DATES: 4000 - 30 B.C.E. Pre-History 4000 -3400 BCE Thinite 3400 - 2980 BCE Old Kingdom 2950 - 2169 BCE Middle Kingdom 2160 - 1580 BCE Saite 1090 - 30 BCE PRIMARY SOURCES: Statues, wall hangings, tombs, funerary tablets, mummy-cases, garments.	A detail from part of a large corselet found amongst furniture in Tutankhamun's tomb. Composed of gold, glass paste, ivory and carnelian. The god Amun-Re receives Tutankhamun.
SECONDARY SOURCES: Everyday Life In Egypt - Montlet Eternal Egypt - Montlet Art of Ancient Egypt- Michalowski Daily Life in Ancient Egypt - Semeh When Egypt ruled the East - Steindorf & Steele Ancient Egypt - Desroche The Art of Ancient Egypt - Ranke Ancient Egypt Art - Abbate Treasures of the Pharaohs - Skira PLAYS: Anthony and Cleopatra - Shakespeare Caesar and Cleopatra - Shaw Salome – Wilde

Egyptian Costume

The Egyptian clothed figure exhibits two typical figures. The first is an extreme scantiness of simple, undraped garments that reveal the figure even when the garment covers the whole body. Egyptians concentrated on draping material across the body and center they folds on the front of the body. When they did this it would show the out line of the back.

Egyptian garments are always simple in their construction and cut. The major changes that the garments went through as time passed on and the Empire took control was that they were more ample in their material. This gave the them more cloth to drape gracefully across the body. The clothes of men and women were fundamentally alike.

Men wore little clothes, however clothing in the Egyptian period was influenced by two things: the first the position of the wearer and then the second its adaptation to the convince of the wearer. Men wore their hair In a Bob or thick and abundant in a long style. They wore headdresses and fillets that wrapped around their curly locks of hair. Women wore fillets and headdresses too. Their tunics were like the men's but belted higher and the clothing was short-waisted with the material confined to the breast and radiated from them.

Notable Crinoline Costume Elements

Schenti - a loincloth; a rectangular piece tied in front in a knot and made of linen.
Shendoh—Loin cloth for the Pharaoh.
Kalisiris - Gown like wrap often from under the bust some-times transparent
Pectoral—A trapezoidal-shaped piece of decorative metal and gemstones worn about the neck by nobility.
Khat/klaft—A kerchief, usually striped horizontally, which wrapped around the front of the head and fastened at the back of the neck, usually striped horizontally. Later it was cut away so that it fit over the shoulders and was decorated heavily with beads.
Postiche—False beard, made of leather, felt, or metal. Reserved for the Pharaoh.
Fillet—A piece of metal,  leather or ribbon that wrapped around the head to hold the hair in place. It was worn as a headpiece by men and women.
Girdle—A piece of leather, ribbon or fabric that would wrap around the body at the waist or the hips to smooth out the clothing of the wearer and to create folds that were popular to wear.
Kohl—A black cosmetic substance, comprised of ground Galena (a black mineral) sulphur and animal fat ,used in Egyptian makeup for the eyes and eyebrows.  It was know to have alleviated eye inflammations and protected the eyes from the sun
Henna—Hand and nail dye, from a shrub or tree whose leaves gave a red-orange dye. http://www.us.sis.gov.eg/online/html/o200898a.htm
Red Crown—The crown worn by the Pharaoh of lower Egypt.  It is in the shape of a chair with a coil protruding from the front.
White Crown—The crown of upper Egypt. http://www.civilization.ca/civil/egypt/egcgov5e.html
Pschent—The red crown of lower Egypt, worn on the white crown when the two kingdoms of Egypt were united.

Mysteries of Egypt: Daily life - Clothing and Adornment