“There is no rush of fire like woman so untamed. She calmly goes her way where even panthers would be shamed.” -Aristophanes, Lysistrata
After the success of last year’s costume for the Make a Major Impact Fair at CU Boulder, I thought I’d revise my look for this year’s! It’s definitely a nicer quality than last year’s, with a few more anachronistic touches. Thanks as always to @clearancecreedwatersurvival for design help and pictures.
Much like last year, this costume is based on what an Athenian matron would have worn in about the 4th c. BCE. This woman is perhaps more upper class than last year’s design, though the pure white chiton is less beautifully “woven” than 2018′s.
I’m including another break-down of the outfit under the cut:
For my bottom layer, I’m wearing a peplos (also called a doric chiton). This one is made out of a simple white queen-sized sheet. The peplos was in fashion for hundreds of years with very little change, as it is very simple to create and put on. Although this year’s is fairly simple, most peplos would have been beautifully dyed and woven. As always, thanks to Take Back Halloween for the original concept and tutorial, which I have included below. It’s tied with an obi belt I got from a vacation in Japan years ago, looped around the waist and then knotted in the front. The fibulae (pins on my shoulders) are the same as last year, possibly from this shop.
Over my peplos, I am wearing a himaton, which is a shawl/wrap/cloak worn by every gender. This year’s is repurposed from last year’s peplos, and is pinned with an old cat pin of my mother’s (definitely anachronistic!). Unfortunately, I was a little too lazy to hem the himaton like @bisexual-flareon suggested last year, but hopefully this fabric is more acceptable as a himaton than as the main peplos :)
I am still barefoot, which is historically accurate but mostly because I still don’t have any convincing shoes.
My jewelry is rather... off. The earrings are replicas of Mycenaean earrings, but those were from the 8th c. BCE and a completely different city state. They were a gift, but I believe they came from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They definitely don’t have them anymore, but these two sets are pretty good dupes, from a fairly accurate time period. The necklace is a modern necklace from here, but it worked so well that I couldn’t resist. I am wearing a replica of a Roman bracelet, which was also a gift.
My hair is the same as last year’s, from this tutorial. Athenian matrons wore their hair up exclusively, though unmarried women could wear their hair down. There are a few inaccuracies that you can see in the close up of my hair style, much like last year: the bobby pins would not have been present, and the ribbon would have been wool, not leather.
I also used last year’s tutorial for the makeup, again done with accurate techniques if not accurate products (thankfully, no lead!). I used a Nyx concealer for my face, a Pixi Endless Silky Eye Pen for the eyeliner, Too Faced’s Better Than Sex mascara for my mascara, and a very blotted version of a Kiko Milano lipstick for the lip and the cheek. Of course, I yet again skipped the sexy, sexy unibrow that was popular for women at the time, as I didn’t want to scare the firsties.
As with last year, I wore Black Phoenix Alchemy’s Hetairae perfume. Hetairae were high-class prostitutes--not quite the proper Athenian matron I was dressed as, but it is a lovely scent that echoes perfumes of the time. It’s also quite a lovely scent that I plan to wear more often.
I’m back to the Classics again! Today I helped staff the CU Boulder Classics table at the freshman academic fair. This is an (almost) historically accurate outfit for an Ancient Greek matron that I made for it, with a lot of help from @clearancecreedwatersurvival. Credit to her for the pictures, too.
This look is based on what a married citizen woman might have worn in Athens in the 5th century BCE. It springs both from my own academic pursuits as well as a ton of awesome people on the internet who had incredible tutorials.
A breakdown of this outfit below the cut:
I’m wearing a peplos here, made up of two fabric swatches from Walmart. A peplos is a dress that Greek women would wear, usually made up of one piece of fabric, frequently beautifully dyed and woven. The costume concept mostly comes from the Take Back Halloween group contest we all did years ago, with some minor edits (I’ll include the picture diagram below). We had to use two pieces of fabric for this one due to Walmart fabric size, but you can just use bedsheets. It’s tied with a spray-dyed piece of rope from Michael’s, and pinned at the shoulders with fibulae that I think I got from this shop.
Over my peplos, I am wearing a himaton, which was sort of a wrap or shawl worn by both genders. That’s also a piece of Walmart fabric! It, however, is pinned with safety pins, where it would have also been pinned with fibula.
I am barefoot, which would not have been out of the ordinary for a free woman. Also I didn’t really have any convincing shoes.
My jewelry is fairly accurate, if a little time-displaced. I’m wearing Minoan bee earring replicas, as well as a Roman replica bracelet and ring.
My hair is done as a married woman would do her hair. Single women were allowed to keep their hair down, but married women kept their hair up. This is the hair tutorial I used, by a hair historian! Her channel is awesome.
The make up I am wearing is applied accurately, though I’m not using the actual products they would. Because they were poisonous. Women whitened their face with lead; used ashes for mascara, brow powder, and eyeliner; and a particular type of ochre for both lips and blush. So that was a big no-no. Instead, I used Nyx concealer for my face; a Pixi Endless Silky Eye Pen for the eyeliner; Too Faced’s Better Than Sex mascara for my mascara; the red lip of the Bobbi Brown Sexy Glamour Palette on top of the Bobbi Brown clear lip gloss for the lips; and the red lip of that Bobbi Brown palette for blush. It was kind of slapdash, but hopefully it reflects the trends of the time. Credit to Zabrena on Youtube for the tutorial on how to complete this look!
I was also wearing Black Phoenix Alchemy’s perfume Hetairae, which is based on the perfume worn by Ancient Greek prostitutes. Well, close enough to what I was aiming for. Also it smells great.
The inaccuracies:
The peplos would have been woven with the patterns in it, not screen printed. Also, the Greeks had some sort of incredible weaving that we can’t really figure out, so their fabrics were a lot less likely to fray.
My earrings are pretty wrong. They’re from a different culture (Minoa, which was on Crete) from a different time period (about 1800 BCE). Also, the Minoan bees were a pendant, not earrings. But they look cool, and they’re tangentially related.
My hair is pinned up. Partially because I have a different hair texture, we added a few bobby pins to my hairstyle, whereas Greek women would have just tied it up and hoped. Also, the ribbon would have been wool, not suede.
The make up is missing one crucial element (besides the toxic chemicals): a unibrow. The Ancient Greeks considered them to be sexy and to demonstrate intelligence, but I didn’t want to go too hard for the baby freshmen.
