04-19-2010, 04:11 AM
Ironically, this subject came up today in a military history timeline event. I took a fellow Celt over to see a friend of mine in the Appin camp who had a nice display of natural dyes. Our basic thesis on colors of clothing is this:
A) Fabric dyeing was a skilled trade practiced for thousands of years. While we might think it's "hard" or "time consuming", people did this for a living and thus had the process down to a science. If people took the time to hand spin thread with a drop spindle and weave it with a warp-weighted loom, having to let a dye bath ferment for a week, doing a 2 or more step process to get a color, or having to mordant something 3-4 times really isn't that much work in the grand scheme of things.
B) You can get any color you want with natural dyes. Seriously. I was razzed for tying my hair up with a bright pink piece of wool. I grabbed one of my friend's natural dye bundles and showed the razzer the exact same color.
C) While all dyes will fade with washing and exposure to sunlight, it doesn't fade THAT fast. Plus clothing was redyed so the whole "natural dyes fade quickly" and thus all their clothing was faded is a myth. Again, said natural dye friend has a ball of bright yellow yarn that she'd had on display for 10 years and it's maybe a shade lighter than it was 10 years ago when she first dyed it.
D) Existent fabrics are generally flukes and not representative of common fabrics and colors. To get a real picture of what colors were popular and what was being dyed, you need to look at dyers inventories and records from other textile merchants. If we know that Legio I ordered 500 tunics that those tunics came from Joe the textile merchant who used Bob the dyer who tended to use a lot of madder, that is evidence that those tunics were probably red. It's not conclusive but it helps paint a larger picture of what was being used and where it was being worn. If tunic orders suddenly jump around the time of a big parade or a battle, that's further evidence that red might have been worn for parades or battles.
E) Undergarments were typically not dyed in any time period because they didn't show. Plus white garments are easier to clean because you can just bleach them. White is also used for garments that MUST be kept clean or to show off cleanliness.
Thus, I usually say that unless a specific color or dye has a religious significance, is really expensive, or has other social or economical restrictions such as sumptuary laws, people would pretty much wear whatever color they wanted to. It should also be noted that sumptuary laws were frequently broken so they aren't necessarily a hard and fast rule.
For example, senators and other political types wore specific colors of togas and clavi depending on their office or their political activity. Thus making your clavi green is probably wrong because that wasn't a color that was used for clavi (This is off the top of my head and I'm not an expert on who wore what clavi when so if someone knows differently, please correct me). Linen probably wasn't dyed black because true black is hard to get even with modern dyes. BUT black wool was readily available so if you need black, use wool. Women are depicted as ONLY wearing white tapes in their hair thus any other color would be most likely be wrong. There are sumptuary laws about Tyrian purple, the shade of purple that comes from sea snails. The Jews also used this color for religious garments so again, be careful about these colors, though purple can be achieved through other dyes as well and only that specific shade of purple was regulated.
As for the focale, unless there is documentation that it is a specific color or there is a special color that had a specific meaning (i.e. thought to ward off evil or offer protection), I'd say it was probably a scrap piece of cloth and could probably be any color. Think about it, it's around your neck to keep your armor from rubbing and to absorb sweat. It's not going to show and it's going to be perpetually grubby so why waste a good piece of cloth on that? You're going to want a nice, soft, worn piece of cloth that isn't going to irritate your neck and will absorb the sweat. Old tunics are perfect for that.
As for fabrics, since someone mentioned that wool was scratchy and thus he used linen, it's very expensive to get nice wool these days. Most of the tunics I see made out of wool today would be considered "coarse" for the time. There just isn't the demand for fine grade wool fabrics today unless you are doing high-end fashion. The Romans would have had a wide range of wool fabrics from stuff that felt like burlap for "cheap clothes" to stuff that felt like cashmere to gauzy sheer wools. In fact, my theory is that women's clothing was primarily sheer or very thin wool to get the right draping. You can't use the amount of fabric they did for their dresses and get the right draping with most of the common linen and wool that is readily available today. It's too bulky and you end up looking blobby instead of elegant like the statues. So the upshot of this is don't let you judgement be skewed by "wool was too scratchy" or too hot. Back then it wasn't all as scratchy and they were used to it to boot. Plus Summer weight wool is as cool as linen in a hot, dry climate. Heck even today I knit with wool that people can't believe is 100% wool because it is so soft. It's depends on the breed of sheep and the processing.
