Sarah Kamassai
Written Assignment #1 According to our textbook, costume historians claim that the most common garment for women of the Ancient Middle East was the sheath dress. The sheath dress was worn by women of all classes. Many historians agree that the garment fit the women tightly, so tight in fact that it is difficult to get into as well as wearing for functionality. As noted in our textbook, there have been no sheath dresses found in any excavations, so there are some disagreements about the garments. Many of these dresses seemed to have “mix and match” capabilities. According to Dr. Vogelsang-Eastwood, the shoulder straps of the majority of sheath dresses were of the wraparound style with separate shoulder straps. Having theses separate shoulder straps allow the garment to be wrapped in different styles; women could wrap the cloth around different points of the body such as above or beneath their breasts. This dress could also function as a skirt, as women could wrap the cloth around their waist and wear it as a sheath skirt. Beyond the style and placement of the cloth, the ornamentation on/of the fabric seems to differentiate the women who wear these garments. Since there were little to no technologies during the Ancient Middle East, scholars seem to be uncertain and frankly surprised at the techniques they must have used to decorate these elaborate pieces. The designs of these sheath dresses include painted patterns, appliqués, leather, feathers, beadwork and woven designs. Possibly the most interesting piece of information I found seems to be that of the beaded net dresses. These dresses were found in the Tutankhamen tomb, among others. The intricate beadwork is evident of highly developed skills of those who made these dresses. These beaded net dresses give the illusion of patterns directly on the sheath dresses. However, these beaded dresses were actually worn over the previously discussed wrapped dresses. Once again, we see the “mix and match” capabilities here, as women could wear the same beaded dress over the many sheath dresses they had. This functionality is similar to the way we currently accessorize new/different jewelry with outfits that we already have in our closet. I imagine the degree of embellishments of a women’s beaded dress was indicative of her social status and perhaps individuality.