Traditional Ancient Roman Wedding Dress

By today s standards it was very plain.

Traditional ancient roman wedding dress. There were many other rituals and details that went into a roman wedding such as a young girl would give her bulla the special locket given to her at birth to her father and never wear it again. A white or off white one piece unfitted tunic. On formal occasions adult male citizens could wear a woolen toga draped over their tunic and married citizen women wore a woolen mantle known as a palla over a stola a simple long sleeved voluminous garment that hung to. One of the wedding traditions of ancient rome in regards to the bridal attire is the parting of hair into six locks perhaps using a tool named the celibate spear hasta caelibaris in latin hersch 2014.

The fashion for women at weddings was fairly simple and the bride s dress was no exception. Ancient roman weddings and modern wedding traditions the wedding industry in america alone is estimated to be worth over 100 000 billion. Clothing in ancient rome generally comprised a short sleeved or sleeveless knee length tunic for men and boys and a longer usually sleeved tunic for women and girls. The roman wedding is the basis for many modern western marriage customs.

Romans wore shoes or walked barefoot. Marriage in ancient rome conubium was a strictly monogamous institution. Plutarch s roman questions. Back to the future.

A roman citizen by law could have only one spouse at a time. The average american couple spends between 17 000 and 27 000 on their wedding. Ancient roman clothing started out as homespun wool garments but over time garments were produced by craftspeople and wool was supplemented with linen cotton and silk. The following is a list of some basic wedding customs in ancient rome.

Ancient greeks and romans thought the veil protected the bride from evil spirits. Wool was chosen as a lucky fabric that repelled evil. The practice of monogamy distinguished the greeks and romans from other ancient civilizations in which elite males typically had multiple wives greco roman monogamy may have arisen from the egalitarianism of the democratic and republican political systems of. The traditional roman wedding dress consisted of a plain white woollen tunica recta overlaid by a white stola.

On her wedding day grace kelly wore a dress with a bodice made from beautiful 125 year old lace. The bride was picked up and carried into her new family s house by her husband. Of course jackie kennedy s bridesmaids were far from frumpy. Brides have worn veils ever since.

Ancient roman bridal fashion. Traditional ornamentation of the bride was also simple and protective.