A) Fabric dyeing was a skilled trade practiced for thousands of years. While we might think it's "hard" or "time consuming", people did this for a living and thus had the process down to a science. If people took the time to hand spin thread with a drop spindle and weave it with a warp-weighted loom, having to let a dye bath ferment for a week, doing a 2 or more step process to get a color, or having to mordant something 3-4 times really isn't that much work in the grand scheme of things.
B) You can get any color you want with natural dyes. Seriously. I was razzed for tying my hair up with a bright pink piece of wool. I grabbed one of my friend's natural dye bundles and showed the razzer the exact same color.
C) While all dyes will fade with washing and exposure to sunlight, it doesn't fade THAT fast. Plus clothing was redyed so the whole "natural dyes fade quickly" and thus all their clothing was faded is a myth. Again, said natural dye friend has a ball of bright yellow yarn that she'd had on display for 10 years and it's maybe a shade lighter than it was 10 years ago when she first dyed it.
D) Existent fabrics are generally flukes and not representative of common fabrics and colors. To get a real picture of what colors were popular and what was being dyed, you need to look at dyers inventories and records from other textile merchants. If we know that Legio I ordered 500 tunics that those tunics came from Joe the textile merchant who used Bob the dyer who tended to use a lot of madder, that is evidence that those tunics were probably red. It's not conclusive but it helps paint a larger picture of what was being used and where it was being worn. If tunic orders suddenly jump around the time of a big parade or a battle, that's further evidence that red might have been worn for parades or battles.
E) Undergarments were typically not dyed in any time period because they didn't show. Plus white garments are easier to clean because you can just bleach them. White is also used for garments that MUST be kept clean or to show off cleanliness.
Thus, I usually say that unless a specific color or dye has a religious significance, is really expensive, or has other social or economical restrictions such as sumptuary laws, people would pretty much wear whatever color they wanted to. It should also be noted that sumptuary laws were frequently broken so they aren't necessarily a hard and fast rule.
For example, senators and other political types wore specific colors of togas and clavi depending on their office or their political activity. Thus making your clavi green is probably wrong because that wasn't a color that was used for clavi (This is off the top of my head and I'm not an expert on who wore what clavi when so if someone knows differently, please correct me). Linen probably wasn't dyed black because true black is hard to get even with modern dyes. BUT black wool was readily available so if you need black, use wool. Women are depicted as ONLY wearing white tapes in their hair thus any other color would be most likely be wrong. There are sumptuary laws about Tyrian purple, the shade of purple that comes from sea snails. The Jews also used this color for religious garments so again, be careful about these colors, though purple can be achieved through other dyes as well and only that specific shade of purple was regulated.
As for the focale, unless there is documentation that it is a specific color or there is a special color that had a specific meaning (i.e. thought to ward off evil or offer protection), I'd say it was probably a scrap piece of cloth and could probably be any color. Think about it, it's around your neck to keep your armor from rubbing and to absorb sweat. It's not going to show and it's going to be perpetually grubby so why waste a good piece of cloth on that? You're going to want a nice, soft, worn piece of cloth that isn't going to irritate your neck and will absorb the sweat. Old tunics are perfect for that.
As for fabrics, since someone mentioned that wool was scratchy and thus he used linen, it's very expensive to get nice wool these days. Most of the tunics I see made out of wool today would be considered "coarse" for the time. There just isn't the demand for fine grade wool fabrics today unless you are doing high-end fashion. The Romans would have had a wide range of wool fabrics from stuff that felt like burlap for "cheap clothes" to stuff that felt like cashmere to gauzy sheer wools. In fact, my theory is that women's clothing was primarily sheer or very thin wool to get the right draping. You can't use the amount of fabric they did for their dresses and get the right draping with most of the common linen and wool that is readily available today. It's too bulky and you end up looking blobby instead of elegant like the statues. So the upshot of this is don't let you judgement be skewed by "wool was too scratchy" or too hot. Back then it wasn't all as scratchy and they were used to it to boot. Plus Summer weight wool is as cool as linen in a hot, dry climate. Heck even today I knit with wool that people can't believe is 100% wool because it is so soft. It's depends on the breed of sheep and the processing.
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Deb
Sulpicia Lepdinia
Legio XX
Deb
Sulpicia Lepdinia
Legio XX
