Angiolina Galluccio August 20th, 2011 WOMEN AND CLOTHING IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION The purpose of this research paper

is a study of the origin of clothing in Western Civilization, process of fabrication, how women got involved in this industry in ancient times, who managed those women into long hours of labor, how those women had babies and worked at home and confectioned clothing at the same time. I will also talk about abuse and deprivation of rights for working women, and advances to the present time. Writing about the origin of clothing is not an easy task. Nobody knows with precision when exactly people started wearing clothes. But historians have found certain evidence that may lead to the time when the first people on earth started making some kind of fabrics and wearing clothes. In a study written by Ralf Kittler, Manfred Kayser, and Mark Stoneking, from Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, Molecular Evolution of Pediculus humanus and the Origin of Clothing from the Current Biology encyclopedia, it shows that people wore clothing since they can prove that lice were living in clothing, after a molecular clock analysis shows that body lice appeared 72,000 to 42,000 years ago. (Current Biology, 2003 p.1414 -1417) The first dresses that are known by historians are animal skins. The oldest fiber known by ancient civilizations is linen (flax), which was also used as burial shrouds for the Egyptian pharaohs; this fabric was used around 5,000 B.C. Then we have found that cotton, another natural fiber, was also used between 3,000 5,000 B.C. according to scholars research, as well as wool used by people of the Late Stone Age. Then we have the most precious fiber ever, which is silk, discovered by a Chinese princess around 2,600 B.C. Some scholars researched about

Hemp as one of the oldest fibers on earth. The hemp plant is also called cannabis or marijuana, which historians think was used for thousands of years. Some scholars believe that the first fabric was woven from dried hemp around 7000 - 8000 BCE. In a study made by a Professor of Art , Susan C. Wylly, from Georgia College & State University, The Art and History of weaving, she explains that in despite of all the efforts historians made, the exact date the first hand-women worked is still a mystery. Prof. Wylly also points out that there was evidence of cloth being made in Mesopotamia and in Turkey as far back as 7000 to 8000 BC. There was not too much evidence from first fabrics in the past, that historians can determine when they were made for the first time. Prof. Wylly remarks that there was a valued artifact found in an Egyptian tomb, which is the funerary model of a weaver's workshop. Elizabeth Wayland Barber, in her book Womens Work, the first 20,000 Years, points out that after 1500 B.C., the emergence of male weavers began to take shape in Egypt, (Barber, 1994, p.259). Barber also remarks that there is evidence of waved cloth partially colored at that time, and new patterns were also woven with a technique called weft-faced tapestry. (Barber, 1994, p.237). We are going to jump into later generations since the first weaving was made, and move to the Greek civilization. In a study written in the fashion encyclopedia, it is pointed out that by the seventh century B.C.E., Greek people were dominated by a wealthy class who wore luxurious clothes and jewelry. Greeks wore draped woven cloth around their bodies creating different styles. The chiton, or tunic, is the most common dress worn by Ancient Greeks. There were two different styles of chiton: the Ionic chiton and the Doric chiton, for men and women. It is possible that by

the fourth century B.C.E., both women and men began wearing sewn tunics, according to scholars research. Here, there are some examples of dresses worn by Ancient Greeks, taken from the web Fashion-era.com.

Andrea Askins wrote an article in March 12, 2011 called Womens Clothing styles in the 1700s and she mentioned that the 18th century was a time in history known as the Age of Enlightenment and was marked with revolution throughout the Western world. While in the past, fashion was modeled after nobility, the Age of Enlightenment introduced a new concept in the fashion realm: The styles of the middle class were adopted by the upper class. Ms. Askins divides four types of styles that women were wearing in the 1700s, as follows: Mantua: This was a loose dress, draped over the shoulders and open in the front, like a petticoat. The Hoop Skirt: It was made out of linen and shaped with whalebone or cane; the hoop was worn over undergarments and under the petticoat. Robe a l'Anglaise: They were often made out of printed cotton, and became the most popular dress style.

