Roman women’s clothing and beauty treatments

Women’s clothing, like most Roman clothing, was much simpler than today’s:

• Breasts were supported by a strapless band (strophium).
• Instead of panties or briefs a sort of bandage (feminalia) was often used instead, though panties very like modern ones have been found.
• A slip (tunica interior) was worn over these undergarments.
• On top was a woollen gown (stola) tied in round the waist and perhaps a shawl (palla).

Wealthy women could afford silk and a Greek woman called Pamphile invented a way to weave silk so fine that the clothing made women look nude. Bronze (or silver and gold for the rich) brooches, like our safety pins, were used to hold the clothing in place. Shoes were like open leather sandals today, sometimes elaborately decorated with patterned cut-outs. Cosmetic treatments included using ass’s milk on the skin or even a jelly made by boiling a bullcalf’s bone for 40 days to avoid wrinkles, antimony as an eyebrow make-up, and kaolin as a face-powder.