DRESS

   Dress is a rich source of information on culture, gender, and attitudes to the body, as well as on related technologies such as textiles, over the full period of development of the Etruscans. In the early Orientalizing phase (circa 750 to 600 BC), the men wore a range of items taken from the following repertoire: checked woollen fabrics, short trousers (or perizoma), a belt, a short robe (or chiton), a large mantle, bobbed hair, a beard, a cap (or pilleus), a plumed hat, and sandals. Women shared the checked woollen fabrics and sandals, but had a longer robe, a back mantle, with the hair arranged in a back braid or long ringlets or front locks, and a conical or wing hat. Nudity and some types of dress, particularly female hats (the diadem and flower hat) were generally reserved for activity removed from the real world. Over the course of time different fashions emerged and disappeared and slipped in and out of the real world. Pointed shoes were fashionable in the period from 550 to 475 BC, but became associated with divinity and ritual activity in the subsequent period (475 to 300 BC), replaced by laced boots for men and shoes without points for women. A variety of mantles became popular for men between 525 and 475 BC. Jewelry of various types became popular for women in the classical and Hellenistic periods (circa 475 to 100 BC). The changing styles reflect contacts with the Greek and Near Eastern world, as well as local traditions, particularly in the form of hats (for instance, the broad hat of Poggio Civitate [Murlo]). In comparison with the Greeks, there was a greater sharing of clothing styles between men and women and greater elaborations, particularly in the fields of mantles and hats. There was relatively little differentiation along lines of age or functional activity (in contrast to Roman custom) until late in the Etruscan period.