Grecian Style: This style was taken from the dresses worn by women in ancient Greece, made of white cotton, with empire waists. There was clothing that people wore as communication, for protection, identity, fertility and good wishes, as Mary B. Kelly points out in her book Goddess Embroideries, Of the Balkan Lands and the Greek Island. Elizabeth Wayland Barber, also points out the same definition in her book Womens work the first 20,000 years: Cloth and clothing often invoke magic in their encoding. Within the magical world, fertility, prosperity and protection are the three of the most common objectives. (Barber 1994, p. 155) Kelly describes in clothing for protection that embroidering a powerful goddess on a ritual cloth, would, they hoped, protect the new-born child wrapped in it from sickness.( Kelly 1994 p. 39). She also mentions that there was a belief in Slavic countries that they needed to be buried in their marriage shirts so that they would be recognized as a human being in the next world. (Kelly 1999 p. 39) This is compared with old Peruvians, in the Pre-Inkas and Inkas civilizations; when they died, they had to be buried with certain ornaments, food, special cloth, jewelry, to carry them to the other world.

In Cloth as Communication, Kelly mentions that decoration showed the social status of women, her village, her age, and her marital and maternal status as well. (Kelly 1999 p. 39)

Here are some pictures taken from Kellys book that illustrate better that kind of clothing:

During the centuries that Christians began spreading their religion all over Europe, hundreds of women were working making embroideries for the Church, kings, and queens. Business started growing in textile. In a compilation of embroidered garments made from the 4th century until the 19th century, presented in Rome in 1937, the curator pointed out that: In 1532 the Queen of France ordered to Venice three hundred embroidered silk pieces for her dresses, all of them handmade. And Henry IV from England ordered an entire supply of wallpaper to Florence.(Lantico Tessuto DArte Italiano 1937, p. 16) (original book written in Italian). Embroideries in the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries were specially made by women in Italy to serve wealthy families, government people, as well as the Church. They used thread made of gold and silver, pearls and watermarks. Ornaments and embroideries were made with animal characters, flowers, vegetables and religious images according to the description written in the compilation made in 1937 by Lantico Tessuto DArte Italiano p. 16. We can see in the pictures shown below, a few samples of these embroideries made for the church, even one cape that Napoleon wore, made with embroideries, where women worked hard and artistically, giving the best of them for the church. It is unknown who designed those beautiful and detailed embroideries, a magnificent legacy from those women artisans. These

pictures were taken from the sample shown in the exhibition. The garments that were in exhibition in 1937 in Rome, Italy belong to a great collection from the 14th century and following centuries. All those pieces were handmade built and embroidered, where hundreds of women worked on them, with a magnificence art and passion. We can see how delicate those designs are, and the dedication those women who embroidered them put on each piece; they are really a marvel.

There is a vast theme to talk about within the studies that historians have done throughout years of investigation, and how clothing has been involved with women, status, behavior, age, etc. Now, the question is who were involved in the process of the manufacture of weaving and making dresses in ancient Greece? How did these women manage to work and raise their children at the same time, why were women involved in this kind of work, and who made them work under certain conditions? It is important to talk about patriarchy in ancient times, to study how women managed to work and raise their children. Gerda Lerner, who is a professor of History and Senior Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Wisconsin- Madison, has an interesting study about patriarchy. Prof. Lerner points out that patriarchy appeared as the archaic state and its creation was formed by men and women in a process which took nearly 2,500 years to complete. Women have been controlled by men forever, but there was always an exception where a woman stepped up and made valid her rights as a human being. In ancient Greece, it was not much different. As Barber points out, Men may work from sun to sun, but womens work is never done. She also mentions Clothes make the man but women made the clothes (Barber, 1994 p. 127). In Greek civilization, women were spinning and weaving while they were doing domestic work at home and raising their children. Even in these days, Andean women were spinning and weaving at the same time, raising their children while they were working, since they mostly worked from home. Here, there is a picture from an Andean woman weaving in the present time, which does not differ much from ancient times.

(Picture courtesy of Katherine Johnssen, a woman who cares about Andean women work) Elizabeth Wayland Barber writes with passion about womens work in the first 20,000 years, the evolution of textiles and how women were involved in this industry from the beginning of time. She is focused mainly on Greek civilization and Western civilization that influenced the evolution of clothing. Women were objects of sexual pleasure and reproduction in Ancient Civilizations; they were sold by the patriarch to increase the family economic power and enslave women and men, even selling the wife for money. Women had struggled in life from time to time, but they were always strong to deal with work and raise children at the same time. Maria Mies, in her book Patriarchy & Accumulation on a World Scale, in Womens/Mens Appropriation of their Own Bodies, mentions the following regarding human rights and mainly womens rights: The labor process, in its elementary form, is, according to Marx, a conscious action with a view to producing use-values. In a wider sense, it is the

