltic weaving and used my medium-length inkle loom to make it. The materials were cotton of different thicknesses; however, this is not the same cotton used in Egypt. More than likely, it would be silk.

Belt

The belt I made was simple but elegant. I have selected new wool with the colors of Her Highness heraldry and drafted a simple A/B pattern. again, my medium size inkle loom was my companion.

Palla/Toga

The palla is a piece of fabric that was used by women in ancient Rome, usually in rectangular form. Palla in the Roman empire would primarily be done out of various materials, silk and cotton. One of the constraints of this significant project was financial constraints, so I decided to go with wide cotton, four years for each palla. I would not say it was the best choice. The cotton I have found to meet the color requirements was quite heavy and not as runny as I would like.
Toga, on the other hand, was semi-elliptical white woolen clothes. I kept the toga for His Majesty colors to accompany the color scheme and decided to keep it cotton for the hot and humid weather. Also, the color selection is period since the bright colors were available for the senators.
We have printed the same design but a different color for Her and His Highnesses. For printing techniques information – click here.

For the prints, I have proceeded with the findings from Block-printed Textiles excavated from Fustat in Egypt.