appropriation of natural substances for human requirements. This exchange of matter (Stoffwechsel) between human beings and nature is the everlasting nature-imposed condition of human existence, or rather is common to every historical phase (Capital, Vol I:179) In this exchange of matter between human beings and nature, human beings, women and men, not only develop and change the external nature with which they find themselves confronted, but also their own bodily nature.( Mies, 1986 p. 52) Women have passed through all kinds of abuse at home and at work, from their fathers to their husbands; but they stepped out and made their voices be heard by protesting against mens rules. Hundreds of women had died because of inhuman working conditions; one of the examples is the fire in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in 1911, where among children, women and a few men, 146 workers died. These days, everything in clothing is about wearing certain famous brands; we feel good wearing a labeled brand garment, made of fine fabrics and sewn perfectly. But we do not know, most of the time, who is behind that piece of clothing, creating it, developing it, sewing it and making it possible for you to wear it. Women have passed so many stages fighting for their rights, from Ancient Times to the present. Barber also remarks that: On the conscious level we worry about fashion and momentary social messages, but we take for granted and scarcely, if ever, think about the basic notions of what constitutes dress within our culture, including (depending on the culture) what is appropriate for certain social classes, sexes, etc. These automatic aspects of clothing yield to comparative reconstruction back into prehistory. (Barber 1994, p. 291). It is true that before society, the way a person dresses is the respect he/she will receive. Clothing is linked to culture; each country has different styles of dress that are mainly related to their culture.

Layering clothing, wearing similar garments one over the other, necking sleeves longer than the arms and reaching beyond the hemline have long been considered expressions of rank or wealth. Practical needs, such as being able to walk without hindrance, prompted the 18th century women to tighten the excessive volume of their skirts and petticoats with a system of cords and ties similar to those used for draperies. Overlapping, shining and puffing out shapes always were and still are inexhaustible sources of inspiration for new fashion. Here are some pictures from the exhibition at Palazzo Pitti in Florence, Italy, (Medicis family palace), where this collection shows dresses from the eighteen centuries to current time. We can appreciate the labor that women put forth to have those dresses done, with embroideries, all them handmade.

Barber, in her intensive study regarding Womens Work: The first 20,000 years, mentions something very important: We women do not need to conjure a history for ourselves. Facts about women, their work, and their place in society in early times have survived in considerable quantity, if we know how to look for them. Far from being dull and in need of fanciful paint to make it more interesting, this truth is sometimes (as the saying goes) stranger than fiction, as fascinating tale in itself.( Barber 1994 p. 299, 300)

The legacy from our women ancestors, who put all their art and creativity to work in such wonderful garments, leading all time designers to transform each piece of fabric into beautiful and endless creations, made these days the most profitable industry in the world. The process in which women have passed throughout centuries to work in this industry is remarkable, and I am proud to be a woman who appreciates womens work and be part of this history.

Work cited Askins, Andrea ehow contributor, Womens Clothing styles in the 1700s March 12, 2011
http://www.ehow.co.uk/info_8052914_womens-clothing-styles-1700s.html

Barber, Elizabeth Wayland, Womens Work, the First 20,000 years, 1994, W.W. Norton & company, New York. Current Biology, Molecular Evolution of Pediculus humanus and the Origin of Clothing Vol. 13, 14141417, August 19, 2003, Elsevier Science Ltd. DOI 10.1016/S0960-9822(03)00507-4 Kittler, Ralf, Manfred Kayser, and Mark Stoneking. Fashion Encyclopedia, www.fashionencyclopedia.com Fashion era.com, www.fashionera.com Johnssen Katherine, Andean woman picture Kelly Mary B., Goddess Embroideries, Of the Balkan Lands and the Greek Island, 1999 StudioBooks, Mc Lean, New York LAntico Tessuto DArte Italiano, Nella Mostra Del Tessile Nazionale (Roma 1937-38 XVI), La Libreria Dello Stato, Anno XVI, E. F. Rome (Museo civico Di Padova) Italy. Lerner Gerda, 1986 The Creation of Patriarchy, Oxford University Press, New York ISBN -0-19503996-3 (v1) Mies Maria, Patriarchy & accumulation on a World Scale, Zed books Ltd. London & New York 1986, 1998 The Collections, Fashion a World of Similarities and Differences, Galleria del Costume di Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy . Edited by Caterina Chiarelli ISBN 978-88-8347-531-3 Published by Sillabe s.r.l. Livorno, Italy. English translation by Julia Hanna Weiss.

Wylly, Susan C. Professor of Art. The Art and History of Weaving, Georgia College & State University www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~dvess/ids/fap/weav.html